On the western path of the lapis sarcophagus. Uses and re-uses in the Greek island of Skópelos
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Abstract
The article identifies the provenance of four sarcophagi (reused as building material in two churches on the Greek island of Skópelos) from the Assos quarries of so-called "lapis sarcophagus", the 'flesh-eating stone' mentioned by Pliny the Elder, "Naturalis Historia", XXXVI. 131. This identification allows to reconstruct the export by sea of these artefacts, several examples of which were found in necropolis of the Central and Eastern Mediterranean. The island of Skópelos therefore becomes an important port in the ship's course that between the 2nd and 3rd century AD brought the sarcophagi from the North-West Turkey until the Northern Adriatic.
