Capite coperto/aperto in context: selected depictions of female head covering on statuary and in relief sculptures in the Large and Small Herculaneum woman types from the Roman world between the 1st century B.C.E. and 4th century C.E.

In this thesis I examine head coverings among selected sculptural representations of women in the Large and Small Herculaneum types as they appear in portrait statues, reliefs and sarcophagi from the Roman world in the period between the 1st century B.C.E. and the early 4th century C.E. Where enough contextual information survives, I explore the possible reasons why the female figure depicted has a head covering or not. I focus primarily on depictions of married women, representations of mother-figures and portraits of women depicted alongside statuesque iconography on sepulchral monuments and in civic commemorations. My study enriches our knowledge of women from the Roman world, highlighting the different forms of their representation within sculptural monuments, as well as the nuanced and multivalent reasons for portraying women with and without head coverings within visual commemorations.