To My Family and Uğraş Uzun - Bilkent University

Wiegartz 1965: 15). It has also been suggested in other sources that the tomb
portal is normally on the left short side, at the feet of the reclining couple (Koch
and Sichtermann, 1982: 503). These suggestions certainly do not fit the Antakya
Sarcophagus, whose portal is on the right side, at the head of the reclining people.
The same arrangement is the case for Antalya N (Sarcophagus of Domitias
Filiskas) (Fig. 96). It is possible that the Antakya Sarcophagus and Antalya N are
exhibited in the museums with their lids placed on the wrong direction. For the
Antakya Sarcophagus, as mentioned before, the museum officers cannot give any
information whether the lid was actually found as placed in the direction it now
is. However, the unfinished nature of the side with the hunting scene indicates
that this side was to the rear, and testifies to the correctness of the lid’s current
position. Consequently, the Antakya Sarcophagus suggests there are exceptions
to the rule that the tomb portal is always on the left side, and at the feet of the
reclining couple.
The tomb portal, within the architectural frame, is always closed and the
long rectangular panels are usually undecorated, and sometimes the surface was
left entirely smooth (Lawrence, 1958: 273). On the Antakya Sarcophagus, the
tomb-portal is divided into two long rectangular panels, otherwise left
unmoulded.
The Romans had a widespread belief in the afterlife, and the tomb was
perceived as the house of the dead (domus aeternae) (Wiegartz, 1965: 24;
Ferguson, 1982: 134). The Docimeum columnar sarcophagi in particular, with the
columns forming an architectural frame for the tomb, may have been thought of
as a house or a temple for the dead (Cormack, 1997: 147). Accordingly, the door
motif represented the door of the tomb itself, as well as the “door of death” or the
68