Eshmunazar II sarcophagus

The sarcophagus was discovered by Alphonse Durighello, a diplomatic agent in Sidon engaged by Aimé Péretié, the chancellor of the French consulate in Beirut. The sarcophagus was sold to Honoré de Luynes, a wealthy French nobleman and scholar, and was subsequently removed to the Louvre after the resolution of a legal dispute over its ownership. More than a dozen scholars across Europe and the United States rushed to translate the sarcophagus inscriptions after its discovery, many noting the similarities between the Phoenician language and Hebrew. The translation allowed scholars to identify the king buried inside, his lineage, and his construction feats. The inscription warns against disturbing Eshmunazar II's place of repose. It also recounts that the "Lord of Kings", the Achaemenid king, granted Eshmunazar II the territories of Dor, Joppa, and Dagon in recognition for his services. The discovery led to great enthusiasm for archaeological research in the region and was the primary reason for Renan's 1860–1861 Mission de Phénicie, the first major archaeological mission to Lebanon and Syria. Today it remains one of the highlights of the Louvre's Phoenician collection.

• Name — Sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II • Material — Amphibolite • Writing — Phoenician language • Created — 6th-century BC • Location — The Louvre, Paris • Id — AO 4806 • Civilization — Ancient Egyptian, Phoenician • Period — Achaemenid Phoenicia • Discovered Place — Magahret Abloun [Cavern of Apollo], Sidon, modern-day Lebanon • Discovered Date — 19 January 1855 • Discovered By — Alphonse Durighello • Language — Phoenician

Eshmunazar II (Phoenician: 𐤀𐤔𐤌𐤍𐤏𐤆𐤓, a theophoric name meaning 'Eshmun helps') was the Phoenician King of Sidon, reigning c. 539 BC to c. 525 BC. He was the grandson of King Eshmunazar I and a vassal king of the Achaemenid Empire. Eshmunazar II succeeded his father, Tabnit I, on the throne of Sidon. Tabnit I ruled briefly before his death, and his sister-wife, Amoashtart, acted as an interregnum regent until the birth of Eshmunazar II. Amoashtart then ruled as Eshmunazar II's regent until he reached adulthood. Eshmunazar II, however, died prematurely at age 14 during the reign of Cambyses II of Achaemenid Persia, and was succeeded by his cousin Bodashtart. Eshmunazar II, like his mother, father and grandfather, was a priest of Astarte. Temple building and religious activities were important for the Sidonian kings to demonstrate their piety and political power. Eshmunazar II and his mother, Queen Amoashtart, constructed new temples and religious buildings dedicated to Phoenician gods such as Baal, Astarte, and Eshmun.

The sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II was discovered on 19 January 1855The date of the discovery figures at the top of the copy of the sarcophagus inscription made by Van Dyke (p. 380). Other sources provide a later date (see Jidéjian). by the workmen of Alphonse Durighello, an agent of the French consulate in Sidon hired by Aimé Péretié, an amateur archaeologist and the chancellor of the French consulate in Beirut. Durighello's men were digging on the plains southeast of the city of Sidon in the grounds of an ancient necropolis (dubbed Nécropole Phénicienne by French Semitic philologist and biblical scholar Ernest Renan). The sarcophagus was found outside a hollowed-out rocky mound that was known to locals as Magharet Abloun ('the Cavern of Apollo'). It had originally been protected by a vault, of which some stones remained in place. One tooth, a piece of bone, and a human jaw were found in the rubble during the sarcophagus extraction, showing that the remains of Eshmunazar II had been robbed in antiquity. Cornelius Van Alen Van Dyck, an American missionary physician, made it to the scene and made a transcript of the inscription which was first published on 11 February 1855 in The United States Magazine. On 20 February 1855, Durighello informed Péretié of the find. Durighello had taken advantage of the absence of laws governing archaeological excavation and the disposition of the finds under the Ottoman rule, and had been involved in the lucrative business of trafficking archaeological artifacts. Under the Ottomans, it sufficed to either own the land or to have the owner's permission to excavate. Any finds resulting from digs became the property of the finder. To excavate, Durighello had bought the exclusive right from the land owner, the Mufti of Sidon, Mustapha Effendi.

