Any box or chest, usually rectangular or anthropoid in shape, in which a corpse or mummy is enclosed for burial. Clay, stone, metal, and wood are among the materials used. Primitive wooden coffins, formed of a tree trunk split down and hollowed out, are still in use among some aboriginal peoples. The term 'sarcophagus' is used only for the stone outer container which encases one or more coffins. From cophinus, the Latin word for "basket.