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Ancient Egyptian Culture, Mummies, Statues, Burial Practices and Artefacts

Ancient Egypt from the start of the 21st Dynasty with Smendes (Nesbanebdjed I) in 1077 BC to the end of the 22nd Dynasty.

Egyptian Chronology

Map of the main gods of the settlement centres of Egypt.

As always, click on this image to see the full size version.

Rephotography: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Poster, Louvre Museum, https://collections.louvre.fr/

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Mummiform funerary servant of Psusennes I

Reign of Psusennes I: 1 047 BC - 1 001 BC

Psusennes I was the third pharaoh of the 21st Dynasty who ruled from Tanis.

Height 80 mm, width 24 mm, thickness 18 mm.

The funerary servant wears a shroud, a tripartite wig, with arms crossed, holding a hoe and bag.

Catalog: Bronze, royal necropolis (Eastern Delta - Tanis = San el-Hagar), tomb of Psusennes I, Nrt III?, E 25435
Location: Aile Sully, Salle 323, Level -1, Vitrine 3
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source and text: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/

Theban High Priests of Amun

While not regarded as a dynasty, the High Priests of Amun at Thebes were nevertheless of such power and influence that they were effectively the rulers of Upper Egypt from 1 080 BC to circa 943 BC, after which their influence declined.

By the time Herihor was proclaimed as the first ruling High Priest of Amun in 1080 BC - in the 19th Year of Ramesses XI - the Amun priesthood exercised an effective stranglehold on Egypt's economy. The Amun priests owned two-thirds of all the temple lands in Egypt and 90 percent of her ships plus many other resources. Consequently, the Amun priests were as powerful as the Pharaoh, if not more so.

One of the sons of the High Priest Pinedjem I would eventually assume the throne and rule Egypt for almost half a decade as pharaoh Psusennes I, while the Theban High Priest Psusennes III would take the throne as king Psusennes II, the final ruler of the 21st Dynasty.

Photo and text: Wikipedia

Third Intermediate Period: 1 077 - 664  BC

Bes

82 and 83: Amulets of a Bes figure, 1 077 - 664  BC

Catalog: Faience, Inv. Nr. 1952.145, 1951.53

84: Amulet of a Bes figure.

Probably Late Period to Ptolemaic-Roman

Catalog: Faience, Inv. Nr. 1952.143

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source and text: Original, Museum August Kestner, Hannover

Third Intermediate Period: 1 077 - 664  BC

Amulets

Amulets for protection, and aversion of harm.

1. Wedjat eye.

According to myth, the wedjat eye of the falcon-headed god Horus was injured and subsequently restored. The eye, with characteristic marking based on those of a falcon's head, was regarded as a powerful amulet, maintaining the wearer 'uninjured' or 'sound' and conferring protection.

Catalog: EA7832, EA7357, EA23083, EA12752, EA7368, EA7374, EA13430, EA2761, EA13743, EA14846, EA15624, EA13476, EA18556, EA35786, 13533, EA14867, EA7173, EA29040, EA8063, EA7243, EA22543, EA73805, EA7183, EA8074, EA8076
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Third Intermediate Period: 1 077 - 664  BC

Amulets

Amulets for protection, and aversion of harm.

2. Isis knot

The Tit represents a loop of cloth, and conferred the protection of the goddess Isis on the wearer. Chapter 156 of the Book of the Dead prescribed that the Tit should be made of red jasper, and that it should be placed on the neck of the mummy.

This sign, called Tit by the Egyptians, was interpreted from the New Kingdom on as a symbol of Isis in particular, but also Nephthys. The Isis knot is similar in shape and use to the ankh sign, the symbol of life, and is also often found in association with the djed-pillar and the was-sceptre.

Its interpretation is uncertain; it has been linked to menstruation and seen as a depiction of the vagina and uterus. Its original purpose was perhaps as a means of protection, knotted by Re-Atum and placed in the pregnant Isis's womb to prevent Seth harming the unborn child or causing a miscarriage.

Chapter 156 of the Book of the Dead confirms that the fertility of Isis, linked with blood, is intact. Thus the Isis knot is sometimes called Isis blood, and pregnant women used the magic spells linked with it to prevent undesired bleeding and miscarriages. During excavations, the Isis knot has been found tucked between the legs of pregnant women.

According to Hans Bonnet, German archaeologist, it is by no means certain that there is any link between the blood of Isis and the Tit-knot. He points out that the expectations linked to the Tit as an amulet were very general, and that Tit-amulets have also been found with shabti spells written on them. The red colour that the Tit usually has, however, does suggest a connection with the blood of Isis. A different interpretation is proposed by Lurker, who suggests that the djed-pillar and Isis blood together indicate a unification of polarity and thus the victoriousness of the life force.

Catalog: EA7502, EA54456, EA2078, EA20619, EA20621
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Additional text: www.globalegyptianmuseum.org

Third Intermediate Period: 1 077 - 664  BC

Amulets

Amulets for protection, and aversion of harm.

3. Osiris, EA60733

4. Anubis, EA6246

5. Isis, Nephthys and the child Horus, EA11638

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Third Intermediate Period: 1 077 - 664  BC

Amulets

Amulets to confer powers.

6. Uraeus, EA12059

7. Cartouche, EA8168, EA13469

8. Forepart of lion, EA63572

9. Shen. This amulet signified the protection of all that it encircled, EA12059

10. Crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt, EA7404, EA23125

11. Was-sceptres, this sceptre, an attribute of the gods, signified dominion, EA27595, EA2202

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Third Intermediate Period: 1 077 - 664  BC

Amulets

Amulets to confer powers.

12. Plumes, EA20617, EA8143

13. Harpoon, EA71033

14. Papyrus sceptres, EA13694, EA24021, EA24820, EA18504, EA24002

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Third Intermediate Period: 1 077 - 664  BC

Amulets

Amulets to confer powers.

15. Djed Pillar

This amulet was associated with the concepts of endurance and stability.

Catalog: EA2121, EA54206, EA2094, EA8260, EA48667, EA2098, EA64587
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Third Intermediate Period: 1 077 - 664  BC

Amulets

Amulets to confer powers.

16. Carpenter's square levels (middle left, centre, and upper centre)


Square Level

The Square Level was the main levelling instrument used not only in Ancient Egypt but also in later Roman and Medieval building although water-filled trenches may have been used to level larger distances. Smaller versions of Water Levels were developed much later. They were known to the Romans but used by them for only special purposes.

( Note that the square level can also be used as a try square by removing the string and plumb bob - Don )

These amulets perhaps guaranteed eternal rectitude and equilibrium.

Catalog: EA37365, EA8338, EA37363

17. Staircase. This represented the primordial mount, from which all life was created.

Catalog: EA54214, EA7693
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Square level image and text: wiki.dtonline.org/index.php/Ancient_Egyptian_Survey_Tools
Permission: Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike

Third Intermediate Period: 1 077 - 664  BC

Amulets

Amulets to confer powers.

18. Pesesh-kef

This amulet was used in the ritual of the 'Opening of the Mouth' to reanimate the dead body.

Catalog: EA8162, EA30848

19. Two Fingers

The fingers are usually located close to the flank incision, which the amulet was designed to protect.

Catalog: EA13468, EA48668, EA8365

20. Snake's Head

Amulets in the shape of a snake head were to be placed on the neck to gave protection against snakebites.

Catalog: EA13482

21. Sma

Sma or Sema, a symbol for indicating a union. It depicts the lower and upper kingdoms of Egypt and their unity. It is often described as a pair of lungs attached to a windpipe, genitalia, and sometimes both simultaneously. The Sema was often placed on a mummy’s chest in order to give it life in the underworld.

As an amulet, the Sema hieroglyph ensured a unified corpse, integral to one’s survival in the afterlife. The customary choice of dark stone for this amulet refers to the darkness of the night sky and the fertile silt of the Nile’s inundation (or annual flooding)—the sources of the daily rebirth of the sun and the yearly regeneration of nature. Small-scale Egyptian figurines, known as amulets, were thought to promote health and good luck.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Additional text: egypt-museum.com/sema-symbol-amulet/

Third Intermediate Period: 1 077 - 664  BC

Amulets

Amulets to confer powers.

22. Solar and Lunar Discs

These were powerful symbols for the eternity as the deceased would dwell in the starry night sky blessed by the rays of the moon (sun at night). The two combined equal the mysteries that urge us to seek spiritual wisdom and create balance.

Catalog: EA22886, EA8298, EA8300


Top right: Blue glazed composition pendant in the form of Ra seated within the solar-barque; suspension loop at the top.

Height: 27 mm, width 40 mm.

Catalog: EA66623


Lower right: Ka

The Ka was represented as a pair of open arms, held upwards. These arms symbolised the transmittance of the Ka force from father to son, god to man, king to man.

Catalog: EA28403

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Additional text: egypt-museum.com/sema-symbol-amulet/

Third Intermediate Period: 1 077 - 664  BC

Amulets

Amulets to confer the protection of deities.

23. Nephthys mourning, EA11468.

24. Isis, EA60824.

25. Isis suckling Horus, EA67384.

26. Nephthys, EA11291.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Amulets to confer the protection of deities.

27. Neith, laterally pierced at the back for suspension, glazed, height 34 mm, width 8 mm, depth 13 mm, EA11992.

28. Late Period, 664 BC - 332 BC, Selkis, height 38 mm, width 7 mm, depth 12 mm, lapis lazuli, EA60376.

29. Lapis lazuli amulet in the form of Maat with a pierced suspension ring at the back. Height 44 mm, width 14 mm, depth 17 mm, EA60384.

30. 26th Dynasty, 664 BC - 525 BC, blue glazed composition amuletic figure of Anubis, pierced through the back-pillar for suspension, EA61035.

31. Late Period, 664 BC - 332 BC, Blue glazed composition amulet in the form of a figure of Haroeris/Horus, striding and hawk-headed, wearing double crown and shendyt kilt, with arms at sides, dorsal pillar pierced behind the chest for suspension, rectangular base, height 40 mm, width 10 mm. EA29983.

32. Late Period, 664 BC - 332 BC, blue glazed composition amuletic figure of Thoth, back pillar pierced for suspension, height 36 mm, width 9 mm, EA60507.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

26th Dynasty, 664 BC - 525 BC

Amulets to confer the protection of deities.

33. Thoth and Maat, green glazed composition amuletic figure of Thoth, an ibis god, with a figure of Maat in front. Rectangular base, with a suspension loop behind the head of the ibis.

