Çan Sarcophagus, 1st quarter of 4th century BC.

The Çan sarcophagus was discovered 1998 in a tumulus tomb in Çan (Turkey, near the site of Troy). As is noted in the original publication of the sarcophagus, it probably dates like many of the very similar Lycian tombs to the first quarter of the 4th century BC and its occupant was probably a member of the Achaemenid ruling classes (N. Sevinç, R. Körpe, M. Tombul, C. B. Rose, D. Strahan, H. Kiesewetter, J. Wallrodt, ‘A New Painted Graeco-Persian Sarcophagus from Çan’ Studia Troica 11 (2001) 383-420.).

Paint is still visible on the low reliefs that decorate two sides of the sarcophagus. The "long" side depicts a boar hunt with a Persian on horseback as well as an apparently erased stag hunt. The "short" side is decorated with - for certain - a Persian horseman; on the left is a figure described as a "mercenary" and on the right a "Greek", according to the original publication. Ma argues that both are Mysians, their clothing used to convey their opposing loyalties, raising interesting questions about local attitudes to the Achaemenids and Achaemenid attitudes to locals (J. Ma, 'Mysians on the Çan Sarcophagus? Ethnicity and Domination in Achaimenid Military Art' Historia 57.3 (2008) 243-254).

For the hunt scene, one might also consider Macedonian funerary art, particularly for the simple background and the tree motif. Compare the painted decoration on the frieze of Tomb 2 at Vergina, which also depicts a boar hunt and on which Andronikos noted the ‘wholly strange shape of the bare trees and the same dark colours [as on the Alexander mosaic at Pompeii]’ (M. Andronikos, Vergina : The royal tombs and the ancient city (1984) 114).