Coffins/Sarcophagi (Egyptology)

This book is produced at the occasion of an exhibition with a table set with items that allow us to glimpse emotions from Antiquity and ancient Egypt. Some emotions can be understood across time and space, others are culturally defined. An image of  a god or ruler conveys respect or reverence to those who have power. Funerary art reveals hope of an eternal life. A gift can be given out of love, and a drinking cup can bear witness to the joys of gathering around a table. Emotions can be manipulated and controlled. They have overturned regimes and started wars. But it is in the small and everyday things that we come to meet the individual.

The book includes a catalogue with 45 entries with curatorial descriptions of the objects on display. Among these are 25 objects from the Egyptian collection, meny of which are previously unpublished.

This is the publication of the sarcophagus of the mayor of Thebes, Hunefer, in office under Ramses II. To date, the granite sarcophagus in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge has received little research attention despite being a large scale monument. The book provides a presentation of the sarcophagus and its place in space and time.

This volume gathers the contributions of scholars convened in Lisbon on the 19-20th September, at the premises of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. . This meeting was held under the auspices of the Centre of Classical and Humanistic Studies from the University of Coimbra, and the Centre of History from the University of Lisbon, on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the discovery of the Tomb of the Priests of Amun, three years after the Gate of the Priests Project was set up with the support of a number of partners, including the University of Leiden, the University of California - Los Angeles, the Royal museums of Art and History in Brussels, the Vatican Museums, the Museo Egizio in Turin, the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden, and the Louvre Museum in Paris.
This volume thus represents the awakening of the international scientific community for the significance and importance of the Tomb of the Priests as a major archaeological find, one that can open new perspectives in the study of the Third Intermediate Period in Thebes.

Mastaba AS 104 is located above the Wadi Abusiri, to the south-east of the tomb of Kaaper (AS 1). It was preserved almost to the height of the former roofing, hence almost completely. The whole structure was built on a platform with a trapezoid section and, looking from the south, it must have appeared as a two-stepped structure. The core of the upper step was built of rather small undressed blocks of local limestone and contained a rectangular room (Serdab 2) and three deep shafts. It was covered with a layer of large and heavy mud bricks. The superstructure contained the main focal point of the funerary cult (cruciform chapel and Serdab 1). Contrary to other similar structures of roughly the same date, niching decorated only the eastern wall. The tomb was built for a custodian of the king’s property, Nyankhseshat, whose other titles reflect his position in the organization of work, the overseeing of gold procurement and a religious connection to metallurgy. This tomb represents, at least in the Abusir area, currently the last known tomb of transitional type.
Apparently, in the Fourth or Fifth Dynasty, the main chapel fell into disuse and the mastaba was used by new owners (scribe of the treasury and royal wab-priest Sekhemka and his spouse, king’s acquaintance Henutsen), which is demonstrated by a limestone stela inserted into the eastern outer wall. Altogether five limestone basins were uncovered, four of them in situ. A number of interesting finds were collected in the shafts (wooden coffin fragments, copper and travertine models, a clay sealing, human bones, animal bones).
This article presents an architectural and  archaeological description of tomb AS 104 and offers some preliminary analyses of the finds, supplemented also by concise information on human and animal bones found. Last but not least, it describes documentation and methods used in the field.

The personage of Ptahshepses, who held the vizieral office in the mid-Fifth Dynasty, is well-known to Egyptologists. Through marriage to Princess Khamerernebty, Ptahshepses became the king’s son-in-law and pledged his loyalty to the ruler, Nyuserre. Like a handful of his contemporaries, Ptahshepses reached the peak of what was possible in contemporary society.  His mastaba, however, has no parallel when compared to others.  Ptahshepses’ extraordinary position was reflected in his tomb’s location, vastness (2,375.60 sq. m), architectural concept, decoration, impressiveness and equipment. In accordance with the spatial tomb distribution of Old Kingdom officials, which mirrored the social and administrative system of society at that time, Ptahshepses’ exceptional position was also expressed in the rare materials used for the burial items. So far, it is known that the king provided him with a sarcophagus made of red granite, a material only some royal family members and selected high-ranking dignitaries could afford in the Fifth Dynasty. Other objects from his burial equipment have not been presented and published yet.

