The Starving of Saqqara in Montreal. The name Saqqara refers to the burial ground of Memphis, Egypt. How the name came to be attached to the artifact is not known. The statue has been at Concordia University since 1999. Experts from the University of Cambridge, the British Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Israel Museum and the Royal Ontario Museum have all been consulted, without success. The script has been determined to not be Aramaic, Demotic, Egyptian, Hebrew, or Syriac. One expert, Clarence Epstein, suggests that it represents a pair of conquered captives. The sculpture was displayed to the public from March 16 to 18,
Burial society ceremonies. Burial society is a precursor to general insurance which is a recent innovation. Burial societies were first known to exist in ancient Rome and not before. In ancient Rome, various associations of a fraternal nature, as well as religious groups, political clubs, and trade guilds, functioned as burial societies. Terms for these include "hetaeria", "collegium", and "sodalitas". The by-laws of one burial society are preserved by an inscription dating to A.D. 136. Discovered at Lanuvium, the "lex collegia salutaris Dianae et Antinoi" ("By-laws of the Society of Diana and Antinous") details the cost of joining the society, monthly fees,