#archaeology #greekmyth #romanart #sarcophagi Me with my favourite sarcophagus, the ‘Underworld Sarcophagus’ from Aphrodisias, Caria (Turkey). Its mythological symbolism is so elegantly poetic. Learn more in the replies. - my first attempt at Bluesky
#Phoenician #Sarcophagi Texts
#Phoenicia #AncientLevant #AncientNearEast #Coffins #Canaanites #Phoenicians #Sidon #Byblos
sapiru.wordpress.com/2025/07/16/p...
SARCOPHAGUS OF THE LAMBS, C5. PRATO DI S. VITALE, RAVENNA Between 1910 and 1919, excavations carried out in front of the façade of the church of S. Agnese in Ravenna revealed a monumental graveyard with huge stone sarcophagi. These were first moved to the archaeological museum in the monastery of S. Romualdo, but were subsequently used as decoration for the city. Several were placed here in the field around S. Vitale. This one is typical of Ravenna's late-antique sarcophagi: a huge marble box with a tall heavy lid, difficult to rob. These lids characterise "Ravenna-style" sarcophagi, along with a near total renunciation of the classic vocabulary of funerary reliefwork. The most we get here are two pilasters at the corners. Otherwise the form of the sarcophagus front is similar to the two Erotes holding a clipeus of the deceased, except that the clipeus is a laurel wreath containing the chrismon flanked by sheep standing on the ground. Two flowers float over the backs of the sheep.
#SarcophagusSaturday takes us to the park around the #lateantique #basilica of #SanVitale in #Ravenna, where a series of impressive #sarcophagi line the paths toward the so-called #mausoleum of #GallaPlacidia. #AncientBluesky 🏺
SARCOPHAGUS WITH HUNT SCENE, 290-295 CE. CAMPOSANTO, PISA When the Pisan fleets sacked the necropoleis of Ostia and Isola Sacra in the Middle Ages during their period of dominion as a maritime republic, their intention was to attest to their inheritance of Romanitas by burying their leaders in reused ancient sarcophagi, which were first arranged around the exterior of the Duomo of Pisa, and were moved into the covered and frescoed civic cemetery of the Camposanto later. This sarcophagus was made for a married couple, who are represented reclining on the lid, missing their heads and limbs. The front shows a hunt scene: though badly damaged (possibly in part by the Allied bombardment of the Camposanto in July 1944), it shows the hunt for the Calydonian boar. At right there are two male figures, one standing and the other on horseback, probably Castor and Pollux, attacking the boar, while Atalanta with her hunting dogs join from the front. At centre is the headless, heroically nude figure of Meleager, about to deliver the coup de grâce, and Atalanta's father Oenomaus is also aiming at the boar, along with two other male fighters too damaged to identify.
For #SarcophagusSaturday this week we return to the #Camposanto of #Pisa where a vast collection of #Roman #sarcophagi houses the remains of medieval Pisan notables. This #sarcophagus of the late C3 is in splendid high relief, but was clearly shattered, perhaps in WWII. #ClassicsBluesky 🏺
GARLAND SARCOPHAGUS WITH EROTES, C. 190 CE. CAMPOSANTO DI PISA Like many of the other sarcophagi in the Camposanto, this one was despoiled from the necropolis at Ostia or possibly Isola Sacra when Pisan naval power was at its height at the end of the C11, with the purpose of showing that the maritime republic had inherited the mantle of Rome's naval power. This sarcophagus had been used as a fountain prior to resuming a funerary function, as we can see by the holes in the foreheads of the three Erotes holding up the garlands. In the C13 it was used as a burial for a member of the Azzopardi family, as an inscription indicates. The two huge heavy garlands stand out due to the dark lines that define them, made by the short drill, and we can see how striking the effect is. Above the garlands, two mirrored scenes of a Nereid riding atop a marine centaur allude to the passage from life to death.
#SarcophagusSaturday brings us back to #Tuscan treasure trove of #sarcophagi, the #Camposanto of #Pisa, where we can really see the difference between a chiselled line and a drilled one.
50 ancient coffins uncovered at #Egypt's #Saqqara necropolis:
"Wooden #sarcophagi discovered at site south of Cairo along with #funerary# temple of Queen #Naert"
www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/17/archae...
More than 13 intact and sealed 2,500 y/o #sarcophagi (still retaining original colors) have been unearthed inside a 11m deep shaft in #Saqqara according a recent statement by #Egypt‘s Tourism and Antiquities...
20 sealed ancient #sarcophagi discovered in #Egypt - decorated in shades of red, green, white and black, found stacked in two layers in large #tomb:
www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/twenty-colorf... via...
Ancient #necropolis discovered in #Egypt near the city of #Minya, south of Cairo. #BurialShafts dating from the late #Pharaonic period to the early #Ptolomaic era of around 300 BC, containing 40 #sarcophagi.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-43196877 via @BBC
