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At Beth Shean, fragments of fifty clay sarcophagi were found in reused Early Bronze Age tombs. These sarcophagi date from the last phase of the Egyptian empire in Canaan (ca. 1250&emdash;1150 BCE). The lids of these sarcophagi depict faces and upper torsos, in either a "naturalistic" or "grotesque" style.

Evidence from other sites suggests that these were for the burial of adult males, occasionally accompanied by a female and/or children. Whether the face is meant to be a likeness of the deceased is not clear. These sarcophagi promote a degree of individuality in death, however, that contrasts with the typical communal type of burial.

Similar sarcophagi are known from some lower ranking burials in Egypt, where the practice of burials in sarcophagi originated. Examples are also found at several other sites in the lowlands of Canaan, dating to the very end of the Egyptian empire.

The occupants of these sarcophagi alternatively have been identified as native Egyptian soldiers, Sea Peoples (like the Philistines), or Canaanites in the service of Egypt. Such distinctions may not have been easy to make in the cosmopolitan world of Imperial Egypt.




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