The material is a fine, white marble, like that of the sarcophagi already described.
For a time this sarcophagus was thought to be unique, but the interest excited by its discovery had the effect of drawing attention to the two examples in the museum of Palermo, where they had remained unnoticed for so long. They were at once recognized as belonging to the same class as the sarcophagus from Sidon. One of the two supplies a link between the types we have described. The arms are shown in their places on the flanks of the body, but there is neither costume nor accessory (Fig. 133). The other is more archaic in its general aspect, but, of all these monuments, it is that in which the sculptor has carried his work the farthest. In the result we have what is nothing short of a recumbent statue (Fig. 134). It shows us a woman robed in a
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Fig. 133. Sarcophagus from Solunte. In the Palermo Museum.
short sleeveless tunic and a long peplos falling to the feet; the right arm lies along the body, the hand resting on the thigh, while the left is bent at the elbow, so that the hand with its perfume-bottle rests upon the stomach. The breasts are indicated under the drapery; as in the terra-cotta statuettes, the plaited tresses hang down upon the neck and chest. The sinuous lines of this sarcophagus and the stone support on which the feet rest are enough to prove that the Egyptian mummy-case was its point of departure.[1] The two sarcophagi of Palermo and the fragments of the one from Sidon must then be taken to belong to one group of monuments. Sicilian explorers cannot be too strongly encouraged to go on with their work of excavation in the
- ↑ These two sarcophagi have been engraved from photographs for which we have to thank Signer Salinas, the keeper of the Palermo Museum. Of that reproduced in Fig. 133 only the lid was found. The trough is a restoration in wood.
