Crowned with a pine cone - The tombstone of Paulla

The tombstone was commissioned by Tiberius Iulius Selvanus, a veteran of the Syrian cohort, for Paulla, who was 28 years old. The relationship between the two is not clear from the inscription. The poorly executed funerary poem is incomplete; the individual lines seem to be strung together without any coherent meaning. Unique to Mainz in this form are the depiction of a folding mirror, a double-row comb and two ointment jars as well as the crowning pine cone. Paulla’s gravestone was extensively restored in 2024. The dry, wet, and laser cleaning, careful reworking of the black areas, and sealing of the largest cracks now clearly reveal the poor quality of the limestone; areas smoothed by the stonemason alternate with the rougher stone surface. Despite the aforementioned shortcomings in the material and inscription, Selvanus' desire to create a special gravestone for Paulla is clear.