The Phoenicians emerged as a distinct culture on the Levantine coast in the Late Bronze Age () as one of the successor cultures to the Canaanites. They were organized into independent city-states that shared a common language, culture, and religious practices. They had, however, diverse mortuary practices that included inhumation and cremation. Archaeological evidence of elite Achaemenid period burials abounds in the hinterland of Sidon. These include inhumations in underground vaults, rock-cut niches, and shaft and chamber tombs in Sarepta, Ain al-Hilweh, Ayaa, Mgharet Abloun, and the Temple of Eshmun. Elite Phoenician burials were characterized by the use of sarcophagi, and a consistent emphasis on the integrity of the tomb. Surviving mortuary inscriptions from that period invoke deities to assist with the procurement of blessings, and to conjure curses and calamities on whoever desecrated the tomb. The first record of the discovery of an ancient necropolis in Sidon was made in 1816 by English explorer and Egyptologist William John Bankes. Bankes, who was the guest of British adventurer and archaeologist Hester Stanhope, visited the vast necropolis that was accidentally discovered in 1814, in Wadi Abu Ghiyas at the foot of the towns of Bramieh and Hlaliye, northeast of Sidon. He sketched the layout of one of the sepulchral caves, made faithful watercolor copies of its frescoes, and removed two fresco panels, which he sent to England. Modern discovery The sarcophagus of Eshmunazar II was discovered on 19 January 1855 by the workmen of Alphonse Durighello, an agent hired to hunt for treasure for Antoine-Aimé Péretié, an amateur archaeologist and the chancellor of the French consulate in Beirut. Durighello's men were digging in the grounds of an ancient necropolis (dubbed by Renan Nécropole Phénicienne) in the plains southeast of the city of Sidon. The sarcophagus was found outside a hollowed-out rocky mound that was known to locals as Magharet Abloun 'The Cavern of Apollo'. It was protected by a vault, of which some stones still remained in place. One tooth, a piece of bone, and a human jaw were found in the rubble during the sarcophagus extraction. On 20 February 1855, Durighello informed Péretié of the find. Durighello had taken advantage of the absence of laws governing archaeological excavation and the disposition of the finds under the Ottoman rule over Lebanon, and had been involved in the lucrative business of trafficking archaeological artifacts. Under the Ottomans, it sufficed to either own