{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Use British English|date=February 2026}}{{Short description|British-Roman woman known from her tombstone in York}} {{Infobox person | name = Julia Velva | image = Tombstone of Julia Velva YORYM 1998 25.jpg | alt = A sandstone tombstone depicting a funeral feast in which Julia is seated at a banquet. An inscription is beneath. | caption = The tombstone of Julia Velva in the collection of the Yorkshire Museum. | birth_date = c.AD 160-190 | birth_place = | death_date = c.AD 210-240 | death_place = Eboracum (York, UK) | other_names = }}
'''Julia Velva''' was a 2nd–3rd-century Roman woman known from her tombstone in York. The tomb is dated to approximately AD 210–240 and so the likely birth year of Julia was between AD 160 and 190.<ref name='JV'>{{cite book |author=Ottaway, Patrick |date=2021 |title=Julia Velva: A Roman Lady from York, her life and times revealed |publisher=Pen&Sword}}</ref>
==Tombstone== ===Discovery=== The tombstone of Julia Velva was found at York on 11 July 1922 at a depth of 3.5 feet during the cutting of a road between The Mount and Southbank.<ref>{{cite journal |authorlink1=Angelo Raine |date=1922 |title=Roman Inscribed Stones found at York |journal=Yorkshire Archaeological Journal |pages=389-390 |volume=26 |url=https://archive.org/details/YAJ0261922/page/396/mode/2up}}</ref><ref name='RIB'>{{cite web |url=https://romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/688 |title=RIB 688. Funerary inscription for Julia Velva |work=Roman Inscriptions of Britain |accessdate=6 February 2026}}</ref>
===Content and interpretation=== The tombstone depicts a feasting scene within a canopy. It measures 1.63 m high, of which 0.23 m was probably set into the ground, and is 0.99 m wide and 0.23 thick.<ref name='RIB' /> Above the canopy is a pine-cone detail. Julia Velva reclines on a couch and holds a cup in her hand. The named heir, Aurelius Mercurialis, is standing in front of the couch. A table with a jug is in front of the couch and is attended by a servant or enslaved person. A woman sits on a wicker chair holding a bird.<ref name='RIB' /> It would originally have been painted in bright, gaudy colours.<ref name='JV' />
The Latin inscription is carved in six lines and reads: ''D(is) M(anibus) / Iulie Velve pientissi / me vixit an(nos) L Aurel(ius) / Mercurialis her(es) faci / undum curavit vivus /sibi et suis fecit''. The translation is "To the spirits of the departed (and) of Julia Velva: she lived most dutifully 50 years. Aurelius Mercurialis, her heir, had this set up, and in his lifetime made this for himself and his family."<ref name='JV' /><ref name='RIB' />
The imagery on the tombstone depicts a funerary feast, given in honour of Julia, hosted in a dining room or ''triclinium'' of a wealthy home.<ref name='JV' /> Although the feasting scene was shown in a dining room, Julia may be resting on a bed - perhaps the bed in which she died.<ref name='JV' /> The inclusion of pine-cones above the dining scene are a funerary reference to the god Attis who was turned into a pine tree after his death any may represent new life or new beginnings.<ref name='JV' />
The inclusion of the phrase "she lived most dutifully" conforms to an ideal for Roman women to have lived and behaved in a specific way relative to her social status.<ref>{{cite book |author-last1=Crook |author-first1=Robyn |chapter=Female status and gender on the Roman frontier in Britain: Between representation and reality |date=2020 |editor-last1=Ivleva |editor-first1=Tatiana |editor-last2=Collins |editor-first2=Rob |title=Un-Roman Sex: Gender, Sexuality, and Lovemaking in the Roman Provinces and Frontiers |publisher=Routledge |pages=183-209}}</ref> It was most commonly used as a phrase on inscriptions dedicated by fathers or brothers of women. The lack of a shared name with Velva and Mercurialis (the dedicant) could be explained if she was his mother-in-law or a much loved freedwoman.<ref>{{cite book |author-last1=Allason-Jones |author-first1=Lindsay |author-link1=Lindsay Allason-Jones |date=2005 |title=Women in Roman Britain |publisher=Council for British Archaeology |edition=2nd}}</ref> Their relationship remains unclear. Her representation in a dynamic, social scene surrounded by family probably reflects an ideal of how she or her family wanted her to be remembered.<ref>{{cite book |author-last1=Parker |author-first1=Adam |date=2019 |title=The Archaeology of Roman York |publisher=Amberley |page=61}}</ref>
Patrick Ottaway noted that there might be meaning in the exactness of the inscription as there are 81 individual letters (ligatures counting as one), 16 words and 16 letter Is. Ottaways suggests that the square-roots of these numbers as whole numbers (9 and 4) might be a hidden attempt to use words for a hidden, almost magical purpose, in a world of poor numeracy. There are also four figures in the scene and the abbreviation of Julia Velva in Latin was IV, a visualisation of the number 4.<ref>{{cite book |author=Ottaway, Patrick |title=Roman Yorkshire: People, Culture and Landscape | publisher=Blackthorn Press |date=2018 |pages=310-311}}</ref>
==Reception and display== The tombstone was originally loaned to the Yorkshire Museum in 1922 by the City Corporation.<ref>{{cite report |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/263649#page/32/mode/1up |chapter=The Yorkshire Museum: Report of the Museum Committee for 1922 |title=Annual Report of the Council of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society |date=1923 |page=18}}</ref> It is now part of the collection of the museum. In a 1924 book on Roman York, the tombstone is described as being on display in the museum.<ref>{{cite book |title=Roman York: The Legionary Headquarters and Colonia of Eboracum |date=1924 |author-last1=Home |author-first1=Gordon |publisher=Ernest Benn Ltd |page=157}}</ref>
A 2021 book by Patrick Ottaway focuses on Julia Velva and contextualises the archaeology of York and Britain at the time she was alive.<ref name='JV' />
== See also ==
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy8AerBUo1w Classical Conversations 001: Roman York] *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FP4eWLN2n5A Dr Patrick Ottaway speaks on 'Julia Velva, a Roman lady from York: her city and its people']
{{DEFAULTSORT:Velva, Julia}} Category:2nd-century Roman women Category:3rd-century Roman women Category:Ancient Romans in Britain Category:Collection of the Yorkshire Museum Category:History of York Category:Year of death uncertain Category:1922 archaeological discoveries