St Andrews Sarcophagus

The sarcophagus was recovered beginning in 1833 during excavations by St Andrew's Cathedral in Scotland, and in 1922 the surviving components were reunited.

The roof slab is entirely missing, as are most of one side and one end panel and a corner piece so that the extant sarcophagus is essentially L-shaped.

The surviving side panel shows, from right to left, a figure breaking the jaws of a lion, a mounted hunter with his sword raised to strike a leaping lion, and a hunter on foot, armed with a spear and assisted by a hunting dog, about to attack a wolf.

The cathedral had been in use from when it was constructed during the 1100s until it was stripped of all its altars and images, left in ruins and abandoned after 1559 during the Scottish Reformation.

Although it is generally presumed that it was commissioned by the Pictish King Óengus, or Onuist, a Christian who died in 761, whether it was actually used for his corpse,[6] for his predecessor, Nechtan mac Der Ilei,[7] or for a later personage[8] is unclear.