Unlike the ancient Egyptians, the Minoans only used frescoes to decorate palaces and houses for the enjoyment of the living, not for funerary use.

[1] It is the only limestone sarcophagus of its era discovered to date; there are a number of smaller terracotta "ash-chests" (larnax), painted far more crudely, usually in a single colour.

It is the only object with a series of narrative scenes of Minoan funerary ritual (later sarcophagi found in the Aegean were decorated with abstract designs and patterns).

[3] The walls of the structure, which were preserved at a height ranging from 65 cm (25 in) to 1.20 m (3.2 ft), stop at ground level and thus have no proper foundation.

[3] This structure, with its thick walls made of small irregular stones, is the only example of this type in the entire Minoan and Mycenaean world.

One of the short end sides has a roughly square section with a scene of a chariot with two figures, presumably goddesses as they are pulled by a griffin (possibly two), above which hovers a large bird.

Under the altar are at least two smaller animals, variously described as calves, deer or goats, possibly terracotta models like those being carried on the other side, or real ones waiting to be sacrificed.

Firstly a woman wearing a hide skirt apron is emptying a decorated vase or bucket into a large metal cauldron; this might be blood from the sacrifice on the other side, possibly as an invocation to the soul of the deceased.

In the central section, with a blue background, three men wearing hide aprons or kilts face right and carry models of animals (probably bulls) and a boat.

He is a static left-facing male figure without arms and feet, who wears a full-length hide cloak-like garment, with gold edging; it is presumed that he represents the dead man receiving gifts (and the boat for his journey to the next world).

[14] Recent 20th century excavations on the same site have allowed the sarcophagus's dating to be tightened up to 1370-1320 BC, which coincides with the end of the 18th Dynasty in Egypt, a period of extensive contact between Crete and Egypt, thus allowing the sarcophagus's technical and artistic elements to be related to similar decorative techniques in Egyptian temples and tombs.

[16] Nanno Marinatos, whose view of Minoan religion emphasizes a theocracy ruled by a royal couple of a priest-king and queen, combining political and religious roles (the queen perhaps more central to the latter) suggests the hide skirt reflects close involvement with ritual sacrifices and offerings, and that the same royal figures are shown more than once on the sarcophagus, especially the queen, who is shown both in procession wearing a long robe and plumed crown, and then changed into a hide skirt to conduct ceremonies.

[17] In her view, in Minoan art "the plumed crown" is only worn by deities, griffins and the queen, who is, by definition, also the chief priestess.

In Classical Greece the offering of fruits of the earth was made to a chthonic deity just as on the Hagia Triada Sarcophagus.

Most often, but not always, the horns of consecration are found in high places in Minoan religious art indicating they related to the ouranioi.

[21] There are seven participants in the sacrifice scene with hands down palms down possibly indicating a forceful prayer or invocation of the chthonic deity behind the low altar in epiphany.

The two birds in gold color on baetyls sit on double axes and are the highest objects in the scene indicating they are deities in epiphany.

The blood in the sacrifice scene is transformed into water because it quenches lips of the "thirsty dead" as mentioned in the Pylos Linear B tablets.