These carved marble fragments come from an altar at Ephesus. Altars stood in front of temples and in sanctuaries across the city, where animal sacrifices and offerings were made to the gods, and they were often richly decorated with moldings, garlands and relief figures.
Ephesus, on the Aegean coast of Anatolia, was one of the great cities of the Greek and Roman world. Under Rome it was the capital of the province of Asia, with a population estimated at well over 100,000, and it was famous for the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders.