• Illustration — Honoré de Luynes bought the sarcophagus and donated it to the Louvre. Today, the sarcophagus is one of the highlights of the Louvre's Phoenician collection.A 2019 publication by the Louvre writes: Durighello's ownership of the sarcophagus was contested by the British vice-consul general in Syria, Habib Abela, who claimed he had entered into agreements with the workers and the landowner to assign and sell him the rights to any discoveries.From the minutes of the dispute resolution meeting of 24 April 1855: The matter quickly took a political turn; in a letter dated 21 April 1855 the director of the French national museums, Count Émilien de Nieuwerkerke, requested the intervention of Édouard Thouvenel, the French ambassador to the Ottomans, stating that "It is in the best interest of the museum to possess the sarcophagus as it adds a new value at a time in which we start studying with great zeal Oriental antiquities, until now unknown in most of Europe." A commission was appointed by the governor of the Sidon Eyalet, Wamik Pasha, to look into the case, and, according to the minutes of the meeting dated 24 April 1855, the dispute resolution was transferred to a commission of European residents that unanimously voted in favor of Durighello. The United States Magazine reported on the issue of the legal dispute: United States Magazine correspondent, 1855, p. 379 Péretié purchased the sarcophagus from Durighello and sold it to wealthy French nobleman and scholar Honoré de Luynes for POUND STERLING. De Luynes donated the sarcophagus to the French government to be exhibited in the Louvre.

Péretié rushed the sarcophagus' laborious transportation to France. The bureaucratic task of removing the sarcophagus to France was facilitated with the intervention of Ferdinand de Lesseps, then the French consul general in Alexandria, and the French minister of education and religious affairs, Hippolyte Fortoul. During the transportation to the Sidon port, the citizens and the governor of Sidon gathered, escorted, and applauded the convoy; they adorned the sarcophagus with flowers and palm branches while 20 oxen, assisted by French sailors, dragged the carriage to the port. At the wharf, the crew of the French navy corvette loaded the sarcophagus' trough, and then its lid, onto a barge, before lifting it to the ship. The commander of Sérieuse, Delmas De La Perugia, read an early translation of the inscriptions, explaining the scientific importance and historical significance of the cargo to his crew. The sarcophagus of King Eshmunazar II is housed in the Louvre's Near Eastern antiquities section in room 311 of the Sully wing. It was given the museum identification number of AO 4806. • Illustration — The location where Eshmunazar II's sarcophagus was found is highlighted with a red circle. • Illustration — The northwest area of the Nécropole Phénicienne, showing Magharet Abloun and the tomb of Eshmunazar II • Illustration — Six cross-sections of Magharet Abloun; the Eshmunazar II sarcophagus is marked 'T' • Illustration — Closeup of Charles Gaillardot's map of the Royal necropolis of Sidon showing Tomb of Eshmunazar II

The Egyptian-style sarcophagus has no hieroglyphs; however, there are Phoenician inscriptions on its lid and trough. De Luynes and American philologist William Wadden Turner believed that the inscriptions were traced directly on the stone free-hand without the use of typographic guides for letter-spacing, and that these tracings were followed by the carving artisan. The inscriptions of the sarcophagus of Eshmunazar are known to scholars as CIS I 3 and KAI 14; they are written in the Phoenician language and alphabet. They identify the king buried inside, tell of his lineage and temple construction feats, and warn against disturbing his repose. The inscriptions also state that the "Lord of Kings" (the Achaemenid King of Kings) granted the Sidonian king "Dor and Joppa, the mighty lands of Dagon, which are in the plain of Sharon" in recognition of his deeds. According to Scottish biblical scholar John Gibson the text "offers an unusually high proportion of literary parallels with the Hebrew Bible, especially its poetic sections". French orientalist Jean-Joseph-Léandre Bargès wrote that the language is "identical with Hebrew, except for the final inflections of a few words and certain expressions."Bargès wrote as follows: As in other Phoenician inscriptions, the text seems to use no, or hardly any, matres lectionis, the letters that indicate vowels in Semitic languages. As in Aramaic, the preposition אית is used as an accusative marker, while את is used for 'with'.

The lid inscription consists of 22 lines of 40 to 55 letters each; it occupies a square situated under the sarcophagus' usekh collar and measures in length and width. As is customary for Phoenician writing, all the characters are written without spaces separating each word, except for a space in the 13th line, which divides the text into two equal parts. The lid letters are not evenly spaced, ranging from no distance to a spacing of. The lines of the text are neither straight nor evenly spaced. The letters in the lower part of the text (after the lacuna on line 13) are neater and smaller than the letters in the first part of the inscription. The letters of the first three lines of the lid inscription are cut deeper and rougher than the rest of the text which indicates that the engraver was either replaced or made to work more neatly.