Since 2006 the German Archaeological Institute Cairo (DAI) has been investigating K93.12, the tomb of the High Priest of Amun, Amenhotep. The rock tomb constitutes the southern part of the large double tomb complex K93.11/K93.12 which was originally cut in the 18th dynasty and reused in the 20th dynasty by the High Priest of Amun Ramsesnakht and his son and successor Amenhotep. After the New Kingdom K93.12 was repeatedly reused as a burial ground until the 25th dynasty. In the course of seven excavation seasons the remains of these burials have been discovered in great quantities, above all fragments of wooden coffins and of cartonnage mummy cases. A selection of this material is presented and discussed in detail.

The short introduction gives an outline of the complex archaeological situation observed at the site. The coffin material forming the central topic of this paper is thus presented in its archaeological context in terms of location and condition as well as the associated burial inventory. The findings do not only reflect the tomb’s history of use and reuse, but also allow to conclude on the motivation for chosing the site as a burial ground after the New Kingdom. The paper concentrates on two main groups of material: the remains of the coffin(-set) of the High Priest Amenhotep (temp. Ramses XI) which were discovered in the main burial chamber of K93.12. It forms one rare example of a 20th dynasty coffin displaying, moreover, the peculiarity of a granite imitating decoration which, so far, is unique for the late New Kingdom. Another focus is put on two groups of objects: Firstly, an ensemble of five cartonnages (including the one of a child) of the early 22nd dynasty. They were assembled from ca. 300 fragments found among the plundered burial inventories of the main shaft. Secondly, a group of wooden coffins dating to the end of the 21st/early 22nd dynasties (types III and V of Niwinski’s typology). Up to now the ongoing excavation has brought to light 19 lids scattered in the inner forecourt of K93.12 where they had been dumped in the course of an antique plundering. Their extremely fragile condition poses a special challenge since both the conservation treatment and also the epigraphic documentation has to be effected on the spot.

The examination of the coffins and mummy cases from K93.12 is an ongoing research and conservation project. Besides the in-depth study of technological and iconographical aspects of the objects proper also their archaeological significance is of major importance as they are components of the “use-life” of a key monument at Dra’ Abu el-Naga.

This volume proposes a theoretical and methodological framework for the study of “yellow” coffins, which is one of the most extensive corpus of funerary objects from Ancient Egypt, and the most complex in terms of decoration. It presents a synthetic view on Egyptian coffin decoration during the II millennium B.C. together with in-depth examination of a sample of nine previously unpublished burial assemblages. Dating from the 21st-22nd Dynasties, these objects were chosen to showcase the stages of development in coffin decoration detected in the “yellow” corpus, as well as variations in style and layout. A new formal typology of this corpus is proposed, allowing a better understanding of the dynamics of coffin decoration in Theban workshops.

The anthropoid wooden coffin with plinth (L. 183.5 cm), datable to the mid-4th century B.C. (30th Dynasty), names Nefer-renepet, a dancer of Min from Akhmim. This object represents one of the artistically and technically superior coffins produced by Late Period Egyptian coffin workshops. It was formerly part of the Amherst collection, and was purchased by Ernest Brummer at a Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge auction in London in 1921, then donated the same year to the National Museum in Belgrade. The interior of the lid is distinguished by a remarkable ‘gliding Nut motif with upward streaming hair’ (an extremely important iconographic element) while the interior of the trough is dominated by a line drawing of Imentet wearing a diagonally-veined maat-feather on her head.  The interior decoration includes inscriptions written on the side facets. Written hastily in whitish-yellow line on a rough ground of thick black pigment (in contrast to the fine outer decoration of the coffin) these barely legible Stundenwachen texts, are nonetheless significant, and are to be identified as abbreviated texts derived from the Book of Day and Book of Night. They are a manifestation of Late Period magical symbolism stemming from New Kingdom funerary compositions. Their presence on the coffin, however hurried, was intended to ease Nefer-renepet’s passage through the netherworld. Since 1992 the coffin of Nefer-renepet is kept in the Archaeological Collection of the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade.