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Forword
Tomb raiders and treasure hunters
The Mediterranean in Antiquity – a short review
Life in Classical times
Burial customs simplified
Coffins and sarcophagi in many shapes and sizes
Life after death
Burying the dead
The Roman way of death
Houses for the dead
Remembering the dead
Cultural crossroads – the Roman provinces of Syria and Judaea 
A Roman Province
Decapolis and Palmyra – cosmopolitain cities of the East
The Jews
The first Christians
Martyrs and relics
Forgeries

Selected sources
People, places and events
Mythology
Glossary

COFFINS AND SARCOPHAGI IN MANY SHAPES AND SIZES

The word sarcophagus comes from the Greek word σαρκοφάγος, meaning “eater of flesh” (from sarx - flesh, and phagô – to eat). Later, probably around the 2^nd century AD, the word came to mean a stone coffin. Pliny the Elder gives an explanation for this macabre word: “At Assos in Troas, there is found a stone of a laminated texture, called sarcophagus. It is a well-known fact, that dead bodies, when buried in this stone, are consumed in the course of forty days, with the sole exception of the teeth”  (Pliny, NH 2, 210).

EARLY SARCOPHAGI

Coffins and sarcophagi were standard inventory in Egyptian tombs from about 3000 BC to the Roman era. In the course of more than 3000 years, coffins went through considerable changes in size, shape, form, decoration, materials and function. Two of the most significant innovations were the introduction of the anthropoid, or human shaped coffin towards the end of the Middle Kingdom (c 2055-1650 BC),  and the custom of including several coffins in one burial, stacked inside one another like Russian Matroyska dolls (foto av C47709). The fashion for anthropoid sarcophagi spread from Egypt to the Near East by the second half of the 2^nd millennium BC.

Photo: Lill-Ann Chepstow-Lusty © Museum of Cultural History

EARLY GREEK SARCOPHAGI

In Greece, smaller stone or clay chests - larnakes - which held inhumation burials in a contracted position, were used in the 2^nd millennium BC. These were in use until the early 1^st millennium when cists constructed of stone slabs became common. In the 7^th century BC real stone sarcophagi, which allowed for a burial in outstretched position, came into use in Corinth. During the 7^th and the 6^th century BC, sarcophagi of stone, terracotta and wood were produced in other places in the Greek world, particularly the eastern islands of the Aegean and Cyprus. One of the first production centres of sarcophagi in the Greek world was the town of Clazomenai, now Urla, on the western coast of Turkey, some 30 km west of Izmir. Our outstanding example dates from about 580-540 BC, and is among the earliest types of decorated sarcophagi to be used in the Greek world.

LATER GREEK SARCOPHAGI

In the Classical Greek period sarcophagi were replaced by cremation graves marked by grave stelae. Around 300 BC, at the time of Alexander the Great, a new and elaborate type of sarcophagi appears in the Hellenistic world. The Hellenistic sarcophagi are generally large, and decorated with mythological motives. They have the shape of a house, and the lids resemble the roof of a temple.  

ETRUSCAN SARCOPHAGI

The Etruscans used sarcophagi for their burials during the 7^th century BC, but examples surviving from this early period are rare. In the 6^th century BC the numbers increase, and terracotta coffins with steep lid sides resembling roofs became common. This kind of sarcophagus was decorated with figures, usually lions and panthers.  Popular motifs also include banquets, battles, funerary and mythological scenes. Cinerary urns for cremations burials were also in use. The lids of the urns were often decorated with the deceased couple seated on the top of the lid. From the 4^th century BC onwards, Etruscan sarcophagi of terracotta and stone were mass produced, and used to house cinerary urns.  

ROMAN SARCOPHAGI

The Romans cremated their dead until the first decades of the 2^nd century AD, when sarcophagi gradually became more common. The earliest Roman sarcophagi were inspired by Greek-Hellenistic examples. They have frontal panels covered with mythological figures or battle scenes. From the later half of the 2^nd century and throughout the 3^rd century AD, ornamentation becomes more detailed and elaborate. Battle scenes dominate, but mythological scenes and motifs from daily life become more frequent. In the second half of the 3^rd century AD ornamentation on the sarcophagi becomes simpler, often a clipeus or shield on the front flanked by vertical wave patterns.

LATE ANTIQUE AND EARLY CHRISTIAN SARCOPHAGI

During the 4^th century AD the sculpture on the Roman sarcophagi becomes more stylistic. When Christianity became the accepted state religion, neutral or ambiguous motifs became more common, such as the winged figures representing apostles and good shepherds.

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