What is a stone sarcophagus?

A sarcophagus is a stone coffin or a container to hold a coffin. Although early sarcophagi were made to hold coffins within, the term has come to refer to any stone coffin that is placed above ground. The earliest stone sarcophagi were used by Egyptian pharaohs of the 3rd dynasty, which reigned from about 2686 to 2613 B.C.E.

What does sarcophagi mean?

noun, plural sar·coph·a·gi [sahr-kof-uh-jahy] /sɑrˈkɒf əˌdʒaɪ/, sar·coph·a·gus·es. a stone coffin, especially one bearing sculpture, inscriptions, etc., often displayed as a monument. Greek Antiquity. a kind of stone thought to consume the flesh of corpses, used for coffins.

What does lapis sarcophagus mean?

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".

What is the sarcophagus of the spouses?

The Sarcophagus of the Spouses (Italian: Sarcofago degli Sposi) is a late sixth century B.C.E. Etruscan anthropoid sarcophagus. It is 3.7 feet (1.14 meters) high by 6.2 feet (1.9 meters) wide, and is made of painted terracotta.