The relief decoration of the front side of the chest has been roughed-out with the point chisel. The marks of this stage of work are still visible on the background, which the carver never got around to carving.
Fine working with the flat chisel can be seen on the column and finial on the right. Very little of the design has been worked this carefully and the fact that areas around this are only point chiselled shows that the carver was working into the chest from the front to the back, adding details as they went.
The border at the top and bottom of the front is flattened with the flat chisel. Whether this was done before or after the rest of the decoration is unclear.
Notes
The relief on this sarcophagus is unfinished suggesting that it was rushed into use or perhaps abandoned because the customer no longer needed it.
