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Sarcophagi

The archaeological site of San Saturnino is located in the eastern part of the city of Cagliari, an area which in ancient times stood outside the city limits and was part of the necropolis extending east of the town, from today's Viale Regina Margherita up to the Bonaria hill. Here you can still see the surviving evidence of the necropolis and the Basilica dedicated to the martyr Saturnino.

There are various types of burials in the funerary area next to the church, among which several sarcophagi stand out. They were shaped like a box and were designed to contain the ritually buried deceased. The term comes from the Greek words sarx, sarcos (meat) and fagheìn (eating) and derives from the ancient belief according to which the corpses were quickly consumed by a particular type of limestone from the region of Troas which the funerary crates were made of.

Among the specimens found in the necropolis of San Saturnino, only a few are made of marble, while most are of stone and devoid of decoration, since they were often intended to be buried, and therefore any embellishment of the walls was unnecessary. Others, however, were intended to remain on view, against the walls or inserted in recesses inside mausoleums, and therefore had various decorations at the front, the so-called "strigilature” (spiralled fluting patterns ) (i.e., with S-shaped grooves) or other subjects (figs. 1-4).

1
Fig. 1 - Limestone parallelepiped box sarcophagus, with lid (photo by Unicity S.p.A.).
2
Fig. 2 - Limestone parallelepiped box sarcophagus, buried (photo by Unicity S.p.A.).
3
Fig. 3 - Limestone parallelepiped box sarcophagus, with lid (photo by Unicity S.p.A.).
4
Fig. 4 - Limestone parallelepiped box sarcophagus, with lid (photo by Unicity S.p.A.).





Bibliografia

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