Η ιστορία μιας αρχαίας κούκλας. Mystery of a Young Girl

The doll belonged to a young woman named Crepereia Tryphaena who lived in Rome in the second century. She was engaged to be married but had the sad fate of dying just before her wedding at the age of 20. She was buried on the bank of the river Tiber in a marble sarcophagus which was discovered and opened in 1889 when the Hall of Justice was being built. Alongside the girl in the sarcophagus was an ivory doll, probably with a symbolic function. At the time, custom was for brides-to-be to sacrifice the dolls from their childhood to Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, on their wedding day to symbolize the entering into the life of a wife and that their virginity would end. Poor Crepereia Tryphaena, she never completed the Venus sacrifice, instead the doll joined her mistress in the grave. Today, the ancient doll is kept in the Musei Capitolini in Rome but is not on display. It is of extraordinary artistic and handcrafted quality and was probably dressed in clothes, but these have disintegrated over the years. Her hair style is according to common hair-does in Rome in the second century AD. These dolls, which appear to have originated in Syria, although the ones found in Rome may well have been made locally by emigrant artisans, provide, according to Professor Bedini, compelling evidence both for the dating of the graves and the Palmyran connection. These sophisticated proto-Barbies are anatomically female, with developed hips and busts, artfully provided with articulated joints at the shoulders, elbows, thighs and knees, and were obviously designed to be dressed.

Στο Μουσείο Capitolini στην Ρώμη, υπάρχουν μεταξύ των εκθεμάτων και αρκετά ευρήματα από παιδικούς τάφους, τα οποία περιλαμβάνουν όμορφα κοσμήματα με πολύτιμους λίθους και παιχνίδια. Ανάμεσα σ΄αυτά υπάρχει και μια κούκλα από ελεφαντόδοντο, μαυρισμένη από τα χρόνια, τόσο που κάποιοι να νομίζουν πως η κούκλα είναι ξύλινη.

Η κούκλα αυτή είναι το ομορφότερο και αρτιότερο εύρημα τέτοιου είδους που έχει βρεθεί μέχρι σήμερα. Ανήκε σε ένα άτυχο μικρό κορίτσι, 13-14 ετών που άλλοι αναφέρουν πως ήταν παντρεμένη επειδή έφερε στο χέρι της δαχτυλίδι με το όνομα Filetus, άλλοι πως ήταν αρραβωνιασμένη, πράγμα που είναι και το πιο πιθανό.

Sarcofago di Crepereia Tryphaena. In 1993 a sarcophagus was unearthed at Vallerano on the Via Laurentina in the south of Rome. It contained the remains of a girl of 16-18. Despite her young age, she had been buried - in the second half of the 2nd century AD - with an extraordinary array of exquisitely-fashioned gold necklaces, amulets, rings and cameo brooches, set with emeralds, sapphires, diamonds, amethysts, sardonyx, garnets and other gemstones, amber hair-pins, a large silver hand-mirror, its back decorated with an elaborate high-relief mythological scene, and silver scallop shell that was probably a scented-oil container. These sensational discoveries have gone on display for the first time in 'The Mystery of a Young Girl', an exhibition at the Accademia Valentino in Piazza Mignanelli (just off Piazza di Spagna), accompanied by a fascinating gathering-together of previous finds from girls' graves of the same epoch, unparalleled in their sumptuousness by any others from the entire Roman period.

Το κορίτσι ονομαζόταν Κρεπερέια Τρύφαινα (Crepereia Tryfaina) και ήταν Ελληνικής καταγωγής. Έζησε τον δεύτερο μετά Χριστόν αιώνα, και ο τάφος της ανακαλύφθηκε το 1889. Η σαρκοφάγος της βρέθηκε στον οικογενειακό τάφο, όπου είχε ταφεί και ο Εύοδος Κρεπερέιους, ο οποίος πιθανότατα ήταν ο πατέρας της.