• Illustration — The two characters of the sarcophagus trough A copy of the first part (twelve and a half lines) of the lid inscription is carved delicately and uniformly on six lines around the head curvature on the trough of the sarcophagus, with the letters corresponding in size and style to the second part of the lid inscription. An unfinished seventh line matches the first nine characters that form the beginning of the text that begins after the lacuna on the 13th line of the lid inscription. It measures in width, significantly wider than the lid inscription. The relationship between the trough and the lid inscription has been discussed amongst scholars. Turner believed that the similarity of the trough's characters to those of Part II of the lid inscription suggested that the trough was inscribed immediately after the completion of the lid. Turner speculated that this may have been to claim both parts of the sarcophagus as Eshmunazar's property, and suggested that the original intention was to copy the whole of the lid inscription, but after the copy of Part II had started, it was concluded that the ornamental line which runs round the outside of the sarcophagus would have divided the inscription in an unattractive manner. Turner's theory was in contrast to German theologian Heinrich Ewald's earlier proposal that originally the entire inscription had been intended to be engraved around the trough, to represent it as proceeding from his mouth, but error(s) made in the writing caused it to be abandoned, and the inscription started again on the lid. The external surface of the trough bears also an isolated group of two Phoenician characters. De Luynes believes that they may have been trial carving marks made by the engraver.

Copies of the sarcophagus inscriptions were sent to scholars across the world, and translations were published by well-known scholars (see below table). Several other scholars worked on the translation, including the polymath Josiah Willard Gibbs, Hebrew language scholar William Henry Green, Biblical scholars James Murdock and Williams Jenks, and Syriac language expert Christian Frederic Crusé. American missionaries William McClure Thomson and Eli Smith who were living in Ottoman Syria at the time of the discovery of the sarcophagus successfully translated most of the text by early 1855, but did not produce any publications. Belgian semitist Jean-Claude Haelewyck provided a hypothetical vocalization of the Phoenician text. A definitive vocalization is not possible because Phoenician is written without matres lectionis. Haelewyck based the premise of his vocalization on the affinity of the Phoenician and Hebrew languages, historical grammar, and ancient transcriptions. A list of early published translations follows below: • Author — Memoir — Previous interpretations consulted — Published work • Edward E. Salisbury — 1855 — Phoenician Inscription of Sidon • William Wadden Turner — 3 July 1855 — The Sidon Inscription • Emil Rödiger — 15 June 1855 — Bemerkungen über die phönikische Inschrift eines am 19. Januar 1855 nahe bei Sidon gefundenen Königs-Sarkophag's • Franz Dietrich and Johann Gildemeister — 1 July 1855 — Zwei Sidonische Inschriften, eine griechische aus christlicher Zeit und eine altphönicische Königsinschrift • Ferdinand Hitzig — 30 September 1855 — Rödiger, Dietrich. — Die Grabschrift des Eschmunazar • Konstantin Schlottmann — December 1855 — Rödiger, Dietrich, Hitzig, De Luynes and Ewald. — Die Inschrift Eschmunazar's, Königs der Sidonier • Honoré Théodoric d'Albert de Luynes — 15 December 1855 — Mémoire sur le Sarcophage et inscription funéraire d'Esmunazar, roi de Sidon • Heinrich Ewald — 19 January 1856 — Salisbury, Turner, Roidiger, Dietrich, Hitzig. — Erklärung der grossen phönikischen inschrift von Sidon und einer ägyptisch-aramäischen: mit den zuverlässigen abbildern beider • Jean-Joseph-Léandre Bargès — 1856 — Salisbury, Turner, Rödiger, Dietrich, Hitzig, De Luynes, Ewald (?). — Mémoire sur le sarcophage et l'inscription funéraire d'Eschmounazar, roi de Sidon • Salomon Munk — 6 April 1856 — Salisbury, Turner, Rödiger, Dietrich, Hitzig, DeLuynes, Bargès. — Essais sur l'inscription phénicienne du sarcophage d'Eschmoun-'Ezer, roi de Sidon • Moritz Abraham Levy — August 1856 — Salisbury, Turner, Rödiger, Dietrich, Hitzig, Ewald, De Luynes, Munk — Phönizisches Wörterbuch

