Archaeologists are known for being interested in things which many people would consider a bit morbid. I am no different. One of my favorite objects here in the National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology (NMI) is a replica of a goblet from the Boscoreale Treasure. This object is (A&I)1897:84, a copy of one of two goblets decorated with three shell feet, and repoussé skeletons in relief of Greek philosophers, and tragic and comic poets. Their names are incised in the Greek alphabet. All this detail is beneath a repoussé garland of roses (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2). A question that might be asked when seeing an object like this is: why would you want to take a drink from a cup covered in skeletons?

What is Memento Mori?

The decoration on the goblet is an example of the concept “Memento mori”. The phrase is Latin. It translates as “remember you must die”. This idea and its symbols in art (skulls, skeletons, coffins, hourglasses, wilting flowers, dead animals, candles, and soap bubbles) (Fig 3) are ancient and found around the world. The Memento Mori mosaic from Pompeii in Fig. 3 depicts many of these symbols: a bricklayers level in perfect balance, with a skull (death), a butterfly (the soul), and a wheel (luck) below, and a sceptre and a purple cloak (power and wealth),and finally a beggar's stick with a saddlebag (poverty) on either end of the level. Rather than an admonishment, it is an idea encouraging you to live a good life and make the most of things. The idea is discussed in Plato’s Phaedo, a dialogue about the immortality of the soul which is set while Socrates is dying in the aftermath of a trial where he is sentenced to death by poison. Stoic philosophers like Epictetus, Seneca and philosopher emperor Marcus Aurelius advised people to “memento mori”, so they would live a good virtuous life each day and thus be ready for death.

The relationship between death and life is an intrinsic part of many cultures and religious festivals, such as Samhain in Ireland, Día de los Muertos in Mexico and similar festivals in South America, Japan’s Buddhist Bon festival, the Taoist Hungry Ghost Festival in much of Asia, and even Christian Lent. Memento Mori is the key idea behind the Danse Macabre, a medieval allegory developed in response to the Black Death. It was used in art and literature, depicting living and dead people being led by the hand by death. Hamlet famously talks about the idea when he remembers his old jester Yorick while holding his skull (Act V, Scene i). It is the idea behind Ingmar Bergman’s Knight playing chess with Death in The Seventh Seal. It is even seen in Disney Pixar’s Coco.

The Boscoreale Treasure

The Boscoreale Treasure was found in 1896 in the Villa della Pisanella in Boscoreale, just north of Pompeii on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. The villa was buried in the same eruption as Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79CE. The treasure contained 109 pieces of silverware, gold jewellery, and over 1000 gold coins! Many of the objects have the name Maxima on them, who may have been their owner. The villa itself may have belonged to a banker called L. Caecilius Iucundus, who is believed to have died around the time of the earthquake on February 5th 62CE which damaged much of the town of Pompeii. Historians think that this Maxima may have been daughter of Iucundus. The majority of the Boscoreale Treasure is held in the Louvre, with the remainder held in the British Museum.

Replicas of the treasure were made by the famous Elkington and Co. an electroplating & facsimile manufacturer in Birmingham, England, and purchased by the National Museum of Ireland in 1897. It was common practice at the time for museums to display replicas for educational purposes, so that people could compare art styles from around the world, and to allow people who could not afford to travel to see the objects. The original from which (A&I)1897:84 was copied from is held in the Louvre. (Fig 4).

Memento mori symbols are found on many other objects in the National Museum of Ireland’s collection, for example see my colleague Sharon Weadick’s article on an ivory cross pedestal also held in the reserve collection.

Further Reading

Museo Archaeologico Nazional di Napoli Educational and Research Services, Coppa, A. (2023) Memento Mori Teaching sheet. https://mann-napoli.it/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/7.-Memento-Mori.pdf [accessed 04 June 2024]

Louvre (2022) Treasure of Boscoreale: Skeleton Goblet. https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010256165 [accessed 04 June 2024]

National Museum of Ireland (2023) Traditions and customs of Halloween/Samhain. https://www.museum.ie/en-IE/Collections-Research/Folklife-Collections/Folklife-Collections-List-(1)/Religion-and-Calendar-Customs/Hallowe-en-Samhain [accessed 04 June 2024]

National Archaeological Institute with Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (2015) Exhibition "Silver from the Louvre. Boscoreale Treasure". http://naim.bg/en/content/news/600/857/559/ [accessed 06 June 2024]

Weadick, S. (2015) Skulls and Cross Pedestal, Documentation Discoveries [online] Skulls and Cross Pedestal | National Museum of Ireland [accessed 09 October 2024]