Height 26 mm, length 37 mm.

Catalog: EA66675


34. Blue glazed composition amulet in the form of a figure of Khnum, striding with arms by sides, back pillar pierced at elbow level, flat base, finely detailed. Height 36 mm, width 9 mm.

Catalog: EA29979


35. Blue glazed composition kneeling figure of Shu with raised arms.
Height 32 mm, width 18 mm.

Catalog: EA64601


Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Heart Scarabs

Protection for the heart

The heart was regarded by the ancient Egyptians as the seat of intelligence, and the location of the memory. Great care was taken to provide it with magical protection, both in the form of spells incorporated into the book of the dead, and through amulets. These guarded against the loss of the heart, and ensured that it did not reveal any misdemeanours committed by its owner during life.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Second Intermediate Period: 1 700 BC - 1 550 BC

Nebankh

High Steward Nebankh

Reign of Sebekhotep IV, about 1 720 BC.

This amulet (top left in the preceding image) in the form of a large scarab beetle, was an important part of the mummy's trappings from the 13th Dynasty until the Late Period. It was usually made of dark green stone, and the base was inscribed with the text of Chapter 30B of the Book of the Dead, preventing the scarab from testifying against its owner during judgement.

Green jasper human-headed heart-scarab; nine lines of Hieroglyphic text on base including name of Nebankh.

Length: 32 mm.

Heart scarabs were often placed within the mummy wrappings, and were sometimes suspended around the neck. Some examples include a carved human face.

Catalog: EA64378
Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Eighteenth Dynasty: 1 550 BC - 1 292 BC

Renseneb

Necklace: pendant is a green basalt heart-scarab with elytra marked with a gilded suture, feathered legs, unpierced, base inscribed with ten lines of hieroglyphs, set in a gold mount with a suspension loop at the top, gold wire ring. Inscription from Book of the Dead.

Diameter 165 mm (ring), height 20 mm, (heart-scarab) length 55 mm, (heart-scarab) Width 37 mm, heart-scarab).

Catalog: basalt, gold, gilded, EA24401
Photo (left): © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Photo (right): Don Hitchcock 2018 ( Note that there are three 'gold' wires securing the heart-scarab to the wall of the vitrine in this image, and they are not part of the object - Don )
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

New Kingdom, 1 550 BC - 1 077 BC

Yakubkey (?)

Green glazed steatite heart-scarab with jasper and blue glass inlays on the back; pierced transversely. Inscription note: Book of the Dead, Chapter 30.

Length 40 mm, width 29 mm.

Catalog: EA66814, also shown in my photo above with the necklace and other heart-scarabs.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Diagram showing the parts of a scarab beetle, including the clypeus, in front of the eyes and head.

Source: Rowe (1936)

Late Period, 664 BC - 332 BC

Padiatum

Inscription naming Padiatum, a god's servant of Amun.

Green jasper(?) heart-scarab with the clypeus marked and striated elytra with the humeral callosities present; the base is inscribed with ten lines of hieroglyphic text giving Book of the Dead chapter 30 for Padiatum, a god's servant of Amun.

Beetles are by far the largest order of insects. The roughly 400 000 species make up about 40% of all insect species so far described, and about 25% of all animal species.

The front pair of wings of beetles are hardened into wing-cases, elytra, distinguishing them from most other insects.

Most adult scarab beetles are stoutly built and have a plate known as the 'clypeus', which hides their mandibles when viewed from above.

Unique to beetles, elytra are opaque and either soft and leathery, or hard and shell-like, and partially or completely cover the abdomen. At rest, they typically meet down the middle of the beetle’s back along a distinct line called the elytral suture.The elytral surfaces are more or less smooth and may have rows of punctures, raised ridges, or grooves along some or most of their entire length.

The Humerus is the outer shoulder-like angles at the elytra's base.

Humeral callosities are thickened patches of cuticle located on the outer surface of the humerus of certain beetles, including scarabs.

( In this case the humeral callosities are represented by triangles at the top of each elytra, with apexes downward - Don )

Height 32 mm, length 67 mm, width 47 mm.

Catalog: EA66816
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Additional text: Evans (2023)

Third Intermediate Period, circa 1 070 BC - 664 BC

Heart Scarab

Green faience heart scarab

Green glazed composition heart-scarab, single notched elytrum, not pierced, base inscribed with 9 lines of hieroglyphs.

( This single notch may be an example of a humeral callosity, as noted in the text for the image above - Don )

Length 64 mm, width 42 mm.

Inscription on the base: Book of the Dead, Chapter 30, with name space left blank.

Catalog: EA66817
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Third Intermediate Period, circa 1 070 BC - 664 BC

Heart Scarab

Green jasper heart-scarab, with gilding, striated elytra, unpierced, base inscribed with nine lines of hieroglyphs.

Catalog: EA15517
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Third Intermediate Period, circa 1 070 BC - 664 BC

Heart Scarab

Blue glass heart-scarab; striated elytra.

Length 66 mm.

Catalog: EA54001
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Third Intermediate Period, circa 1 070 BC - 664 BC

Heart Scarab

Heart scarab with human head, striated elytra, with Hieroglyphic text on base.

Length 56 mm, width 39 mm, height 17 mm.

Green basalt heart-scarab with the front in the form of a face, elytra marked with double suture, and seven humeral callosities present ( four on the left of the image as shown here, three on the right, presented as triangles with their apexes towards the rear of the scarab - Don ), unpierced, base inscribed with seven lines of hieroglyphs.

( Note that at the time of writing, 22.03.2024, the images (but not the descriptions) on the BM online catalog of EA7999 and EA7888, and the identifications on the single long museum card/poster at the side of the vitrine (as at 05.06.2018 at least) were also transposed - Don )

Catalog: EA7888
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Third Intermediate Period, circa 1 070 BC - 664 BC

Heart Scarab

Heart scarab with human head, striated elytra, with Hieroglyphic text on base.

Length 25 mm. ( ?? longer than that if the length of EA7888 is correct - Don )

( Note that at the time of writing, 22.03.2024, the images (but not the descriptions) on the BM online catalog of EA7999 and EA7888, and the identifications on the single long museum card/poster at the side of the vitrine (as at 05.06.2018 at least) were also transposed - Don )

Catalog: EA7999
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Distribution of funerary amulets

In the Old and Middle Kingdoms only a few amulets were provided for each burial. In the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate period, the quantity was increased, some were grouped at the neck, and the heart scarab was placed on the breast. A pectoral ornament was often also included on the chest.

In the Late Period there was a great increase in the number and type of amulets. Their distribution over the mummy followed a regular pattern. A number of variations on the distribution patterns of the Late Period have been identified from the unwrapping or X-raying of mummies. After the Ptolemaic Period, careful positioning gave way to random scattering within the wrappings.

The diagram above shows the distribution of amulets on two mummies from Hawara, 26th Dynasty, 664 BC - 525 BC. The names indicate amulets which represent particular deities.

Rephotography: Don Hitchcock 2018
Text and diagram: © Poster at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Heart Amulets

Top left: 19th - 20th Dynasties, circa 1 295 BC - 1 070 BC, basalt human-headed heart-amulet with a recessed representation of ba-bird on front (although the inlays are lost), inscribed with name of Paser, length 58 mm, width 37 mm, EA26807.

Top right: 19th Dynasty (?), heart scarab with human head in opaque lapis-lazuli-blue glass, moulded and without inscription. While the head with its lappet headdress was formed in the mould, all its details were incised later in an unusually crude manner. The hands, which are represented clenched and crossed, were also incised on the front surface. Height 56 mm, EA15598.

Bottom left: Late Period, after 664 BC, gilded wooden heart-amulet, length 54 mm, EA2245.

Bottom centre: New Kingdom, blue glazed composition heart-amulet, with human head and hands crossed in front, suspension loop at top, details picked out in black. Height 60 mm, width 34 mm, from Abydos, EA66717.

Bottom right: Third Intermediate Period, circa 1070 BC - 664 BC, obsidian amulet in the form of a human heart (vase), dedicated to the priest Shedkhons, one side engraved in intaglio with a yellow painted representation of a Kheper scarab beetle, the other side inscribed with extremely worn hieroglyphs, found at Thebes, height 15 mm, length 52 mm, width 38 mm, EA8003.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Pectorals

Bottom left: Blue glazed composition pectoral with a scarab set into the face (now lost), flanked by kneeling figures and wedjat-eyes and surrounded by a border of red and blue inlays with a lotus-flower frieze at the base; the reverse ( shown in this image - Don ) is decorated with a representation of a human-headed scarab with Hieroglyphic text on the back and flanked by djed-pillars, thet-girdles ( girdles of Isis - Don ) and wedjat-eyes; pierced through the cornice (incomplete) for suspension. Scarab and one corner lost, repaired from two fragments, length 118 mm, width 119 mm, thickness 17 mm, EA14654.

Top right: Rectangular gessoed wooden pectoral from Thebes, decorated on one side with a painted representation of Osiris adored by Isis and Nephthys with columns of Hieroglyphic text between the figures; the other side ( as in this image - Don ) is decorated with a painted representation of the deceased kneeling beside a tree with Hieroglyphic text in the upper right corner. Coated with varnish, length 99 mm, thickness 8 mm, EA29554.

Bottom right: Blue glazed steatite pectoral. One side is decorated with a relief representation of a kneeling figure worshipping Anubis with Hieroglyphic text above and a border of red and green glazed composition inlay; the reverse is decorated with an incised djed-pillar between two thet-girdles; the cornice is pierced four times at the back. Length 85 mm, thickness 11 mm, width 67 mm, EA7852.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Pectorals

Square blue glazed composition pectoral decorated on the face with a black outline representation of Anubis upon a plinth and on the reverse with a djed-pillar and a thet-girdle; Hieroglyphic text on both sides; pierced through the cornice and the lower edge for suspension/attachment.

Length 99 mm, width 94 mm, thickness 15 mm (at cornice).

Catalog: EA24705
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Pectorals

Yellow, blue and red glazed composition pectoral decorated on the face with a low relief representation of the deceased worshipping Anubis. Pierced through the cornice for suspension, undecorated back.

Length 98 mm, width 82 mm, thickness 21 mm.

Catalog: EA14653
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Pectorals

Polychrome glazed composition pectoral: the face is set with a human-headed scarab in the centre flanked by Isis and Nephthys upon a barque. The reverse is decorated with a djed-pillar and a thet-girdle, the cornice is pierced, and at the bottom are a line of loops. Repaired from four pieces.

