Placing Them “in Eternity”: Symbolic Mummification in Levantine Phoenicia

Abstract

This study examines and synthesizes a diverse corpus of evidence relevant to the possible practice of mummification or embalming among some Levantine Phoenicians in the Achaemenid Persian period (ca. 500 – 300 BCE). Nineteenth- and twentieth-century descriptions of partially preserved corpses are discussed alongside mortuary inscriptions, anthropoid sarcophagi, and grave goods. The variety of preservative evidence described by excavators, the empha- sis on the arrangement and permanence of the burial in inscriptions, the depiction of oil bottles on three sarcophagi, and the frequent inclusion of oil bottles in burials as grave goods combine to suggest a wider range of preservative actions than has previously been suggested. This evidence indicates that some elite Persian period Phoenicians may have been utilizing oils and resins in various ways to enact a kind of symbolic mummification-ritual acts that reflected the importance of the integrity of the burial but did not necessarily result in a well-preserved corpse. The possibility that oils and resins were similarly used in the interment rituals for adult cremations is also examined. This study supports recent scholarship on Phoenician mortuary practice that contends that both cremations and inhumations (partially embalmed or otherwise) are compatible expressions of a shared continuum of ideas held by Levantine Phoenicians.