Abstract:

From the evidences published in a previous paper, we can state that the epigraphic text composed in 1460 and carved in Cyprian’s casket-ossuary uses a formulaic structure and a lexicon deeply rooted in the early Christian and Visigothic tradition; however, there is nothing similar to it in any other epitaph in Tarragona cathedral between 11th and the 15th centuries. There is some evidence to confirm that the inscription we read today on Cyprian’s casket-ossuary may indeed be the result of the literary transmission across the centuries of the first inscription that would originally have identified the tomb of Cyprian in the Visigothic cathedral of Tarragona at the time of his death in the late 7th century. The aim of the research conducted to present this paper has been to open the casket-ossuary, to describe and analyse its content from an anthropological point of view, to date some of the bones with 14C/radiocarbon and to connect the results with the archaeological and historical context of Late Roman and Visigothic times in Tarragona.