How far back in history has important people been buried in stone sarcophaguses?

Question

How far back in history has important people been buried in stone sarcophaguses?

Answer 1

Sarcophagus is name given by the Greeks to a special marble found in Asia Minor, near the territory of ancient Troy, and used in caskets. The oldest known examples from Egypt, around 14th century BC.  That would make the oldest sarcophagi we know about more than 3,500 years old. We know from histories kept by the ancient Greeks that they were in use in Greece in the 6th century BC. Records reveal that the majority of sarcophagi were made of wood, but those that remain are of stone and terra-cotta, as evidenced in the early 6th-century examples  from Clazomenae. Many Greek and Etruscan sarcophagi are in the shape of a couch; others, such as the sarcophagus of Alexander the Great, are carved and painted in imitation of temple architecture. The marble sarcophagi  from Sidon, a chief city of ancient Phoenicia, are among the finest examples of Greek art. In Rome sarcophagi became popular before the Punic Wars.

Answer 2

Probably 3000 BC, egypt.