Length 133 mm, width 112 mm, thickness 16 mm (at the cornice).

Catalog: EA29369
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Pectorals

Heart amulet of Hor-Nakht.

Black glazed steatite amulet, one side decorated with a representation of a kheper beetle flanked by Isis and Nephthys in a barque, below is a representation of two jackals (Anubis?), at the top is a Djed pillar, pierced once through the top projection and in six places in the upper main section, other side inscribed with seven lines of hieroglyphs.

Length 103 mm, width 73 mm, thickness 14 mm.

Catalog: EA24767
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Scarabs

Top left: Hematite scarab with a ram's head, 26th Dynasty. The legs are naturalistically carved. There is a suspension loop beneath. Length 19 mm, width 16 mm, EA65090.

Top centre: Glazed composition scarab with protruding hawk head, striated elytra, underside with a suspension hoop, and decorated as the underside of a beetle, no base. Length 18 mm, width 14mm, thickness 12 mm, EA15530

Top right: Hematite (?) scaraboid, front in the form of a bull's head, striated elytra, underside pierced for suspension, length 21 mm, width 15 mm, thickness 12 mm, EA15548.

Bottom left: Gold mummy-scarab inlaid with dark blue glass. The back shows stripes of gold with blue inlay between, the legs are indicated in gold on the underside where there is also a gold loop for attachment. Late Period, length 25 mm, width 20 mm, EA75195.

Bottom centre: Glazed composition scarab with striated elytra, underside with ridged pierced projection and decorated as the underside of a beetle, no base. Length 24 mm, width 18 mm, thickness 11 mm, EA3475.

Bottom right: Glazed composition scarab with striated elytra, underside laterally pierced and decorated as the underside of a beetle, no base. Length 30 mm, width 24 mm, thickness 15 mm. EA3465.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Amulets representing food offerings and property

Top left: Blue glazed composition amulet in the form of a trussed antelope. Suspension ring on the back. 18th Dynasty. Length 26 mm, width 14 mm, thickness 5 mm, EA57910.

Top centre left: Steatite amulet in the form of a spouted offering-table bearing a representation of a jug and a loaf, with incised lotuses on the back. Suspension ring, Late Period, length 18 mm, width 13 mm, thickness 4 mm, EA4365.

Top centre right: A miniature obelisk in translucent dark blue glass. Pierced horizontally for suspension midway down the shaft. New Kingdom (?), height 25 mm, width 6 mm, EA16895.

Top right: Blue glazed composition shabti, New Kingdom, height 41 mm, width 15 mm, depth 9 mm, EA33998.

Bottom left: Hematite head-rest amulet, height 19 mm, length 32 mm, thickness 11 mm, EA20645.

Bottom centre: Green glazed composition seal amulet, length 6 mm, EA6454.

Bottom right: Red jasper amulet in the form of a trussed ox, length 32 mm, width 20 mm, thickness 12 mm, EA29466.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Amulets representing food offerings and property

Top left: Limestone seal amulet, length 22 mm, EA6430.

Top right: Blue feldspar amulet in the form of a writing-board. Six rows of Hieroglyphic text, length 32 mm, width 19 mm, EA8231

Bottom left: Opaque dark-blue (?) glass amulet in the form of a writing-board. The amulet, in the form of a small rectangle, is of opaque dark-blue glass with a matt surface. The suspension block, moulded with the board, is not pierced. Ptolemaic (?) Period, height 23 mm, EA8225.

Bottom right: Blue feldspar amulet in the form of a writing-board, six rows of Hieroglyphic text, length 19 mm, width 13 mm, EA8228

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Amulets representing food offerings and property

Top left: Lapis lazuli amulet in the shape of an unguent-jar, pierced longitudinally, Middle Kingdom, length 23 mm, width 13 mm, thickness 5 mm, EA18551

Top centre: Gilded wooden amulet in the form of a spouted ewer with a suspension ring at the top. Graeco-Roman Period, height 23 mm, diameter 7 mm, EA2227.

Top right: Glazed composition amulet in the form of a Bes-vase, 26th Dynasty, height 21 mm, width 14 mm, depth 12 mm, EA11852.

Bottom: Green glazed composition amulet in the form of a situla, a vessel for libations, with two suspension rings, Third Intermediate Period, height 27 mm, diameter 17 mm, EA23127.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Amulets representing food offerings and property

Miniature gold jewellery

"Small gold foil amulet in the form of a double-headed falcon with extended wings, height 9 mm, length 20 mm, EA16980."

( This is the only identification given for this group of miniature gold jewellery on the long poster beside the vitrine, and it does not exactly fit any of the items in the display. It may refer to the top right item which has only one head, and looks like a vulture, or the two falcon heads on a semicircular 'collar', in the form of a menat or counterweight for a necklace at bottom right of this image - Don )

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Collars and counterpoises

Far left: Blue glazed composition menat with striated decoration, length 22 mm, EA18129.

Second left: Granite menat, length 29 mm, EA8172.

( Top right is mislabelled as EA13381 - Don )

Lower far right: Yellow jasper amulet in the form of a collar with falcon-head terminals, length 40 mm, width 25 mm, thickness 5 mm, EA57904

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Amulets of Assimilation

Top: four human legs. EA61122 is given as the ID on the poster to one side of the vitrine, but this leads to a different object in the collection.

Bottom: Necklace, Amuletic string of many cornelian short and long barrels, short truncated convex bicones, disc and cylinder beads, ten gold oblate beads made from two hemispheres joined at the circumference (a few have slightly collared stringing holes) and seventeen cornelian face amulets. The latter have suspension loops on top of the head, flat backs, ears, neck (or straight beard), very crudely carved features, and are apparently without eyes.

6th - 7th Dynasty (?)

Necklace length 248 mm (string), bead height 13 mm (largest face).

Face amulets identical with these in the form of the hieroglyph 'ḥr' are mostly Old Kingdom and First Intermediate Period in date.

Catalog: EA30416
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Amulets of Assimilation

Top left: Cornelian foot-amulet, conferring movement, pierced across the top, height 22 mm, width 8 mm, depth 16 mm, EA14622

Top centre: Pierced ivory amulet in the form of a human face, 6th Dynasty, length 11 mm, width 4 mm, depth 1 mm, EA52847

Top right: Cornelian hand amulet, with loop for suspension at wrist, height 7 mm, width 18 mm, depth 4 mm, weight one gram, EA14703.

Bottom left: amulet in the form of a frog of red jasper with white streaks, longitudinally pierced, height 9 mm, length 17 mm, width 12 mm, EA14713.

Bottom centre, diorite-gneiss amulet in the form of the frog-goddess Heket, pierced longitudinally, Third Intermediate Period (?), height 11 mm, length 20 mm, width 14 mm, EA14758.

Bottom right, thin gold plaque with embossed ba-bird holding a hes vase in one hand, height 59 mm, width 30 mm, EA65519.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Amulets from the mummy of the Royal Scribe and Steward Iy

Late 18th Dynasty, circa 1 350 BC - 1 300 BC

Four amulets:

187 - Red jasper thet-girdle ( Tit ) amulet.
188 - Glazed composition Djed-pillar amulet, with Hieroglyphic text on the shaft.
189 - Steatite heart-amulet bearing an inlaid glass scene of Ay adoring a benu-bird (a huge grey heron), Hieroglyphic text.
190 - Cornelian lentoid seweret-bead inscribed with the name of the owner, Hieroglyphic text.

Catalog: EA50742
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card at the Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/research/ © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Third Intermediate Period: 1 077 - 664  BC

Sculpture from a divine boat

( presumably this sculpture was placed on the boat which transported the deceased Pharaoh, after the mummification process was complete, to the western side of the Nile in order to be taken to the tomb - Don )

The bronze head included a tripartite wig, uraeus, and false beard.

Height 175 mm, width 115 mm.

Catalog: Bronze, Aile Sully, Room 334, Materials and Techniques, Vitrine 2, E 2522, N 448
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015, 2018
Source and text: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/
Additional text: Wikipedia

Third Intermediate Period: 1 077 - 664  BC

Triangular Harp

Height 1130 mm, width 715 mm, depth 110 mm.

Decoration: Phoenix, Lotus (on the top of the main vertical beam).

Catalog: Carbon dating, cedar, maritime pine, sycomore fig tree, leather, colour green-red-yellow, Aile Sully, Salle 329, Les loisirs, Vitrine 1, N 1441, Salt n°598
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source and text: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/

Third Intermediate Period: 1 077 - 664  BC

Rope

Circa 1 010 - 890 BC

Halfa grass fibre rope, Desmostachya bipinnata, some knots remain. From the tomb of Sety I in the Valley of the Kings. The tomb of Sety I was discovered by Giovanni Belzoni. The mummy of the king had been removed to Deir el-Bahri in about 968 BC. Hanging from a small aperture above the 'well' of Sety's tomb, Belzoni found this rope. Radiocarbon dating places the rope at 950 ± 60 years BC, suggesting that it may have been used during the operations to remove the mummy from the tomb.

Dimensions: Length 1600 mm (max), width 22 mm.

Catalog: Halfa grass fibre rope EA5403
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Herit-Ubekhet

Coffins of Herit-Ubekhet, a temple musician at Karnak.

Third Intermediate Period, 21st Dynasty, circa 1 000 BC.

Catalog: Sycomore wood ( Ficus sycomorus ) / Theben - West, Deir el-Bahari / ÄS 12a - c
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, Ägyptischen Museum München
Text: © Ägyptischen Museum München, Wikipedia

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Herit-Ubekhet

Coffins of Herit-Ubekhet, a temple musician at Karnak.

Third Intermediate Period, 21st Dynasty, circa 1 000 BC.

Catalog: Sycomore wood ( Ficus sycomorus ) / Theben - West, Deir el-Bahari / ÄS 12a - c
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, Ägyptischen Museum München
Text: © Ägyptischen Museum München, Wikipedia

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Coffin

This coffin from the 21st Dynasty is unusual in that the hair depicted is in a more natural style, although the wig is in blue, which is the divine colour.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2014
Source: Original, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden.

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Coffin of an Unknown Man

Late 21st Dynasty wooden inner coffin of an unknown man from Thebes / Luxor, Bab el-Gasus, 980-945 BC .

Painted detail on plaster, Hieroglyphic text.