• Line number — Original Phoenician inscription — Transliteration — Transcription — English translation • 1 — Phnx — byrḥ bl bšnt ʿsr wʾrbʿ 14 lmlky mlk ʾšmnʿzr mlk ṣdnm — biyarḥ būl bišanōt ʿasr we-ʾarbaʿ lemulkiyū milk ʾèšmūnʿazar milk ṣīdōnīm — In the month of Bul, in the fourteenth year of the reign of king Eshmunazar, king of the Sidonians • 2 — Phnx — bn mlk tbnt mlk ṣdnm dbr mlk ʾšmnʿzr mlk ṣdnm lʾmr ngzlt — bin milk tabnīt milk ṣīdōnīm dabar milk ʾèšmūnʿazar milk ṣīdōnīm līʾmōr nagzaltī — son of king Tabnit, king of the Sidonians, king Eshmunazar, king of the Sidonians, said as follows: I was carried away • 3 — Phnx — bl ʿty bn msk ymm ʾzrm ytm bn ʾlmt wškb ʾnk bḥlt z wbqbr z — bal ʿittiya bin masok yōmīm ʾazzīrīm yatum bin ʾalmatt wešōkéb ʾanōkī biḥallot zō webiqabr zè — before my time, son of a limited number of short days (or: son of a limited number of days I was cut off), an orphan, the son of a widow, and I am lying in this coffin and in this tomb, • 4 — Phnx — bmqm ʾš bnt qnmy ʾt kl mmlkt wkl ʾdm ʾl yptḥ ʾyt mškb z w — bammaqōm ʾéš banītī qenummiya ʾatta kull mamlokūt wekull ʾadōm ʾal yiptaḥ ʾiyat miškob zè we- — in a place which I have built. Whoever you are, king or (ordinary) man, may he not open this resting-place and • 5 — Phnx • may he not search in it after anything because nothing whatsoever has been placed into it. And may he not move the coffin of my resting-place, nor carry me • 6 — Phnx — sn bmškb z ʿlt mškb šny ʾp ʾm ʾdmm ydbrnk ʾl tšmʿ bdnm k kl mmlkt w • away from this resting-place to another resting-place. Also if men talk to you do not listen to their chatter. For every king and • 7 — Phnx • every (ordinary) man, who will open what is above this resting-place, or will lift up the coffin of my resting-place, or will carry me away from • 8 — Phnx — škb z ʾl ykn lm mškb ʾt rpʾm wʾl yqbr bqbr wʾl ykn lm bn wzrʿ • this resting-place, may they not have a resting-place with the Rephaïm, may they not be buried in a tomb, and may they not have a son or offspring • 9 — Phnx — tḥtnm wysgrnm hʾlnm hqdšm ʾt mmlk(t) ʾdr ʾš mšl bnm lq — taḥténōm weyasgirūnōm hāʾalōnīm haqqadošīm ʾét mamlokū[t] ʾaddīr ʾéš mōšél bin(n)ōm laq- — after them. And may the sacred gods deliver them to a mighty king who will rule them in order • 10 — Phnx — ṣtnm ʾyt mmlkt ʾm ʾdm hʾ ʾš yptḥ ʿlt mškb z ʾm ʾš yšʾ ʾyt — -ṣṣotinōm/laqaṣṣōtinōm ʾiyyōt mamlokūt ʾim ʾadōm hūʾa ʾéš yiptaḥ ʿalōt miškob zè ʾīm ʾéš yiššōʾ ʾiyyōt — to exterminate them, the king or this (ordinary) man who will open what is over this resting-place or will lift up • 11 — Phnx — ḥlt z wʾyt zrʿ mmlt hʾ ʾm ʾdmm hmt ʾl ykn lm šrš lmṭ w — ḥallot zè weʾiyat zarʿ mamlo[kū]t hūʾa ʾim ʾadōmīm humatu ʾal yakūnū lōm šurš lamaṭṭō we- — this coffin, and (also) the offspring of this king or of those (ordinary) men. They shall not have root below or • 12 — Phnx — pr lmʿl wtʾr bḥym tḥt šmš k ʾnk nḥn ngzlt bl ʿty bn ms — -parī lamaʿlō wetuʾr baḥayyīm taḥt šamš ka ʾanōkī nāḥān nagzaltī bal ʿittiya bin maso- — fruit above or appearance in the life under the sun. For I who deserve mercy, I was carried away before my time, son of a limited • 13 — Phnx — -k yōmīm ʾazzīrīm yatum bin ʾalmatt ʾanōkī ka ʾanōkī ʾèšmūnʿazar milk ṣīdōnīm bin — number of short days (or: son of a limited number of days I was cut off), I an orphan, the son of a widow. For I, Eshmunazar, king of the Sidonians, son of • 14 — Phnx — mlk tbnt mlk ṣdnm bn bn mlk ʾšmnʿzr mlk ṣdnm wʾmy ʾm ʿštrt — milk tabnīt milk ṣīdōnīm bin bin milk ʾèšmūnʿazar milk ṣīdōnīm weʾummī ʾamotʿaštart — king Tabnit, king of the Sidonians, grandson of king Eshmunazar, king of the Sidonians, and my mother Amo[t]astart, • 15 — Phnx — khnt ʿštrt rbtn hmlkt bt mlk ʾšmnʿzr mlk ṣdnm ʾm bnn ʾyt bt — kōhant ʿaštart rabbotanū hammilkōt bat milk ʾèšmūnʿazar milk ṣīdōnīm ʾ[š] banīnū ʾiyyōt bīté — priestess of Ashtart, our lady, the queen, daughter of king Eshmunazar, king of the Sidonians, (it is we) who have built the temples • 16 — Phnx — ʾalōnīm ʾiyyōt [bīt ʿaštar]t biṣīdōn ʾarṣ yim weyōšibnū ʾiyyōt ʿaštart šamém ʾaddīrim weʾanaḥnū — of the gods, [the temple of Ashtar]t in Sidon, the land of the sea. And we have placed Ashtart (in) the mighty heavens (or: in Shamem-Addirim?). And it is we • 17 — Phnx — ʾš bnn bt lʾšmn [š]r qdš ʿn ydll bhr wyšbny šmm ʾdrm wʾnḥn ʾš bnn btm — éš banīnū bīt laʾèšmūn [śa]r qudš ʿīn ydll bihar weyōšibnūyū šamém ʾaddīrim weʾanaḥnū ʾéš banīnū bītīm — who have built a temple for Eshmun, the prince of the sanctuary of the source of YDLL in the mountains, and we have placed him (in) the mighty heavens (or: in Shamem-Addirim?). And it is we who have built temples • 18 — Phnx — lʾln ṣdnm bṣdn ʾrṣ ym bt lbʿl ṣdn wbt lʿštrt šm bʿl wʿd ytn ln ʾdn mlkm — aʾalōné ṣīdōnīm biṣīdōn ʾarṣyim bīt labaʿl ṣīdōn webīt laʿaštart šim baʿl weʿōd yatan lanū ʾadōn milakīm — for the gods of the Sidonians in Sidon, the land of the sea, a temple for Baal of Sidon, and a temple for Ashtart, the Name of Baal. Moreover, the lord of kings gave us • 19 — Phnx — ʾyt dʾr wypy ʾrṣt dgn hʾdrt ʾš bšd šrn lmdt ʿṣmt ʾš pʿlt wyspnnm — iyat duʾr weyapay ʾarṣōt dagōn hāʾaddīrōt ʾéš biśadé šarōn lamiddot ʿaṣūmot ʾéš paʿaltī weyasapnūném — Dor and Joppa, the mighty lands of Dagon, which are in the Plain of Sharon, as a reward for the brilliant action I did. And we have annexed them • 20 — Phnx — ʿlt gbl ʾrṣ lknnm lṣdnm lʿl[m] qnmy ʾt kl mmlkt wkl ʾdm ʾl yptḥ ʿlty — alōt gubūl(é) ʾarṣlakūniném laṣṣīdōnīm laʿōlo[m] qenummiya ʾatta kull mamlokūt wekull ʾadōm ʾal yiptaḥ ʿalōtiya — to the boundary of the land, so that they would belong to the Sidonians for ever. Whoever you are, king or (ordinary) man, do not open what is above me • 21 — Phnx — wʾl yʿr ʿlty wʾl yʿmsn bmškb z wʾl yšʾ ʾyt ḥlt mškby lm ysgrnm — weʾal yaʿar ʿalōtiya weʾal yaʿmusénī bimiškob zè weʾal yiššōʾ ʾiyyōt ḥallot miškobiya lamā yasgirūnōm — and do not uncover what is above me and do not carry me away from this resting-place and do not lift up the coffin of my resting-place. Otherwise, • 22 — Phnx — ʾlnm hqdšm ʾl wyqṣn hmmlkt hʾ whʾdmm hmt wzrʿm lʿlm — alōnīm haqqadošīm ʾillè weyeqaṣṣūna hammamlokūt hūʾa wehāʾadōmīm humatu wezarʿōm laʿōlom — the sacred gods will deliver them and cut off this king and those (ordinary) men and their offspring for ever.

