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#SarcophagusSaturday

15
posts · 30d
6
users
1
posts / day
2.5
posts / user
+ 33% vs last week

#SarcophagusSaturday is an active hashtag on Bluesky. In the last 30 days, 6 people shared 15 posts with it — around 1 a day. Activity is up 33% versus the previous week, peaking on Jul 18 with 5 posts.

#SarcophagusSaturday posts per day (last 30 days)

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#RomanSiteSaturday 8 #CastleSaturday 8

Posts with #SarcophagusSaturday

Carausius
@carausius286.bsky.social
22 days ago
It’s #SarcophagusSaturday & this is the magnificent polychrome sarcophagus of Selanti Hanunia Tlesnasa, a wealthy Etruscan lady. Typically Etruscan, she reclines on a pillow holding a mirror in her left hand, displaying her face with her right. She was about 50 when she died. 🕰️C2nd BC 🏛️BM 📷mine
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Anthony Majanlahti
@anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
21 days ago
​"Leave the nuts behind." Look closely at the bottom register of this C3 CE child's sarcophagus in the Vatican: those tiny triangular piles are walnuts set up for castellatae, a game of knocking down pyramids, here an elegiac tribute to a childhood cut short. #SarcophagusSaturday #AncientBluesky 🏺
CHILD'S SARCOPHAGUS, C3 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS This small marble sarcophagus was found in 1822 in an dig along the via Appia near S. Sebastiano. It features a detailed relief of children playing. Along the bottom register are triangular piles of walnuts for the game of "castellatae". Walnuts were ubiquitous toys in Rome, making the phrase "reliquere nuces", "to leave the walnuts behind", the standard term for growing up. At left, girls crouch over the game before a curtain, the peripetasma, hinting the deceased was a little girl. At centre-left, play becomes a conflict as two boys grapple with each other. To the right, other boys carry bags of walnuts or watch with intense concentration. The emotional contrast between the private world of the girls on the left and the kinetic, competitive space of the boys on the right makes this one of the finest, most complete visual documents of Roman childhood games in existence. The little occupant never got the chance to leave the walnuts behind.
6 36 166
Anthony Majanlahti
@anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
about 1 month ago
Look at this huge #sarcophagus a lenòs in the Belvedere courtyard of the #VaticanMuseums. This massive Naxian marble tub, complete with two intact skeletons, was the highlight of a chaotic 1777 excavation. The design relies on a brilliant visual illusion of eternal cosmic time. #SarcophagusSaturday
DIONYSIAC THIASOS SARCOPHAGUS, c. 170 CE. VATICAN MUSEUMS ​Here we see a monumental tub-shaped Roman marble sarcophagus carved with an ecstatic Dionysiac procession of extreme grace, with satyrs and Mænads dancing. The front relief is dominated by two massive lion protomes whose open jaws serve as apotropaic guardians of the tomb threshold. Tiny Eroti ride panthers directly beneath the snarling muzzles, creating a sophisticated visual contrast between the ferocity of death and the joyful triumph of the soul. Because the lenòs form eliminates sharp 90° corners, the dancing figures appear to move in a continuous, uninterrupted loop. This fluid arrangement creates a powerful illusion of eternal, cyclical time, the realm of the god Aion, that intentionally masks the reality of the flat, completely unfinished back panel which was meant to be pushed permanently against a tomb wall.
7 31 140
Becky Wallower
@bwallower.bsky.social
about 2 months ago
For #SarcophagusSaturday an #Etruscan house or temple-shaped one. Sphinxes + knotted snakes on roof ridge, female heads + antefixes decorating edges. Sides display floral + animal designs + figures including Charon + Etruscan divinities. Stone once plastered w colourful polychrome, c. 3C BC. In BM 🏺
Reddish stone of volcanic origin was used to carve the large sarcophagus. Its lid has the form of a pitched roof, with heavy tubular ridge and side beams, with antefixes in the ends. A sphinx sits at each end of the roof and knotted snakes writhe in the centre. Female heads decorate the triangular pediments. Along the long side visible is a narrow panel with scroll design. Two inturning figures are at either end, the one on the left holds a mallet and snake, and represents Charon. The other is a warrior.
2 41 140
Anthony Majanlahti
@anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
about 1 month ago
We view sarcophagi under museum lights, forgetting their true context. This #Antonine masterpiece from the via Aurelia Antica was made for a public funeral, then hidden in a dark tomb, seen only by lamplight during family festivals like the Parentalia. #SarcophagusSaturday #AncientBluesky 🏺 #Rome
SARCOPHAGUS WITH DIONYSIAC THIASOS, VIA AURELIA ANTICA, 160–180 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN ​This front panel and lid of a late Antonine Luni marble sarcophagus features a structured Dionysiac thiasos centered on Dionysus and Ariadne, who act as divine stand-ins for the deceased couple. On the left, Hermes Psychopompos holds his caduceus, guiding souls alongside the relaxed Dionysus. To the right, Ariadne appears as a veiled matron next to a melancholic youth in a classical pose of sleep or grief. The imagery uses the Dionysiac realm as a metaphor for "securitas," a blissful afterlife of eternal marital fidelity far removed from worldly duties. The lid repeats this theme, depicting a celestial banquet of the couple bracketed by theatrical masks. Though destined for an underground hypogeum, this costly chest served a dual purpose: a public display of status during the funeral parade, and later an intimate monument animated by flickering lamps during family festivals.
2 17 125
Becky Wallower
@bwallower.bsky.social
7 days ago
'Spitalfields #Roman woman' grew up in 3-4C Rome. Buried in rare decorated lead coffin in limestone #SarcophagusSaturday in London cemetery, w very high status purple Chinese silk clothing w gold threads, unusual glass + jet grave goods. Surely this will return to Lon Museum in Smithfield 2026....
A simple rectangular stone sarcophagus is shown across the image. It contains a lead coffin, narrower at the foot (on the right) and elaborately decorated with scallop shell and cable pattern decorations. On being removed from Spitalfields Roman cemetery, the sarcophagus was opened and excavated live in front of cameral and visitors (including me!) in the Museum of London in 1999.
0 11 41
Anthony Majanlahti
@anthonymajanlahti.bsky.social
7 days ago
This Aswan granite sarcophagus may reflect a C3 revolution. Emperor Gallienus stripped the senatorial aristocracy of military command, rewarding talented equestrian soldiers instead. Could this imperial gift have belonged to one of these newly powerful men? #SarcophagusSaturday #AncientBluesky 🏺
RED GRANITE SARCOPHAGUS, C3 CE. BATHS OF DIOCLETIAN Here we see a sunlit sarcophagus in the roofless Aula IX of the Baths. Carved from red Aswan granite, the bathtub-shaped box features a heavy lid with lifting bosses and has been pieced back together from large fragments. The precise findspot is unknown, but it was recovered from the Roman suburbium, possibly from the imperial estate of Ad Duas Lauros along the Via Labicana. We know nothing about the occupant, but the material allows us to guess. Because Aswan granite was an imperial monopoly, this stone was a direct gift. It may have belonged to a newly powerful equestrian soldier, someone like Aurelius Theodotus, prefect of Egypt in 262–263 CE, promoted after Gallienus removed the senatorial aristocracy from military command. Any inscription was likely displayed on a lost brick mausoleum. The unbroken lid suggests the tomb was robbed and the lid cast to the floor long before the vault collapsed and smashed the empty basin.
1 10 38
Chapps
@chapps.bsky.social
about 1 year ago
For #sarcophagussaturday, a gorgeous lenos (bathtub) sarcophagus, from the #Torlonia Collection, with the familiar heads of lions on each side. But in the side view, you can see the lion is being guided by a 'mansuetarius', an animal tamer, to entertain the crowds. 🏺 Art Institute of Chicago, 📸 me
'Strigilated' lenos (bathtub) sarcophagus, with the strigilated wavy lines on the front, representing the waters of the rivers of the underworld, with a slim amphora in the middle with initials. Large fully maned lion heads stand out in high relief on either side, each lion with prey in its paws: on the left, an antelope, and on the right (modern restoration), a ram. We can just barely see the animal tamers directing the lions on either side.
Shot taken from the left side of the lenos, showing the bearded, older animal tamer, using a sharp prod on the lion to get it to capture and kill the antelope. On the unseen right side, the animal tamer is a young man.
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