The lid is decorated with many figures of gods, and repeated groups of symbols and amuletic devices relating to resurrection, including scarab beetles and the sky studded with stars. The scenes include the barque of the sun-god, the goddess Hathor in the form of a cow, and the presentation of offerings to various deities.

On the interior is painted a large figure of the god Osiris on a background of stars.

Length 179 cm.

Catalog: EA24798
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Map of the Bab el-Gasus tomb showing the positions of the coffins.

Diagram adapted from A. Niwinski, 1988.

3rd Intermediate period, circa 1070-925 BC

Burials at Deir ei-Bahri: The Priests of Amun

After the New Kingdom, economic weakness meant that the construction and decoration of new private tombs ended. Tombs of earlier periods were repeatedly reused, and the most essential religious texts and images were applied to coffins and papyri, ensuring their continued protection for the deceased should the mummy be transferred to a new resting-place.

At Thebes, periodic clearance of tombs and the continuing threat of robbery led to the creation of large collective burials in the 21st and early 22nd Dynasties. Some of these cache tombs were probably discovered in the early 19th century. The largest group was found in 1891 in a long corridor-tomb known as the Bab el-Gasus at Deir el-Bahri. This contained the mummies and coffins of 153 individuals, priests and their relatives attached to the temple of Amun at Karnak, which had been gathered together at the end of the 21st Dynasty.

The majority of the coffins and mummies were sent to the Cairo Museum. In 1893 the Egyptian government donated a large number of coffins and smaller objects from the find to museums in Europe and the USA.

Poster: British Museum, after A. Niwinski, 1988.
Rephotography: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Poster, British Museum
Text: Poster at Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Coffin of an Unknown Man

Coffin side, interior and lid of the late 21st Dynasty wooden inner coffin of an unknown man from Thebes / Luxor, Bab el-Gasus, 980-945 BC.

Catalog: EA24798
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015, 2018
Source: Original, British Museum

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Paser

Mummiform coffin.

Close up of head with a forehead band, on a tripartite wig with some damage. The catalog notes that the beard is missing.

Catalog: Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 1, N 2581
Photo and text: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Paser

Mummiform coffin.

Paser is shown with a shroud, crossed arms, tripartite wig, forehead band, pierced ears, Usekh collar, and with crossed arms.

Titles: Father of the god, father of the god of Amen-Ra king of the gods, scribe of the divine offerings in Karnak, superior of the incense-bearers before Amen, superior of the incense-bearers before Amen-Ra king of the gods, the one with the pure hands of Amen at Karnak, superior of the secrets of Amen.

Height 2605 mm, width 735 mm, thickness 870 mm

Catalog: Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 1, N 2581
Photo: © Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/
Source and text: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Paser

Mummiform coffin.

On the chest above the arms may be seen a winged scarab holding a sun disc.

Catalog: Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 1, N 2581
Photo and text: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Paser

Mummiform coffin.

It would appear that the entire decoration of this coffin was first sketched out with red lines. The paintings were then completed in colour, using thick paints to give a three dimensional effect. The sketched lines, however, became part of the final composition.

Here, on the right arm, may be seen a falcon headed god, seated, with a green solar disc above his head, outlined in red. On each side is a Wedjat Eye, and the figure is protected by the outstretched wings of winged serpents, each with a green solar disc above their heads, again outlined in red. Here we can also see the way that the initial red sketch lines help to complete the paintings, especially in this case with the wings. The red lines give form and substance to the wings.

On the right of this grouping, close to the right fist, may be seen a falcon with the Atef crown of Osiris, which consists of the Hedjet, the white crown of upper Egypt, flanked by two ostrich feathers.

Catalog: Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 1, N 2581
Photo and text: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Paser

Mummiform coffin.

Below the arms we can see a winged female-headed snake, identified as Isis by the catalog (part of her seat/throne headdress may be seen), seated opposite Osiris on a throne wearing the Atef crown. This is repeated on the other side of the coffin, with Nephthys wearing her distinctive headdress replacing Isis on the side shown in this image.

In the register between these two may be seen a scarab holding aloft a green sun disc, flanked by a pair of green falcons wearing the Atef crown.

Catalog: Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 1, N 2581
Photo and text: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Paser

Mummy Cover.

Paser is shown with a shroud, tripartite wig, false beard, forehead band, Usekh collar, and with crossed arms.

On the chest is a winged scarab and two Ba-birds.

On the belly is a winged scarab holding a solar disc, in a boat of Ra. Below is the goddess Nut, kneeling, with wings spread.

Height 1700 mm, width 430 mm, thickness 120 mm.

Catalog: Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 1, E 20165
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source and text: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Paser

Mummy Cover.

Paser is holding an Isis Knot. The tit symbol (pronounced teet, also written tyet) illustrates a knotted piece of cloth whose early meaning is unknown, but in the New Kingdom it was clearly associated with the goddess Isis, the great magician and wife of Osiris. By this time, the tit was also associated with blood of Isis. The tit sign was considered a potent symbol of protection in the afterlife and the Book of the Dead specifies that the tit or tyet be made of blood-red stone, and placed at the deceased's neck.

Knots were widely used as amulets because the Egyptians believed they bound and released magic.

On the chest is a winged scarab, with a green sun disc above it, and two small Shen, symbols of infinity, consisting of a circle of rope with no end. It was a symbol of symmetry and perfection.

Two Ba birds and two Wedjat eyes are below the winged scarab and above the arms, which are only painted on, whereas the hands are modelled. Five squatting gods are shown on each arm.

Catalog: Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 1, E 20165
Photo and text: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/
Additional text: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/548207

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Paser

Mummy Cover.

Another winged scarab is shown beneath the arms, holding a green sun disc with associated Uraeuses, which symbolise royalty and divine authority. Another Shen symbol is shown beneath the scarab, which is supported on Re's boat by two carefully placed snakes.

On either side are two falcons, each wearing the crown of Osiris.

On the next register down, the winged goddess Nut is kneeling with wings spread, offering protection to the deceased, flanked by two Ba birds and Wedjat Eyes on either side.

Catalog: Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 1, E 20165
Photo and text: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Paser

Mummy Cover.

In the narrow vertical register below Nut can be seen the hieroglyph for Osiris, a seat or throne, a seated god with curved false beard, and an eye. A narrow horizontal register has what look like scores of Uraeuses packed tightly in a long line.

Below this is a curious pair of unattached wings, each bearing a Wedjat Eye.

A noblewoman (? described as a man in the catalog) in a long, translucent, complexly pleated dress holds an incense censer, and holds in the same hand an Isis Knot amulet. On her head is a scented cone, and as is usual with this, a head band.

On the right of this image is a large, abstract, double plumed crown of Amun.

Catalog: Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 1, E 20165
Photo and text: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Paser

Mummy Cover.

Left photo:

At the top of this register is a row of Uraeuses, and the pair of unattached wings, each bearing a Wedjat Eye is repeated on both sides of the mummy cover, as above.

A noblewoman (? described as a man in the catalog) in a long, translucent, complexly pleated dress shakes a systrum. On her head is a scented cone, and as is usual with this, a head band. Beside her is a tall columnar pedestal supporting a spouted hes-vase. She is facing and adoring Hathor.

Hathor wears the distinctive cow horns as a headdress, and the double plumed crown of Amun above a sun disc. In one hand she holds a long staff, and in the other an Ankh. What may be her hieroglyph is above her staff, which consists of a falcon and a mansion, though with the enclosed square at the top of the rectangle, as in Gardiner' List O6-G5.

Centre photo:

At the top of this register is yet another row of Uraeuses.

On the left of this image Thoth, the ibis-headed god, has a (faded) lunar disk above his head, holding the sign of the West on a pole, but in this case it is an abbreviation, being merely a bun or loaf, Gardiner's X1, and a single feather, instead of the full version with the image of a falcon, a feather, and two unequal length rods below.

Facing Thoth is a 'génie' holding a heka sceptre, or crook, a symbol of power. This génie may be the goddess Neith, whose hieroglyph of two bows tied together, Gardiner's R24, appears above the figure.

Right photo:

At the top of this register is yet another row of Uraeuses.

On the left of the register is Isis, kneeling, with her headdress of a seat or throne somewhat obscured by time, together with an Ankh. She is weeping, shown by her palm being towards her face, and facing another of the single wings displayed elsewhere on this mummy cover.

On the right of the register is Nephthys, kneeling, with her headdress clearly shown. She is weeping, and also facing another of the single wings.

Catalog: Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 1, E 20165
Photo and text: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/

Frédéric Cailliaud was an explorer and scientist from Nantes in France, who spent seven years in Egypt, where he rediscovered Roman-era emerald mines and explored the Eastern and Western Deserts. His crowning discovery came when he ventured south of the present-day border of Sudan and Ethiopia and rediscovered Meroë, the capital city of the ancient kingdom of Kush.

Photo: Selbymay
Permission: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
Text: adapted from https://archive.aramcoworld.com/issue/201301/the.explorations.of.fr.d.ric.cailliaud.htm
Additional text: Wikipedia

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Panebmontou

Mummiform coffin.

Panebmontou is shown with a shroud, crossed arms, Usekh collar, bracelet, tripartite wig, headband, and pierced ears.

Decorations: on the chest, a winged scarab holding up a sun disc. Height 1920 mm.

Catalog: West Thebes, Cailliaud expedition, Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 1, E 13029, CM 14
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source and text: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Panebmontou

( In this close up (click to enlarge, as always) we can see a supplicant offering the Wedjat eye to Osiris. The Louvre catalag says only  'offering of the Wedjat eye'  about this scene - Don )

The Eye of Horus, wedjat eye or udjat eye is a concept and symbol in ancient Egyptian religion that represents well-being, healing, and protection. It derives from the mythical conflict between the god Horus with his rival Set, in which Set tore out or destroyed one or both of Horus's eyes and the eye was subsequently healed or returned to Horus with the assistance of another deity, such as Thoth. Horus subsequently offered the eye to his deceased father Osiris, and its revivifying power sustained Osiris in the afterlife.

The Eye of Horus was thus equated with funerary offerings as well as with all the offerings given to deities in temple ritual. It could also represent other concepts, such as the Moon, whose waxing and waning was likened to the injury and restoration of the eye. According to later traditions, the right eye represented the sun and so is called the 'Eye of Ra”' while the left represented the moon and was known as the 'Eye of Horus' (although it was also associated with Thoth).

