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Chaldean Jar-Coffins

Chaldean Jar-Coffins.jpg Chaldean dish-cover tombsThumbnailsSection of DrainChaldean dish-cover tombsThumbnailsSection of DrainChaldean dish-cover tombsThumbnailsSection of DrainChaldean dish-cover tombsThumbnailsSection of DrainChaldean dish-cover tombsThumbnailsSection of Drain
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The third kind of tomb, common both at Mugheir and at Telel-Lahm, is almost as eccentric as the preceding. Two large open-mouthed jars (a and b), shaped like the largest of the water-jars at present in use at Baghdad, are taken, and the body is disposed inside them with the usual accompaniments of dishes, vases, and ornaments. The jars average from two and a half feet to three feet in depth, and have a diameter of about two feet; so that they would readily contain a full-sized corpse if it was slightly bent at the knees.

Sometimes the two jars are of equal size, and are simply united at their mouths by a layer of bitumen (dd); but more commonly one is slightly larger than the other, and the smaller mouth is inserted into the larger one for a depth of three or four inches, while a coating of bitumen is still applied externally at the juncture. In each coffin there is an air-hole at one extremity (c) to allow the escape of the gases generated during decomposition.

Author
The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 1. (of 7): Chaldaea, by George Rawlinson
Available from gutenberg.org
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793*339
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Death
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