The Hagia Triada Sarcophagus is a late Minoan -long limestone sarcophagus, dated to about 1400 BC or some decades later, excavated from a chamber tomb at Hagia Triada, Crete in 1903 and now on display at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum (AMH) in Crete, Greece.
Uniquely for such a piece from this date on Crete, it is coated in plaster and painted in fresco on all faces. Unlike the ancient Egyptians, the Minoans only used frescoes to decorate palaces and houses for the enjoyment of the living, not for funerary use. It is the only limestone sarcophagus of its era discovered to date; there are a number of smaller terracotta "ash-chests" (larnax), painted far more crudely, usually in a single colour. It is the only object with a series of narrative scenes of Minoan funerary ritual (later sarcophagi found in the Aegean were decorated with abstract designs and patterns). It was probably originally used for the burial of a prince.
It provides probably the most comprehensive iconography of a pre-Homeric thysiastikis ceremony and one of the best pieces of information on noble burial customs when Crete was under Mycenaean rule, combining features of Minoan and Mycenaean style and subject matter, as well as probable influence from Ancient Egyptian religion.
Description
All four faces of the sarcophagus are fully painted in several colours, using the fresco technique otherwise only found in Minoan paintings on walls, and sometimes floors and ceilings. Each of the long sides has a long section with a narrative figure scene of religious ritual. One of the short end sides has a roughly square section with a scene of a chariot with two figures, presumably goddesses as they are pulled by a griffin (possibly two), above which hovers a large bird. The other end has two scenes, the upper almost entirely missing, but probably with a procession of male figures. The lower scene again has two figures in a chariot pulled by two horses.
These scenes are surrounded by ornamental borders covering the remaining areas. These are comparable to the decorative borders around Minoan wall-paintings, although larger in relation to the figures. The ornament includes scrolls, stripes, and rows of rosettes. Immediately above and below the narrative scenes on the long sides are thin blank (white) strips, into which some elements of the scenes intrude at the top. On the sides the strips are a mixture of colours.
Unlike larnakes, the sarcophagus has no lid, and none was apparently intended. It also has drainage holes.
Narrative scenes
The long painted scenes show the stages of the sacred ceremony which was performed at the burial of important personages. In the centre of one of the long sides of the sarcophagus (here called the "rear" side, purely for convenience) is a scene with a sacrifice of a bull, who is lying tethered on a table-like altar. Under the altar are at least two smaller animals, variously described as calves, deer or goats, possibly terracotta models like those being carried on the other side, or real ones waiting to be sacrificed. Behind this is a male figure playing the aulos double flute. He is painted red in the usual Minoan convention, unlike the white females.
At the left of the scene are five female figures in profile, facing the altar. Only the front one is complete, as a chunk of the plaster is missing, and the others are missing their upper bodies. The front figure has a large crown with long plumes, probably of feathers. She holds her hands in front of her, with open palms. This section has a yellow background, which changes to white at the altar. Blood pouring from the altar table is falling into a bucket or rhyton at the right of this section.
In the final section the background colour changes again to a blue that is now rather muddy. A female figure with a skirt or apron of shaggy animal hide faces away from the bull towards the right. She holds out both arms over a bowl on a pedestal or altar. Shown as in the air beside her are a decorated vase and a bowl with fruit-like round objects. In front of this is a pole with a labrys double axe at the top and a black bird sitting on this. This has a chequered base; or perhaps this is a step up to the final element, either an altar or a building (in which case probably the tomb). This is topped by four Horns of Consecration symbols, and also a tree. Both the structures in this part of the scene have decoration including spiral scrolls and stripes that is comparable to that on the borders on the sarcophagus.