( This supplicant appears to be a normal being, but you would expect it to be either Thoth or Horus offering the eye to Osiris, as above. Their arms are extended towards the god, with palms up. Unusually, the supplicant appears to be shown to be speaking to Osiris, with a stylised 'tongue' of speech coming from their mouth. Normally the act of adoration is indicated only by the attitude of the hands of the supplicant. The supplicant stands or kneels before the god, raises their arms and holds the palms of their hands towards the god - Don )


The Eye of Horus symbol, a stylised eye with distinctive markings, was believed to have protective magical power and appeared frequently in ancient Egyptian art. It was one of the most common motifs for amulets, remaining in use from the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BC) to the Roman period (30 BC – 641 AD). Pairs of Horus eyes were painted on coffins from the First Intermediate Period (circa 2 181 BC – 2 055 BC) and Middle Kingdom (circa 2 055 BC – 1 650 BC). Other contexts where the symbol appeared include on carved stone stelae and on the bows of boats. To some extent the symbol was adopted by the people of regions neighbouring Egypt, such as Syria, Canaan, and especially Nubia.

Catalog: West Thebes, Cailliaud expedition, Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 1, E 13029, CM 14
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015, 2018
Source: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/
Text: Don Hitchcock, Wikipedia

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Panebmontou

Various deities may be seen on the forearm, including Nephthys, identified by her sign, and behind her in the line up what may be Amun, identified by his double plumed crown.


Hieroglyph for Nephthys.

Hieroglyph redrawn after Budge (1920)

Immediately below the arms is a scarab holding a green sun disc aloft, the arms/legs enclosing a group of Ankh symbols. Reading from left to right we have on the right of the scarab a god with a sun disc above their head; a lotus flower; an Uraeus; and Horus (the younger) wearing a complex crown, starting with a red sun disc, and including what seems to be a vertically striped crown of upper Egypt flanked by two ostrich feathers. It is a variation on the standard Osiris crown. Horus became the new ruler of Heaven after his father Osiris' death, when Osiris then went to rule over the Underworld. To the right of Horus is the god Thoth with Ibis head, apparently offering a Wedjat eye; the symbol for the Goddess of the West, Amentet, with the ostrich plume vertical.


Hieroglyph for Amentet, the Goddess of the West.

Hieroglyph redrawn after Budge (1920)





Under the elbow of the left arm is a representation of Khnum, god of fertility, shown here as a ram with horizontal twisted horns.


Hieroglyph for Khnum

Hieroglyph redrawn after Budge (1920)





Catalog: West Thebes, Cailliaud expedition, Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 1, E 13029, CM 14
Photo and hieroglyph: Don Hitchcock 2015, 2018
Source and text: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/
Additional text: Don Hitchcock, Wikipedia

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Panebmontou

On the abdomen is the winged sky goddess, Nut, kneeling, with wings outspread in protection.

Her hieroglyph consisting of a water pot, semicircle (bread bun, feminine determinant) and the 'bed' symbol for sky can be seen in the second column to the right of her head.

Hieroglyph for Nut.

This consists of W24, a water pot, X1, a small loaf of bread, and N1, the symbol for sky.

The (damaged) figure to the right is probably Osiris, as judged by his typical stance, and white crown (though it lacks the normal ostrich feathers on each side) with Uraeus. His hieroglyph consisting of a throne, an eye, and a seated figure (damaged) with false beard may be seen above his head and towards the left.

Catalog: West Thebes, Cailliaud expedition, Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 1, E 13029, CM 14
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Hieroglyphs by Don Hitchcock after Gardiner (1927)
Source: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/
Text: Don Hitchcock.

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Panebmontou

Further down the coffin lid is this worshipping scene, with Isis (shown by her headdress, and holding an Ankh) standing behind the green (i.e. godly) figure of Osiris, wearing his (vertically striped in this case) Atef crown, with ostrich feathers flanking the crown of upper Egypt, with what might have once been a small sun disc at the base of the crown, wearing a head band with the ends trailing down his back, a Uraeus on his head, a godly curved false beard, and holding the crook and flail of authority.

The hieroglyph of Osiris, consisting of a throne, godly seated figure, and a throne symbol, is shown at the right of the panel towards the top.

On the right is a shaven headed priest, proffering a gift to Osiris, and wearing a Usekh collar and a complexly pleated (and no doubt expensive) kilt.

Above both figures is an arched roof, creating the impression of a shrine.

It should be noted in passing that the design of the throne of Osiris bears a striking resemblance to the sign for Nephthys, but without, of course, the bowl on the top. It can be interpreted here as, perhaps, mansion, as translated by Budge (1920)

Catalog: West Thebes, Cailliaud expedition, Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 1, E 13029, CM 14
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/
Text: Don Hitchcock.

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Panebmontou

On the upper register of this image, we can see Osiris, green to indicate his status as a god, identified by his hieroglyph above and to the right, consisting of a Wedjat eye, the symbol for a throne, and that of a seated god with a godly false beard.

The image is somewhat degraded by time, but he wears a vertically striped 'white' crown of upper Egypt with what was probably once a small sun disc, and flanked by two ostrich feathers. He is holding what is now just the outline of the flail of authority.

Osiris is being adored by two female figures, one on each side. It is not obvious who they are, but they may be Isis and Nephthys. Both have the godly green colour of skin, and both have an Ankh below their elbows.

On either side of Osiris are two representations of the falcon-headed Horus, in each case wearing the 'white' crown, again vertically striped, with a red sun disc above the crown. They are represented as standing on a 'divine standard', a horizontal rod mounted on a vertical pole, with an Ankh placed on each standard.

To the right of this scene is a depiction of Thoth, the ibis-headed god of wisdom, writing, hieroglyphs, science, magic, art, judgment, and the dead.

Above Osiris is an arched roof, creating the impression of a shrine.


Hieroglyph for Thoth

Hieroglyph after Gardiner (1927)



Catalog: West Thebes, Cailliaud expedition, Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 1, E 13029, CM 14
Photo and hieroglyph: Don Hitchcock 2015, 2021
Source: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/
Text: Don Hitchcock.

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Panebmontou

On the left of the image is the figure of Thoth, who wears a vertically striped 'white' crown of upper Egypt with a small sun disc at its base, and flanked by two ostrich feathers. He is holding a Was-sceptre with the left hand, and an Ankh with the right.

Curiously, Thoth's beak has been curved upwards, a mistake. It is only painted in, and the correctly modelled beak may have fallen off.

Above and to the right is the hieroglyph of a phoenix or Bennu, a fabulous bird associated with the worship of the sun and immortality. It was a self-created being said to have played a role in the creation of the world. It is often shown as a huge grey heron, with a long beak and a two feathered crest.

Behind Thoth and adoring him is a green skinned goddess, possibly Isis or Nephthys, adoring him with one hand while holding an Ankh in the other.

Above these two figures is an arched roof, creating the impression of a shrine, a format used in many versions of shabti boxes.

On the right a supplicant holds a gift aloft, holding an Ankh in their hand. They wear a complexly folded kilt.

Catalog: West Thebes, Cailliaud expedition, Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 1, E 13029, CM 14
Photo and hieroglyph: Don Hitchcock 2015, 2021
Source: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/
Text: Don Hitchcock.
Additional text: Wikipedia

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Panebmontou

This register depicts two of the sons of Horus, the falcon headed Qebehsenuef, and the hamadryas baboon headed Hapi. Both carry the crook and flail of authority, and are sitting on royal standards, Qebehsenuef with the Wedjat eye (the eye of Horus, their father) shown.

As in the register above this one, the two gods are sitting beneath a multi-layer arch which is symbolic of the roof of a shrine.

On the right, a shaven headed priest adores the gods, and wears a complex folded kilt.

Catalog: West Thebes, Cailliaud expedition, Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 1, E 13029, CM 14
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/
Text: Don Hitchcock.

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Panebmontou

On the instep of the coffin can be seen the goddess Nephthys, identified by her headdress. Below where she is sitting is the hieroglyph for gold.

On the right of the image is a depiction of Anubis, the jackal/wolf headed god wearing the double crown of upper and lower Egypt. He bears the flail of authority.


This is the hieroglyph for gold, as depicted on the coffin of Ramses II. The hieroglyph on this coffin depicts a golden collar with ends hanging off the sides, and eleven spines suspended from the middle.





Catalog: West Thebes, Cailliaud expedition, Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 1, E 13029, CM 14
Photo and hieroglyph: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/
Text: Don Hitchcock.

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Panebmontou, Mummy cover.

Catalog: West Thebes, Cailliaud expedition, Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 1, E 13046, CM 31
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source and text: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Panebmontou, Mummy cover.

Decoration includes crossed arms, a wig with two sections flowing down the chest beside the neck like lapels. The head is adorned with a band and a lotus flower, and there is a Usekh collar. The ears are pierced.

This may be close to a portrait, given the strong nose evident on this depiction.

Catalog: West Thebes, Cailliaud expedition, Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 1, E 13046, CM 31
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/
Text: Don Hitchcock.

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Panebmontou, Mummy cover.

Decorations also include a winged scarab holding a green sun disc aloft. A Djed pillar is in the right hand, and there may have been another in the left. Bracelets are worn at the wrists.

Catalog: West Thebes, Cailliaud expedition, Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 1, E 13029, CM 14
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/
Text: Don Hitchcock.

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Panebmontou, Mummy cover.

Decorations below the crossed arms include a scarab holding a sun disc, Horus as a falcon with sun disc, standing on a Nebu, the symbol for gold, and which depicts a golden collar with ends hanging off the sides, and nine spines suspended from the middle.


Seven spines are standard, but often the symbol as painted or carved on mummy cases and stone sarcophagi has more than this.
Hieroglyph after Budge (1920)

Nephthys, identified by her hieroglyph, is depicted as a green skinned goddess protecting the scarab with open wings.

On the right of Nephthys is Amun depicted as a ram, which is typical for the period after the 20th Dynasty. Previously he was usually depicted in human form, bearded, with a double plumed headdress.

Below Amun are two symbols of vases of incense, as well as a Wedjat Eye.

Below these again is a green skinned goddess, possibly Nut, with wings widespread in protection.

On the middle and right hand images on the vertical register can be seen the hieroglyph for Osiris, which consists of an eye, the symbol for a throne or seat, and a seated god with long curved beard, D4-Q1-A40 on Gardiner's sign list.

Catalog: West Thebes, Cailliaud expedition, Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 1, E 13029, CM 14
Photo and hieroglyph: Don Hitchcock 2015, 2021
Source: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/
Text: Don Hitchcock, Wikipedia

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Coffin of an Unknown Man

High resolution image of the case of EA24798.

