Lebanon's Daily Star reports the excavation of a Roman sarcophagus, as well as remnants of an ancient well, at a construction site in Sidon's Bustan al-Kabir neighborhood. From the photograph below the sarcophagus appears to be of standard eastern garland type, pressed into service as a blank.
Two burial grounds, yielding skeletons, pottery, and coins with Latin inscriptions, were found at the same site a month ago. The relationship of the sarcophagus and the burials to the well has not yet been clarified.
Istanbul's BGN News reports that Turkish authorities near Izmir recently foiled an attempt by two men to smuggle a Roman child's sarcophagus out of the country in a light commercial vehicle. According to the report, official analysis of the recovered sarcophagus revealed that it had never before been opened. (So what were the contents when the piece was finally uncorked? — we're not told.) It was subsequently delivered to the Directorate of the Izmir Museums. The fuller story is here. That the specimen — from the pictures, a wee piece featuring garlands suspended from rams' heads — is "at least 2,000 years old" seems unlikely. |
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