Sarcophagus
plural SARCOPH- AGI, a kind of stone used among the Greeks for making coffins, and so called because it was believed to have the prop. erty of consuming the flesh of dead bodies deposited in it within a few weeks.
It was also called "Assos stone," from SARD being found at Assos, a city of Lycia, in Asia Minor.
Hence a coffin or tomb of stone; a kind of stone chest used for containing a dead body.