Catalog: EA24798
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Painted wooden Osiris statues

Painted wooden Osiris statues to contain rolled funerary papyri.

Papyrus rolls inscribed with funerary texts were often placed inside the coffin or included among the wrappings of the mummy.

In the 19th and 20th Dynasties a hollow wooden statuette of Osiris was sometimes use as a container for the papyrus.

EA9865: (left)

Black painted wooden figure of Osiris; fitted with a compartment in the rear.

Height 50 centimetres.

Condition fair: incomplete beard, wings of crown and lid missing; damaged on right shoulder.


EA9863: (right)

Black painted wooden figure of Osiris; fitted with a compartment and a lid in the rear.

Height 54 centimetres

Condition fair: wings of crown missing; chipped in several places.

Catalog: Thebes, EA9863, EA9865
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Coffin of an Unknown Woman

Painted wooden coffin and mummy of an unidentified woman.

The coffin depicts the deceased wearing a large floral collar and leather braces signifying protection for the mummy. The surfaces are extensively decorated with scenes showing the adoration of Osiris and other deities, the winged solar disc, the goddess Nut and the sun-god in the form of a falcon.

Catalog: Thebes, EA48972
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Coffin of an Unknown Woman

The outer wrappings of the mummy are held in position by vertical, lateral and diagonal strips of linen, dyed in contrasting colours. The inscriptions on the coffin omit the name of the dead person, although the painted chin-strap of a beard and the representation of the clenched hands suggest that it was designed for a man. X-rays have shown, however, that the mummy is that of a middle aged woman.

Catalog: Thebes, EA48972
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015, 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Coffin of an Unknown Woman

All the teeth are present, but there are signs of dental wear.

Height 1850 mm, width 515 mm.

Catalog: Thebes, EA48972
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Neskhons

Calcite canopic jars with painted wooden lids of Neskhons, wife of the High Priest of Amun Pinedjem II.

Circa 990 BC - 969 BC

Qebehsenuef - Falcon, EA59197, panel of incised Hieroglyphic text coloured blue.
Dimensions: Diameter 170 mm, height 390 mm, weight 7.24 Kg.

Hapy - Hamadryas baboon, EA59199, panel of incised Hieroglyphic text coloured blue.
Dimensions: Diameter 170 mm, height 380 mm, weight 8.5 Kg.

Duamutef - Jackal, EA59198, panel of incised Hieroglyphic text coloured blue.
Dimensions: Diameter 165 mm, height 405 mm, weight 6.8 Kg.

Imsety - Human, EA59200, panel of incised Hieroglyphic text coloured blue.
Dimensions: Diameter 170 mm, height 380 mm, weight 7.4 Kg.

Neskhons was the daughter of Smendes II and Takhentdjehuti, and wed her paternal uncle, High Priest Pinedjem II, by whom she had four children: two sons, Tjanefer and Masaharta, and two daughters, Itawy and Nesitanebetashru. These are named on a decree written on a wooden tablet, which was placed in her tomb in order to ensure her well-being in the afterlife and to prevent her doing harm to her husband and children. This suggests family problems around the time of her death.

She predeceased her husband and her mummified corpse was placed with that of Pinedjem II in Tomb DB320 in the Theban Necropolis, in which it was rediscovered in 1881.

Catalog: Calcite, painted wood, Thebes, Deir el-Bahri, Royal Cache, EA59197 - EA59200
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Neskhons

Painted wooden stela of Neskhons, wife of the High Priest of Amun Pinedjem (II): depiction of (right) Neskhons facing left and offering to right-facing Osiris, seven vertical columns of hieroglyphs above identifying the god as Osiris with epithets and her as 'the Osiris the great head of the first troupe of Amun-Ra king of the gods, the god's servant of Khnum lord of the First Cataract, king's son of Kush, overseer of the southern hill-lands, god's servant of the Lady of Offerings of Serudet, head of noblewomen Neskhons true of voice'.

Height 395 mm, Accession Number LDUCE-UC14226.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, Petrie Museum, London, England
Text: Card / online catalogue, the Petrie Museum, © 2015 UCL. CC BY-NC-SA license.

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Coffin of Tjenthenef / Tanethenaef

Wooden anthropoid coffin of Tjenthenef / Tanethenaef.

Painted detail on plaster, hieroglyphic text. Late 21st Dynasty, circa 980 BC - 945 BC, from the Bab el-Gasus, no 44, Thebes / Luxor.

The exterior is decorated with scenes representing offerings to Osiris. Osiris is on a lion-shaped bier awakening to new life, and the deceased is giving offerings to the goddess Hathor in the form of a cow and receiving water from the Goddess of the West, who stands within the foliage of a tree.

A large figure of the Goddess of the West occupies the interior, to each side of which are some of the many forms in which the sun god was believed to be manifested.

The coffin was prepared for a woman with the title Chantress of Amen-Ra. The name Tanethenaef was added in a different colour of paint in spaces left for the purpose. The lid represents the dead woman adorned with a massive wig and a collar composed of flowers and petals. The numerous small scenes below represent Osiris, the sun god, and other deities.

Length: 2199 mm

Catalog: EA24791
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015, 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Coffin of Tjenthenef / Tanethenaef

Wooden anthropoid coffin of Tjenthenef / Tanethenaef.

Catalog: EA24791
Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Coffin of an Unknown Man


Wooden mummy-board of an unnamed man, with the outer coffin of Bakenmut behind and to the right.

Painted decoration on a layer of plaster, Deir el-Bahri (Thebes / Luxor), Second Cache.

Mid-late 21st dynasty, about 1000 BC - 945 BC, from Bab el-Gasus, no. 29. Below the floral collar is a large image of the sun god as a child squatting upon a lotus flower and flanked by protective winged serpent. Beneath this is the goddess Nut and series of compartments containing figures of the gods Osiris and Sokar, and the ba of the dead man.

Length: 1685 mm

Catalog: EA24790
Photo (left): Don Hitchcock 2015
Photo (right): © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Coffin of an Unknown Man

(left) Close up of the head of EA24790.

(right) High resolution close up of a winged scarab within the floral collar, and, below the collar, a large image of the sun god as a child within a red sun-disk, sitting on a lotus, bearing a striped crook as a symbol of power, and flanked by protective winged serpents.

Note that the scarab has had a face, looking to the right, added to the head. The face is that of the Egyptian god Khnum which was usually depicted with the head of a ram.

Catalog: EA24790
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Coffin of an Unknown Man

Close up.

Catalog: EA24790
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Coffin of an Unknown Man

Although the text above states that the sun god is sitting on a lotus flower, what this closeup shows is that it is the sun disk which sits on the lotus flower, whereas the sun god himself is actually sitting on what appears to be the seed case of a pink lotus.

These seed cases can be seen on either side of the red sun disk, and immediately below it, still bearing what looks like a schematic image of their stalks. Some reports, including that of Harer (1985) and Pommerening, Marinova, Hendrickx (2010) say that the pink or sacred lotus only arrived in Egypt from Asia in about 525 BC at the time of the Persian conquest.

Thus either the sacred or pink lotus was imported much earlier than that into Egypt, given the age of this mummy-board, or the design I have interpreted as a lotus seed case is in fact something else.

The seed case of the pink lotus may be seen in the drawing below, similar only in general shape to a poppy seed case, but with exposed holes or receptacles in the seed case holding the seeds.

Catalog: EA24790
Photo and text: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum

( note that this image is a drawing of the Sacred Lotus from Asia, Nelumbo nucifera, which is not endemic to the area, and was apparently imported at the time of the Persian conquest of Egypt - Don )

Two of the species of lotus which grew in the Nile, the white and the blue, have seed-vessels similar to those of the poppy: the capsules contain small grains of the size of millet-seed. The fruit of the pink lotus 'grows on a different stalk from that of the flower, and springs directly from the root; it resembles a honeycomb in form,' or, to take a more prosaic simile, the rose of a watering-pot. The upper part has twenty or thirty cavities, 'each containing a seed as big as an olive stone, and pleasant to eat either fresh or dried.'

This is what the ancients called the bean of Egypt. 'The yearly shoots of the papyrus are also gathered. After pulling them up in the marshes, the points are cut off and rejected, the part remaining being about a cubit in length. It is eaten as a delicacy and is sold in the markets, but those who are fastidious partake of it only after baking.' Twenty different kinds of grain and fruits, prepared by crushing between two stones, are kneaded and baked to furnish cakes or bread; these are often mentioned in the texts as cakes of nabeca, date cakes, and cakes of figs. Lily loaves, made from the roots and seeds of the lotus, were the delight of the gourmand, and appear on the tables of the kings of the XIXth dynasty.

Photo: Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from the Description de l'Egypte, Histoire Naturelle, pl. 61.
Source and text: Maspero (1903), Volume 1, Part A, Chapter I

Seedcase of the Asian Sacred Lotus, Nelumbo nucifera.

Photo: © Joel Savage
Source: https://joelsavage1.wordpress.com/2015/06/01/health-matters-evaluation-of-the-quality-and-wonders-of-lotus-seed-for-the-health/

Flower of the Asian Sacred Lotus, Nelumbo nucifera.

Photo: T.Voekler
Permission: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

(left) Flower of the Blue Lotus, Nymphaea caerulea.

(right) Flower of the White Lotus, Nymphaea lotus, at Lake Panic, Sukuza, Kruger National Park, South Africa.

( the blue lotus appears to be the most favoured species to be depicted on mummy-boards and coffins, judging by its shape - Don )

Photo (left): © http://www.rarexoticseeds.com/en/nymphaea-caerulea-seeds-blue-lotus.html
Photo (right): © Chris Eason, permission Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic licence

White water-lily (Nymphaea lotus L.), left, and blue water-lily (Nymphaea caerulea Sav.), right.

1. Fruit
2. Leaf and flower
3. Plant with rhizome.

Photo and text: Pommerening, Marinova, Hendrickx (2010)

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Coffin of an Unknown Man

High resolution close up of the goddess Nut on the coffin, and the ram's head of Khnum within a red solar disk which also contains his enemy, the snake, Apep.

Khnum was one of the earliest Egyptian deities, originally the god of the source of the Nile River. Since the annual flooding of the Nile brought with it silt and clay, and its water brought life to its surroundings, he was thought to be the creator of the bodies of human children, which he made at a potter's wheel, from clay, and placed in their mothers' wombs. Khnum is the third aspect of Ra, the solar deity, bringer of light.

