STELE  , the

Greek name (o siXrt) for a pillar or vertical slab of stone or marble, sometimes decorated with bas-reliefs and bearing inscriptions, and generally terminated with a cresting (ErtOrlµa) enriched with the anthemion plant . In later times the stele was crowned with a small pediment . The Way of the Tombs at Athens was lined with stelae, some of them in memory of prominent citizens .