Much of the sculpture created in ancient Greece that has survived is funerary in nature. These markers commemorating the dead were traditionally placed along roads near the entrances to cities, where they could be seen by all. Although the monuments vary greatly in style, quality, and elaboration, they reach across the millennia speaking the universal language of human grief.
This illustrated catalogue presents fifty-nine Greek funerary monuments in the Antiquities collection of the Getty Museum. Spanning the Classical and Hellenistic periods, this collection offers new insight into Greek art and society that will be of interest to both scholars and the general public.

Funerary Sculpture is the first volume on sculpture from the Agora in over 50 years, bringing together all the sculpted funerary monuments of the Athenian Agora, Classical through Roman periods, which were discovered during excavation from 1931 through 2009. The wide chronological span allows the author to trace changes in funerary monuments, particularly the break in customs that took place in 317 B.C., and the revival of figured monuments in the Roman period. The study consists of three essays followed by a catalogue of 389 objects. The author places the Agora sculptural fragments within the greater context of Attic funerary sculpture, moving from a general to a specific treatment of the funerary sculpture. The first essay is an overview of the study of Attic types of sculpture; the second discusses the specific features of funerary sculpture from Athens and Attica; and the third examines the characteristics of the funerary sculptures found in the Agora, thereby forming an introduction to the catalogue that follows. The catalogue includes stelai and naiskoi with female and/or male figures, sirens, decorative anthemia, funerary vessels, lekythoi, loutrophoroi, animals, mensa, columnar monuments, and more. There are separate indexes of museums, names, demes, places, and findspots, as well as a general index.