Edward Gibbon in 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' proclaimed the 2nd century AD 'the period in the history of the world during which the human race was most happy and prosperous.' And the pinnacle of this Golden Age he placed firmly during the rules of Antoninus Pius and his adopted son Marcus Aurelius, author of the famous 'Meditations', whose consecutive reigns were 'possibly the only period in history in which the happiness of a great people was the sole object of government.' These years, spanning 138-180 AD, or soon after, are those from which these unusual graves date. During this time wars were few and conducted on the remote frontiers of the Empire, the benefits of Roman civilization most visible, and the material well-being of people throughout Rome's vast domains exceptionally high. Luxury goods - silks from China, rare dyes, spices and perfumes from the East Indies, India and Egypt - poured into Rome, provoking the contemporary historian Tacitus to lament the disastrous drain this brought about on the state's gold reserves. The origins of the Young Girl of Vallerano's precious stones alone offer a revealing glimpse of how, a thousand years before Marco Polo, precious commodities were reaching the West even from distant lands on the edges of the known world: the diamonds in her rings, for example, can now be traced back to India, the sapphires to Sri Lanka and the emeralds to Egypt. A key point of exchange in this East-West trade was the Syrian oasis-city of Palmyra, which controlled caravan routes to Central Asia and the ports of the Persian Gulf. Palmyran merchants traveled widely, being recorded as far away from home as along the banks of the Danube, in France and in Spain. Some settled in Rome where, though they lived as naturalized Roman citizens, they clearly retained some of their oriental manners and practices. It was, according to archeologist Alessandro Bedini, who discovered the Vallerano tomb, almost certainly families like these that buried these prematurely-deceased girls in such lavish style.

Τα κορίτσια όταν παντρεύονταν συνήθιζαν, να αφιερώνουν τις κούκλες τους στην Αφροδίτη και έτσι σφραγιζόταν το τέλος της παιδικής ηλικίας και το πέρασμα στην ωριμότητα. Η άτυχη αυτή νέα δεν πρόλαβε όμως, την χαρά του γάμου της  κι΄ έτσι ετάφη με τα παιδικά της παιχνίδια, φορώντας κατά πάσα πιθανότητα το νυφικό της φόρεμα. 

Crepereia Tryphaena's doll is especially interesting not only on account of the sensitive carving of the facial features, but also because her hairstyle, the image of that of Marcus Aurelius's wife Faustina, is shown in a number of representations of the Empress, a lively leader of fashion, who was subsequently, very likely unfairly, accused of fast living and flirtatiousness, and of being not altogether worthy of her Stoic husband (in fact, she bore him at least 13 children).

Η κούκλα φέρει περίτεχνη κόμμωση  όπως αυτό των ευγενών γυναικών της εποχής με πρώτη την Faustina την σύζυγο του Μάρκου Αυρηλίου. 

Έχει την ανατομία μιας γυναίκας στην εφηβεία και φέρει οκτώ συνδέσεις στα άκρα έτσι ώστε να εξασφαλίζεται πλαστικότητα στην κίνηση. Φυσικά ήταν ντυμένη, αλλά η ενδυμασία της δεν διεσώθη μέχρι την μέρα της ανακάλυψής της. Εξάλλου κατά την διάρκεια των αιώνων, ο τάφος είχε δεχθεί και τα νερά του Τίβερη.

Along with these dolls have been found minute make-up boxes, combs and tiny mirrors, and in the case of the Via Cassia doll, minuscule gold earrings and a wonderful miniature measuring-spoon, pitcher and scallop shell in amber. The Tivoli doll was recovered still wearing her gold necklace, bracelets and anklets - the last an exotic oriental touch by Roman standards. Not the least of the 2nd century AD's milder aspects was its new tenderness towards children and interest in their autonomous existence, which is born witness to in the literature of the times. Plutarch, to take but one example, an early herald of this new spirit of sympathy, recalls how his daughter, whom he was inconsolably grief-striken to lose at the age of two, insisted that her nurse give the child's doll milk as well as the child herself. The evidence so far suggests that the opulent jewels some girls were buried wearing did not have any particular religious significance, but were treasured individual possessions. Valuable jewelry, as far as we know, was regarded by the average Roman as an asset and hedge against misfortune, to be passed on from generation to generation, suggesting that the placing of so much wealth in a child's grave would have been generally regarded as a recklessly flamboyant, even ostentatious, Eastern practice.

Η κούκλα δεν ετάφη μόνη. Την συνόδεψαν και τα υπάρχοντά της, τα οποία αποτελούνταν από δύο δαχτυλίδια, ένα εκ των οποίων έφερε ένα κλειδί με το οποίο άνοιγε μια περίτεχνη κασετίνα επίσης από ελεφαντόδοντο, με  δύο κτένες  στο εσωτερικό και έναν μικρό ασημένιο καθρέφτη.

Από τα ευρήματα άλλων παιδικών τάφων τόσο στην Ελλάδα, όσο και στην Ιταλία διαπιστώνουμε, με έκπληξη, πως όλα τα αντικείμενα της καθημερινής ζωής των ανθρώπων αναπαράγονταν σε μικρογραφία (από τραπεζάκια μέχρι μαγειρικά σκεύη) για το παιχνίδι των παιδιών με τις κούκλες τους. 

Πηγή: ΣΤΗΝ ΚΟΙΛΑΔΑ ΤΩΝ ΜΟΥΣΩΝ: ΤΡΥΦΑΙΝΑ ΚΡΕΠΕΡΕΪΑ