Rare Roman Sarcophagus Unearthed in Caesarea

The broken sarcophagus was handed over to the experts of the IAA's conservation team. There, conservators Solomon Gavriel, Ilya Armanovsky and Gadmo Vajpo, together with architect Ido Rosental, worked on restoring, cleaning and assembling the parts. Thanks to the restoration, the scenes have been fully revealed: In the center we see Dionysus, the god of wine, and around him a lively retinue of a host of mythological characters such as Maenads (female followers of Dionysus), satyrs, Hermes, Pan, lions and tigers. 

“This is the very first time we find the Dionysus and Hercules wine competition scene on a burial coffin in our region,” says Nohar Shahar. “While processions of the wine god Dionysus are a familiar motif in sarcophagi from AD 200–300, yet this particular drinking contest scene—a familiar Roman art motif, is known to us here primarily in mosaics—such as those discovered in Zippori and Antioch. In this case, it seems that the figures are not only celebrating—they are in fact accompanying the dead on his last journey, when drinking and dancing are transformed into a symbol of liberation and transition to life in the next world. This sarcophagus offers an unusual perspective of the idea of death—not as an end, but as the beginning of a new path.” 

And who won the drinking contest? “Hercules' condition, depicted on the sarcophagus as someone who is no longer able to stand, points to the obvious answer: Dionysus,” says Shahar. 

“The sarcophagus was found within an area where archaeological remains were found outside the well-known walls of Caesarea,” adds the researcher. “This means that the space leading into it was actually much wider and thus richer in finds than we thought until now.”