The sarcophagus, along with two others found at the nearby Royal Necropolis of Ayaʿa, are considered the only Egyptian sarcophagi that have ever been found outside of Egypt. Marie-Louise Buhl's monograph The late Egyptian anthropoid stone sarcophagi confirmed the sarcophagus as belonging to the 26th dynasty, which began in 664 BC and ended with Cambyses II's conquest of Egypt in 525 BC – many centuries after the last of the known Egyptian Stelae in the Levant. These three Egyptian sarcophagi are considered to have contained the bodies of the same family – i.e. Eshmunazar II and his parents Tabnit and Amoashtart. Whereas Tabnit's sarcophagus reemployed a sarcophagus already dedicated on its front with a long Egyptian inscription in the name of an Egyptian general, and Amoashtart's was uninscribed, the sarcophagus used for Eshmunazar II was new and was inscribed with a full-length dedication in Phoenician on a clean surface. According to French archaeologist and epigrapher René Dussaud, the sarcophagi and their inscriptions may have been ordered by Amoashtart. Scholars believe these sarcophagi were originally made in Egypt for members of the Ancient Egyptian elite, but were then transported to Sidon and repurposed for the burial of Sidonian royalty. Gibson and later scholars believe that the sarcophagi were captured as booty by the Sidonians during their participation in Cambyses II's conquest. Herodotus recounts an event in which Cambyses II "ransacked a burial ground at Memphis, where coffins were opened up and the dead bodies they contained were examined", possibly providing the occasion on which the sarcophagi were removed and reappropriated by his Sidonian subjects.

