Sarcophagus

Sarcophagus ("flesh-devourer"), was the name given to a ooffin made of a kind of limestone found at Assos in Asia Minor, and which had the reputation of burning up a body put within it in the space of 40 days, its action apparently being like that of quicklime. The name was afterwards applied to any stone coffin, and such coffins have been used by Egypt, Phcenicia, Etruria, Greece, Rome, and Christendom. Specimens exist in the British and other Museums.