https://cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts/10672

The anthropoid sarcophagi from Cádiz are the only examples found to date in Spain, and in all of Europe, only a few exist in Sicily. Most researchers believe that the Cádiz pieces are imports from the Eastern Mediterranean or southern Italy, confirming the prominent role of Cádiz in the Phoenician world. However, the presence of a local workshop has also been argued. In any case, it is clear that the people buried in this type of sarcophagus belonged to the ruling class, even though the grave goods they possessed were very limited. The body container itself was an element of prestige available to very few.

Classical tradition places the founding of Cádiz eighty years after the Trojan War. This places its founding between the 13th and 11th centuries BC (and, according to the calculations of Titus Livius and Velleius Paterculus, around 1100 BC); making it the Western city with the oldest references to its founding (with the founding of Carthage around the 9th century BC as a reference). There is no archaeological site that verifies this, since the remains found to date date from the 8th century BC. The oldest nearby sites are those found in the city of Cádiz itself, including the Doña Blanca site.

Founded by Phoenician sailors from Tyre, it was established with the name of Gádir (in Phoenician alphabet 𐤂𐤃𐤓(𐤀), on what was once a small archipelago (formed by the islands: Eritea, Antipolis and Cotinusa) and currently the group of Cádiz and San Fernando, to exploit the rich Atlantic routes of tin, copper and the Tartessian-Turdetanian market. It was known by the Greeks as τὰ Γάδειρα, Gádeira and by the Romans as Gades. Historians who have attempted to investigate the founding of Cádiz present us with the legend of Hercules defeating the three-headed giant Geryon, son of Callirrhoe and Chrysaor (the man with the golden falkata), who lived on the island of Erythea.

In 1887, on the occasion of the International Maritime Exhibition in Cádiz, the land where it would be located was cleared, at the so-called Punta de la Vaca in the Cádiz capital. The excavations revealed a necropolis with several Phoenician-Punic burials, about five meters deep. The grave goods were lost at the hands of the workers, who sold them to private individuals.

However, a male anthropoid marble sarcophagus was also discovered, buried in the rock, the cavity walled off with carved ashlars, all filled with clay. It consists of two pieces of white marble, the box and the lid, on which is carved the figure of a recumbent man wearing an Egyptian headdress, a curly, symmetrical beard, his left arm folded across his chest, and something resembling a heart in his hand.

The right arm may have held a painted laurel wreath, which has completely disappeared. The feet are bare and rest on a pedestal, with the big toe widely separated from the others, indicating the use of sandals. His eyes are open and he is dressed in a tight, sleeveless tunic. It was most likely created in the city of Sidon or in southern Italy, hundreds of kilometers from where it was found, by artists of Greek origin or highly Hellenized Phoenicians, around 450-401 BC.

Pelayo Quintero Atauri, an archaeologist from Uclés, was appointed director of the Museum of Fine Arts in Cádiz (now the Museum of Cádiz). His theory was that if a male sarcophagus had been found, there must be a female one. He dedicated a good part of his life to searching for the same one, although he died without being able to find it. The biggest surprise came when, a century later (1980), the Lady of Cádiz was found right under a palm tree in Quintero Atauri's former home.

The lady of Cádiz represents a young woman with serene beauty exceptionally carved on marble. Both the male and female sarcophagus were carried out in the Phoenician city of Sidon, inspired by the Egyptian burial forms and materially executed by Greek artists, which provide specified knowledge materials of the vital customs of the Phoenician people, both in their physical center of origin and throughout the entire Mediterranean expansion. The fact that sizes of this size were made thousands of kilometers from the place where they were found speaks for themselves of both the uses maintained by the Phoenician people and of the same importance acquired by the city of Cádiz as a nerve center of its presence in the most western point of the continent.