Di(v)e in!

Chest larnakes are about 1 meter in length on average. This means most people would not fit inside lying flat on their back. Indeed, the dead were not placed in this position, but instead, they lay on their back with their knees pulled up, resembling a fetal position. This was a common position for the deceased across cultures.

Next to the body, you might also find funerary gifts. The contents of the larnax tell us something about the social position of the deceased. After placing the corpse in the larnax, the coffin was then filled with earth or stones, or even with (personal) objects, such as bronze or gold ornaments. Some larnakes were beautifully decorated, others were kept very simple without any decorations at all. Graves with clay larnakes usually contain few gifts as opposed to graves of a different type, which might have been reserved for the wealthy.

The outside of a chest larnax was usually painted, while the inside was not. Another kind of larnax, the tub larnax (shaped like a bathtub with one hole in the bottom that functioned as a drain) was painted on both the exterior and interior. Tub larnakes did not have a lid, so it is logical that the interior would be decorated as well. Our chest larnax is closed, so there is less need to paint the inside.If you want to know more about different types of coffins in Minoan Crete, you can read Preston 2004. For more information on the decoration of larnakes, see Vance Watrous 1991.