The snake Apep was named as the greatest enemy of Ra, and was also known as 'the Lord of Chaos'. Ra was worshipped, and Apep worshipped against. Ra's victory each night, shown by the rising of the sun, was thought to be ensured by the prayers of the Egyptian priests and worshippers at temples. The Egyptians practiced a number of rituals and superstitions that were thought to ward off Apep, and aid Ra to continue his journey across the sky.

Catalog: EA24790
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Wikipedia

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Shabti Box

Painted wooden shabti box of the Chantress of Amun Isety, circa 1 070 BC - 945 BC.

The white painted type of shabti box with two vaulted lids was characteristic of the 21st Dynasty. The original cords and mud-seals which secured the lids still survive.

Catalog: Bab el-Gasus, EA24895
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Tameniut

The mummy-board of Tameniut.

Painted detail on plaster including Hieroglyphic text. Attached hands, one lost.

Thebes / Luxor, 21st Dynasty, circa 1050 BC.

Restoration of a usurped coffin: the wooden mummy-board of Tameniut:

During the 21st Dynasty many coffins at Thebes were removed from tombs and reinscribed to adapt them for new owners. On this mummy-board the name of the owner, the Chantress of Amun Tameniut, has been erased and subsequently restored.

A hieroglyphic text on the reverse (lower left) throws light on this. It is dated in the third year of an unnamed ruler, and states that the object was restored to its true owner after it was found that the workers of the necropolis had removed the names from the inscriptions.

Catalog: EA15659
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Tameniut

Details of the mummy-board of Tameniut.

Catalog: EA15659
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Singer

Singer before Amun in the form of a ram, circa 1 000 BC.

Amun was originally the local deity of Thebes, who rose to national importance with the overthrow of the Hyksos in the18th Dynasty, and the reign of Ahmose I.

( note that steles of this type are meant to be read from top to bottom as though it were left to right, in this case with the singer facing Amun - Don )

Catalog: Limestone, probably from Thebes, Inv. Nr. 2938
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source and text: Original, Museum August Kestner, Hannover
Additional text: Wikipedia

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Taihuty

Wooden anthropoid coffin of Taihuty / Ta-ahuty.

Painted detail on plaster, hieroglyphic text, Thebes / Luxor, 21st Dynasty, circa 980 BC.

From Bab el-Gasus, no. 32.

Length 1932 mm.

Catalog: EA24793
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Taihuty

Wooden anthropoid coffin of Taihuty / Ta-ahuty.

Catalog: EA24793
Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Source: Original, British Museum

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Taihuty

Wooden anthropoid coffin of Taihuty / Ta-ahuty, close-up, and the painted interior of the coffin.

Catalog: EA24793
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Taihuty

Close up of the wooden anthropoid coffin of Taihuty / Ta-ahuty, showing the superbly detailed bas relief decorations.

Catalog: EA24793
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

The Litany of Ra

Circa 1000 BC

Another composition which was widely used during the 21st-22nd Dynasties was the 'Litany of Ra', which, like the 'Amduat', was originally restricted to the walls of royal tombs. This consisted chiefly of a series of images, mainly mummiform, representing the numerous different forms of the sun god. This example was made for a woman named Mutemwia.

Book of the Dead of Mutemwiya, frame 2, painted black, red and blue, decorated with colourful vignettes, mostly red, with plain bands at edge.

Length 548 mm (frame), width 262 mm (frame).

Inscription script: hieroglyphic.

Catalog: Papyrus, Thebes, EA10006,2
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Papyrus of Muthetepti

Circa 1 070 BC - 945 BC

Book of the Dead of Muthetepti; frame 5; painted with black, red, blue and white with colourful vignettes and texts, with blue and yellow borders.

Length 706 mm (frame), width 368 mm (frame).

Titles/epithets include Chantress of Amun-Ra.

The papyrus has suffered insect attack, and has been fractured.

Catalog: Papyrus, Black and red ink, Thebes, EA10010,5
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Taihuty

Wooden anthropoid coffin of Taihuty / Ta-ahuty, close-up, and the painted interior of the coffin.

Catalog: EA24793
Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Taihuty

The painted base of the coffin of Taihuty.

Catalog: EA24793
Photo (above): Don Hitchcock 2015, 2018
Photo (left): © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Ankhefenmut

Mummy board of Ankhefenmut from the Bab el-Gasus, no 68.

Found at the Second Cache. KV 35 in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt originally belonged to king Amenhotep II from the 18th Dynasty but was later used a mummy cache.

Royal and high elite mummies from the 18th, 19th, and 20th Dynasty were relocated here during the Third Intermediate Period and were identified by in inscriptions on their burial wrappings.

Ankhefenmut is entitled priest and sculptor of the temple of the goddess Mut. Other parts of his coffin-ensemble are in museums in Vienna and Albany (USA)

This mummy-board is decorated with an image of a pectoral incorporating a scarab beetle, a figure of the goddess Nut, and a rhomboidal pattern imitating bead-netting over a deep red background.

Catalog: EA24797
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Ankhefenmut

Mummy board of Ankhefenmut

21st Dynasty, 1077 BC - 943 BC.

Ankhefenmut's title was the priest and sculptor of the temple of the goddess Mut, consort of Amun-Re. Mut's cult-temple was at Thebes / Luxor, its ruins lying to the south of the great Temple of Amun-Re at Karnak. The colour palette used on Ankhefenmut's mummy board is limited to red, black and yellow. White is used, but only for the eyes and details of the net which covers the lower body of the figure.

Ankhefenmut is shown wearing the usual wig and garland collar around his upper body. On the lower half of the body is a cross-hatched design, which imitates a bead net on a red background. The design echoes real nets, made of faience beads, which have been found in some cases placed over the mummy inside the coffin.

The vertical and horizontal bands on the lower body match the bandages on the outside of mummies of this period.The goddess Nut is shown protecting the deceased with her feathered wings. She first appears on coffins and mummy boards from the New Kingdom (about 1550-1070 BC). She still appears, in human form, on the interior of coffins in the Roman period, a thousand years later.

There are other protective symbols on this coffin: the wedjat eyes which form a band on the right arm, perhaps representing a bracelet. These amulets were worn by the living, as well as being placed on the mummy, and represented on coffins.

Photo (left and centre): Don Hitchcock 2015
Photo (right): © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Source: Google Arts and Culture Project
Text: © https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/asset/mummy-board-of-ankhefenmut/xQHTJvNfTfxwUw

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Bakenmut

Lid of the painted wooden outer coffin of the God's Father of Amun, Bakenmut.

From Bab el-Gasus, number 40, Thebes / Luxor, 21st Dynasty, 980 BC - 945 BC. Wood, painted detail on plaster.

The exterior is decorated with a variety of scenes, including the sun god's barque, rowed by a procession of deities, and the deceased in the company of various gods, making offerings to the goddess Hathor in the form of a cow.

The interior is decorated with a large image of the Djed pillar enfolded in protective wings, and with mummiform figures representing different manifestations of the sun-god. Length 2084 mm.

Catalog: EA24792
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Bakenmut

Lid of the painted wooden outer coffin of the God's Father of Amun, Bakenmut.

Bakenmut holds in his hands wooden amulets in the form of the Djed pillar and the Tit or Tjet, associated with the deities Osiris and Isis respectively.

Catalog: EA24792
Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Bakenmut

The outer coffin of Bakenmut shows him wearing a striped head-dress surmounted by a lotus blossom, and with a garland collar around his shoulders and upper body. This arrangement is often depicted on coffins of the New Kingdom (circa 1550 - 1070 BC) and early first millennium BC. Bakenmut's crossed hands hold the djed pillar and tit amulet.

The tit symbol (pronounced teet) illustrates a knotted piece of cloth whose early meaning is unknown, but in the New Kingdom it was clearly associated with the goddess Isis, the great magician and wife of Osiris. By this time, the tit (or tjet) was also associated with blood of Isis. The tit or tjet sign was considered a potent symbol of protection in the afterlife and the Book of the Dead specifies that the tit be made of blood-red stone, and placed at the deceased's neck.

Knots were widely used as amulets because the Egyptians believed they bound and released magic.

Below kneels a figure of the goddess Nut with her wings outstretched in order to protect the mummy. Nut is often depicted in this pose on the exterior of coffins of this period, and the preceding New Kingdom.

The exterior of Bakenmut's coffin is crammed with small scenes. The paint is so thickly applied that they appear in slightly raised relief. The scenes show deities such as Osiris, Isis and Nephthys and those linked with the solar cycle, such as the scarab Khepri, as well as Re in various mummified forms.

Catalog: EA24792
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/asset/outer-coffin-of-bakenmut/QQGjGNyfe4KGBQ
Additional text: http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/548207

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Bakenmut

Sides of the case of the painted wooden outer coffin of the God's Father of Amun, Bakenmut.

Catalog: EA24792
Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Source: Original, British Museum

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Bakenmut

The interior of the outer coffin of Bakenmut.

(Note the very strange images painted on this particular interior. Horus, the falcon headed god, is immediately recognisable, as is Thoth, the ibis headed god, but there are some odd snake like headed gods as well, probably various versions of Apep, the evil Lord of Chaos, the snake headed enemy of Ra, the solar deity, the bringer of light.

In addition there is a somewhat rare depiction of Unut, a goddess with a hare's head. I find the god to the right of Thoth at the base of the coffin particularly enigmatic. It appears to be a god with the head of a Khet, or brazier - Don )

Catalog: EA24792
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Bakenmut

The interior of the outer coffin of Bakenmut.

The main feature of the interior of the coffin is a large djed pillar, topped by a triple version of the crown of Osiris, further ornamented with rams horns. At the top of the coffin is a large ba bird, whose wings flanked the head of the mummy.

Catalog: EA24792
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/asset/outer-coffin-of-bakenmut/QQGjGNyfe4KGBQ

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Bakenmut

The outer coffin of Bakenmut shows him wearing a striped head-dress surmounted by a lotus blossom, and with a garland collar around his shoulders and upper body. This arrangement is often depicted on coffins of the New Kingdom (about 1550-1070 BC) and early first millennium BC.

Bakenmut's crossed hands hold the djed pillar and tit amulet. Below kneels a figure of the goddess Nut with her wings outstretched in order to protect the mummy. Nut is often depicted in this pose on the exterior of coffins of this period, and the preceding New Kingdom.

