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Mysteries of vernacular: Sarcophagus - Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel

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Mysteries of Vernacular

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Dating back to the early Roman Empire, the word sarcophagus originally referred to the limestone a coffin was made of, rather than the coffin itself. From flesh-eating stone to a stone coffin, Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel unbury the sarcophagus.

The ancient Egyptians had very strong ideas about the way one’s body traveled into the afterlife. How do you think they would have felt about flesh-eating coffins?

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