The Necropolis of Sidon

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The features of Phoenician funerary art from the fifth century BC, were works created from various influences. The origin is Egyptian: cartonnage masks covering the faces of mummies from the late third millennium lengthened gradually to completely cover the body. Thus was created the sarcophagus, from the 26th Egyptian dynasty (663-525 BC.), Carved in stone. The appearance of the first Phoenician sarcophagi in the early fifth century BC. AD is certainly linked to the conquest of Egypt and the plundering of Memphis and Saqqara necropolis by the Persian army in 525. The model of the sarcophagus was then brought in Phoenician earth probably adapted or influenced by Greek artists in the service of local princes. This is what our copy suggests, both the marble used, obviously imported from a Greek island by his bill. The wavy locks evoke Greek art 520 years, but it could be here a deliberate archaism from the sculptor: the treatment of the face, the rounded shape of the tank and the lid indicate rather 470 years. It thus represents an evidence of the Persian period, during which the Phoenician kingdoms played the role of crucibles converged Egyptian and Greek influences.