The discovery of the Magharet Abloun hypogeum and of Eshmunazar II's sarcophagus caused a sensation in France, which led Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, to dispatch a scientific mission to Lebanon headed by Ernest Renan.

The lid inscription was of great significance upon its discovery; it was the first Phoenician-language inscription to be discovered in Phoenicia proper. Furthermore, this engraving forms the longest and most detailed Phoenician inscription ever found anywhere up to that point, and is now the second longest extant Phoenician inscription after the Karatepe bilingual. Due to its length and level of preservation, the inscription offers valuable knowledge about the characteristics of the Phoenician language and, more specifically, of the Tyro-Sidonian dialect. Additionally, the inscription displays notable similarities to texts in other Semitic languages, evident in its idiomatic expressions, word combinations, and the use of repetition.

The sarcophagi of Tabnit and Eshmunazar may have served as a model for the later sarcophagi of Sidon. After Tabnit and Eshmunazar II, sarcophagi continued to be used by Phoenician dignitaries, but with marked stylistic evolutions. These local anthropoid sarcophagi, built from the 5th century BC to the first half of the 4th century BC, continued to be carved in the form of a smooth, shapeless body, but used white marble, and the faces were progressively sculpted in more realistic Hellenic styles. It is uncertain whether they were imported from Greece or produced locally. This type of Phoenician sarcophagi has been found in the ruins of Phoenician colonies throughout the Mediterranean.

The Phoenicians emerged as a distinct culture on the Levantine coast in the Late Bronze Age (c. 1550) as one of the successor cultures to the Canaanites. They were organized into independent city-states that shared a common language, culture, and religious practices. They had, however, diverse mortuary practices, including inhumation and cremation. Archaeological evidence of elite Achaemenid period burials abounds in the hinterland of Sidon. These include inhumations in underground vaults, rock-cut niches, and shaft and chamber tombs in Sarepta, Ain al-Hilweh, Ayaa, Magharet Abloun, and the Temple of Eshmun in Bustan el-Sheikh. Elite Phoenician burials were characterized by the use of sarcophagi, and a consistent emphasis on the integrity of the tomb. Surviving mortuary inscriptions from that period invoke deities to assist with the procurement of blessings, and to conjure curses and calamities on whoever desecrated the tomb. The first record of the discovery of an ancient necropolis in Sidon was made in 1816 by English explorer and Egyptologist William John Bankes.

The Egyptian anthropoid-style sarcophagus dates to the 6th century BC and is made of a solid, well polished block of bluish-black amphibolite. It measures long, wide, and high.Dimensions given in de Luynes report are 2.45 m tall by 1.4 m wide. The lid displays a relief carving of the figure of a deceased person in the style of Egyptian mummy sarcophagi. The effigy of the deceased is portrayed smiling, wrapped up to the neck in a thick shroud, leaving the head uncovered. The effigy is dressed with a large Nubian wig, a false braided beard, and a usekh collar ending with falcon heads at each of its extremities, as is often seen at the neck of Egyptian mummies. Two other sarcophagi of the same style were also unearthed in the necropolis.