An Old Sarcophagus.

The American Exploration Society has recently presented to the Peabody Museum one of the sixteen sarcophagi found in the necropolis of the ancient city of Musarna in the territory of Viterbo, Western Italy. The district, lying mainly on the banks of the river Leia, is now a part of the estate of Signor Alarico Pratti. The sarcophagus weighs 3300 pounds and is still in the basement of the Museum. It was found in a tomb that had already been ransacked by spoliators and which contained two chambers. Access was gained to the first chamber by the usual gallery and to the second by an opening cut in the wall of the first chamber. Around the walls of the first were eight sarcophagi: four with reclining effigies of the dead and four with pyramidal covers. Of these only two were available. One representing a man is in Philadelphia and the other of a woman wearing a peplum is the one given to Harvard. It bears an inscription on its face. The second chamber was rectangular in shape and was probably used to lower the sarcophagus. In this chamber were nine sarcophagi of stone and one of terracotta. This last is in the Free Museum of Science and Art of the University of Pennsylvania. The sarcophagi are of the third or second century B. C.