Sarcophagus
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A sarcophagus (pl.: sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a coffin, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word sarcophagus comes from the Greek σάρξ sarx meaning "flesh", and φαγεῖν phagein meaning "to eat"; hence sarcophagus means "flesh-eating", from the phrase lithos sarkophagos (λίθος σαρκοφάγος), "flesh-eating stone". The word also came to refer to a particular kind of limestone that was thought to rapidly facilitate the decomposition of the flesh of corpses contained within it due to the chemical properties of the limestone itself.[1][2]
History of the sarcophagus
Sarcophagi were most often designed to remain above ground.[citation needed] The earliest stone sarcophagi were used by Egyptian pharaohs of the 3rd dynasty, which reigned from about 2686 to 2613 B.C.
The
In the early modern period, lack of space tended to make sarcophagi impractical in churches, but chest tombs or false sarcophagi, empty and usually bottomless cases placed over an underground burial, became popular in outside locations such as cemeteries and churchyards, especially in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries, where memorials were mostly not highly decorated and the extra cost of a false sarcophagus over a headstone acted as an indication of social status.[citation needed]
United States of America
Sarcophagi, usually "false", made a return to the cemeteries of America during the last quarter of the 19th century, at which time, according to a New York company which built sarcophagi, "it was decidedly the most prevalent of all memorials in our cemeteries".[4] They continued to be popular into the 1950s, at which time the popularity of flat memorials (making for easier grounds maintenance) made them obsolete. Nonetheless, a 1952 catalog from the memorial industry still included eight pages of them, broken down into Georgian and Classical detail, a Gothic and Renaissance adaptation, and a Modern variant.[5] The image shows sarcophagi from the late 19th century located in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The one in the back, the Warner Monument created by Alexander Milne Calder (1879), features the spirit or soul of the deceased being released.
Asia
In the Mekong Delta in southwestern Vietnam, it is common for families to inter their members in sarcophagi near their homes, thus allowing ready access for visits as a part of the indigenous tradition of ancestor worship.
In Sulawesi, Indonesia, waruga are a traditional form of sarcophagus.[citation needed]
India
Nearly 140 years after British archaeologist Alexander Rea unearthed a sarcophagus from the hillocks of Pallavaram in Tamil Nadu, an identical artifact dating back by more than 2,000 years has been discovered in the same locality.[6]
Spain
See also
References
- ^ WordInfo etymology. As a noun, the Greek term was further adopted to mean "coffin" and was carried over into Latin, where it was used in the phrase lapis sarcophagus, "flesh-eating stone", referring to those same properties of limestone.
- ^ a b "Columbia University Department of Archaeology". Archived from the original on 2012-12-18. Retrieved 2008-01-01.
- ^ Presbrey - Leland, "Commemoration: The Book of Presbrey - Leland Memorials", Presbrey-Leland Incorporated, 1952 p. 79
- ISBN 978-0813542362.
- ^ Presbrey - Leland, "Commemoration: The Book of Presbrey - Leland Memorials", Presbrey-Leland Incorporated, 1952 pp. 79–85
- Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.Retrieved 29 September 2018.
- ^ "Sarcófagos antropomorfos fenicios de Cádiz". Cultura en Andalucía (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 September 2018.
- Ministerio de Cultura y Deporte. Retrieved 29 September 2018.
Bibliography
- Mont Allen, "Sarcophagus", in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, edited by Michael Gagarin, vol. 6, p. 214–218 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
- Robert Manuel Cook, Clazomenian Sarcophagi (Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 1981).
- R. R. R. Smith, Sculptured for Eternity: Treasures of Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine Art from Istanbul Archaeological Museum (Istanbul: Ertuǧ and Kocabıyık, 2001).
- Paul Zanker and Björn C. Ewald, Living with Myths: The Imagery of Roman Sarcophagi (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).
External links
- Egyptian sarcophagi
- sarcophagi in the Istanbul Archaeological Museum
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 209.