This article examines how images on a sarcophagus involved Roman viewers in processes of thinking by analogy and so invited them to engage in meditation on death. This more thanatological slant is sidelined in current approaches that emphasise how exemplary figures on sarcophagi consoled the bereaved and praised the dead. Building on these approaches, together with work on the mediating role played by artefacts in thought, this article proposes that analogies on sarcophagi also invited the living to think about their own death and the possibilities and limitations of analogy for thanatological reflection. It argues, further, that sarcophagi should be read more expansively, allowing for figures and scenes to have more than one identity rather than collapsing them into one: this multiplicity reinforces meditation on death. The article focuses on Roman sarcophagi that feature Adonis, with emphasis on the Rinuccini sarcophagus; this unusual sarcophagus explicitly juxtaposes real-life and mythological scenes.

In the Roman world a wide variety of funerary architecture was erected along the access roads of cities to catch the eye of passersby. In Hippos (Sussita in Aramaic) of the Decapolis, the most notable funerary structures stood along the city's main approach within the Saddle Necropolis. The most distinctive elements of the necropolis's architectural remains were a series of 13 large funerary podia – the focus of the 2020 excavations. The Hippos podia are unique in the Roman world, in their dating, their architecture, and their multiplicity. The architectural design of this series of structures may be the first evidence of necropolis planning and erection of funerary monuments by the polis itself within the Roman world. The article describes the freshly exposed Hippos podia, proposes reasoning for the choice of this particular type of construction, and analyzes similar funerary structures throughout the Roman world, with emphasis on the Roman East, where sarcophagi were widespread.

In 2016, a burial chamber hewn into limestone was discovered at Khirbet Aqabet Al Qadi on the northwestern slope of Mount Ebal, 2km north of the city center of Nablus. The floor of the chamber is 3.15 × 2.9 m and the height averages 1.8 m. A movable closure at the entrance consists of a limestone slab. The burial chamber houses four sarcophagi. The aim of this case study is to give information not only on the burial chamber but also, for the first time in the region, on human remains. Stable isotope analysis of a human bone sample enabled us to obtain dietary information on one individual. Due to low collagen content, the sample did not allow precise dating but it can be placed between 50 BC and 50 AD. Systematic illegal excavation and looting at funerary sites in the Nablus area has caused material for potential information to be missing at the site. Nonetheless, the dietary information obtained supports other material finds indicating Mediterranean agricultural use of the land. Our evidence demonstrates that the site dates to between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD.

Experimental work on the techniques for making stone sarcophagi demonstrate how a variety of tools, material and drilling methods were employed in ancient Egypt