The exterior of Bakenmut's coffin is crammed with small scenes. The paint is so thickly applied that they appear in slightly raised relief. The scenes show deities such as Osiris, Isis and Nephthys and those linked with the solar cycle, such as the scarab Khepri, as well as Re in various mummified forms.

The main feature of the interior of the coffin is a large djed pillar, topped by a triple version of the crown of Osiris, further ornamented with rams horns.

At the top of the coffin is a large ba bird, whose wings flanked the head of the mummy.

Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Source: Google Arts and Culture Project
Text: © https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/asset/outer-coffin-of-bakenmut/QQGjGNyfe4KGBQ

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Amun Nes-pa-neb-imakh

(Left) Lid of the coffin of the priest called Amun Nes-pa-neb-imakh.

Wood, Luxor, New Kingdom 1000-970 BC

Photo (left): Don Hitchcock 2014
Source: Original, Københavns (Copenhagen) Museum, National Museum of Denmark



(Centre and right): This so-called mummy board was placed inside the coffin on top of the mummy, to function as a full-length mummy-mask.

This mummy board also belonged to the priest called Amun Nes-pa-neb-imakh. The detailed decoration primarily focuses on the adoration of the Egyptian god of the dead, Osiris.

Wood, Luxor, New Kingdom 1000-970 BC
Height: 174 cm. Width: 45 cm
Wood.

Photo (centre): Don Hitchcock 2014
Source: Original, Københavns (Copenhagen) Museum, National Museum of Denmark

Photo (right): https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/asset-viewer/mummy-board/5wGrQGZKqBq0qg?projectId=art-project
Permission: CC-BY-SA

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Canopic Jars

Two dummy canopic jars of Henut-Tawy, Songstress of Amun, imitating stone, circa 1 000 BC

Catalog: Painted wood and stucco, ÄS 27, ÄS 28
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, Ägyptischen Museum München
Text: © Ägyptischen Museum München

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Priest of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu

(Note that that there are many individuals with the name of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu. They are further designated scribe or prophet or priest, and sometimes have suffixes after the name to identify them - Don )

The priest of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu. Since he is one with Osiris, he is shown (on the right, the topmost lid) with a curved beard and holding an ankh sign, the sign of life.

Wood, Luxor, New Kingdom, 1000-950 BC.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2014
Source: Original, Københavns (Copenhagen) Museum, National Museum of Denmark

This is an excellent diagram of the family of the high priests of Thebes / Luxor and the royal family of Tanis.

Tanis was a city in ancient Egypt and served as a parallel religious centre to Thebes / Luxor in the Third Intermediate Period. No archaeological evidence from it pre-dates the reign of Psusennes I (1039-991 BC, 21st Dynasty), but many scholars think it originated in the late New Kingdom. Tanis's creation was most likely due to the silting up of the Nile branch that ran by Pi-Ramesses, which forced people to seek another area with access to water. Later on, Tanis would become known as Thebes / Luxor of Lower Egypt.

The kings at Tanis saw themselves as the legitimate successors on the throne of Upper and Lower Egypt. They used traditional titles and displayed their royalty in building work, although that was insignificant when compared to activity at the height of the New Kingdom.

Tanis was founded in the late Twentieth Dynasty, and became the northern capital of Egypt during the following Twenty-first Dynasty. It was the home city of Smendes, founder of the 21st dynasty. During the Twenty-second Dynasty Tanis remained as Egypt's political capital (though there were sometimes rival dynasties located elsewhere in Upper Egypt). It was an important commercial and strategic city until it was threatened with inundation by Lake Manzala in the 6th century AD, when it was finally abandoned. The refugees founded the nearby city of Tennis.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2014
Source and text: Original, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden
Additional text: Wikipedia

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Amenemipet

Coffin of the priest Amenemipet, 21st Dynasty, from Deir el-Bahri, length 2058 mm.

The anthropoid (human-shaped) coffin of Amenemipet is typical of Egyptian coffins of the period immediately after the New Kingdom (that is, after about 1070 BC). At this time, Egyptian tombs were not decorated, and many of the scenes which would have appeared on the tomb walls were instead transferred to the coffins.The various scenes on the exterior and interior of the coffin are painted in white, blue, green, red and black on a yellow background.

Short hieroglyphic labels, written on a white background, explain the scenes. These include the worship of the sun god and other deities by the deceased and his ba. According to Egyptian beliefs, the ba was an element of the individual (similar to 'personality'), which was divided at death but reunited in the Afterlife. It is represented as a bird with a human head. Another scene shows Amenemipet's mummy being purified by Anubis.

The funerary deities Isis and Nephthys are also represented.The cartouche of King Amenhotep I (about 1525-1504 BC) appears on the interior of the coffin, by the head of the deceased. Amenhotep was a king of the early Eighteenth Dynasty, and revered as the founder of the Theban necropolis (cemetery).

Catalog: EA22941
Photo: Google Arts & Culture, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/asset/coffin-of-the-priest-amenemipet/SAHuiqucxNHo9w?hl=en, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Amenemipet / Amun Amenemope

Coffin of the priest Amenemipet, 21st Dynasty, from Deir el-Bahri, length 2058 mm.

Painted wooden coffin of the priest Amenemipet, also known as the priest of Amun Amenemope.

Late 21st - early 22nd Dynasty, about 950 BC - 900 BC, from Thebes / Luxor.

The lid is dominated by a large floral collar, over which is represented a crossed stole of red leather, an element of the trappings of mummies at this period, probably signifying protection. The exterior of the coffin case carries scenes from the Amduat, showing the nocturnal journey of the sun god. On the interior are depictions of the solar disc and the deceased adoring various gods.

Catalog: EA22941
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at the Museum © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Amenemipet / Amun Amenemope

Coffin of the priest Amenemipet, 21st Dynasty.

Catalog: Thebes, EA22941
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/ and card at the Museum, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Amenemipet / Amun Amenemope

Interior of the coffin of the priest Amenemipet, 21st Dynasty.

Catalog: Thebes, EA22941
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/ and card at the Museum, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Amenemipet / Amun Amenemope

Interior of the coffin of the priest Amenemipet, 21st Dynasty, annotated.

Bes was a widely worshipped deity in ancient Egypt and was believed to be the deity of music, merriment, and childbirth. As such, Bes was thought to be a protector of children, and depictions of him were frequently seen in the bedrooms of ancient Egyptian households. His unruly beard, lion’s mask, loud instruments, and wild dancing were all thought to drive away any evil spirits that attempted to infiltrate the house. Additionally, Bes was thought to be a protector of both couples and pregnant women, and was commonly worshipped by ancient Egyptian newlyweds.

Bes was consistently shown as a dwarf-like being, with arms much too long for his body. This depiction of what the ancient Egyptians viewed as an 'imperfect' human is very unusual among artwork of deities, and it is theorised that his stature is the result of corruption from his encounters with malevolent spirits.

Normally Egyptian gods were shown in profile, but instead Bes usually appeared in full face portrait, having an erect penis, and sometimes in a soldier's tunic, so as to appear ready to launch an attack on any approaching evil. However in this case he is shown in profile, showing his tail, and in this depiction, a hairy body.

Anubis in canine form is often shown wearing a red collar or a tie as here. Anubis was the god of the dead and was particularly associated with embalming and mummification. Although modern sources often refer to him as a jackal, the Egyptians referred to him as a dog, and the animal known as the Egyptian jackal is actually a member of the grey wolf family.

Anubis in human form is shown here wearing the double crown of Egypt. As a son of Osiris, he is entitled to wear this. Also as shown here, he often has a long wig which covers the transition from a canine head to a human body. His skin is the green colour of a deity, and he has hairy or furry ears.

Ba-Bird - The ba is an aspect of a person's non-physical being. After death, the ba was able to travel out from the tomb, but it had to periodically return to the tomb and be reunited with the mummy. The ba was usually represented as a bird with a human head, and sometimes with human arms, as shown here.

Ba bird statuettes are among the wooden statues that might accompany a burial in the Late and Ptolemaic Periods. Sometimes they were prepared for attachment to a coffin or certain kinds of stelae. These ba-birds wear a white band around the head, and are each accompanied by a sundisk and an Ankh, the key of life.

Wepwawet, distinguished from Anubis who was normally depicted as black, by Wepwawet's grey or light coloured fur. Here he is shown with furry/hairy ears, and with the green skin of a deity. He was originally a war deity, whose cult centre was Asyut in Upper Egypt (Lycopolis in the Greco-Roman period). His name means opener of the ways and he is often depicted as a wolf standing at the prow of a solar-boat, a ritual vessel believed by ancient Egyptians to carry the resurrected king across the heavens with the sun god Ra. Some interpret that Wepwawet was seen as a scout, going out to clear routes for the army to proceed forward.

Over time, the connection to war and thus to death led to Wepwawet also being seen as one who opened the ways to, and through, Duat, for the spirits of the dead. Through this, and the similarity of the jackal to the wolf, Wepwawet became associated with Anubis, a deity that was worshiped in Asyut, eventually being considered his son. Seen as a jackal, he also was said to be Set's son. Consequently, Wepwawet often is confused with Anubis. This deity appears in the Temple of Seti I at Abydos.

Wepwawet usually was shown with grey, or white fur, reflecting his lupine origins. He was often shown dressed as a soldier, as well as carrying other military equipment — a mace and a bow, but these are not present in this depiction.

Djed Pillars - The djed-pillar can perhaps be understood as the backbone of Osiris, or that of the deceased associated with him. The Egyptians recognised the importance of the spine and saw it as a symbol that kept Osiris, the resurrected god, intact and able to function. Spell 151e of the Book of the Dead refers to the djed-pillar amulet as 'the magical protection of Osiris,' and spell 155 was recited over this amulet as it was placed on the throat of a mummy. As a hieroglyph, the djed-pillar denotes the more abstract concepts of stability, endurance, and rejuvenation.

Isis knots or Tyets were a type of amulet consisting of an open, knotted loop of cloth from which hangs a long sash flanked by a pair of loops. These amulets were closely associated with the goddess Isis and her protective powers. From the New Kingdom on, Egyptians and later Nubians routinely included them in the mummy wrappings to guard the mummy. The ideal material for Tyets was red stone, identified with the blood of Isis, although many examples of faience were also made. They were a common painted decoration on/in coffins.

Nut (Nuit) was the Egyptian sky goddess, born of Shu, god of air, and Tefnut, goddess of water and fertility. With her brother and husband Geb, the earth, she bore Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys. Nut is usually depicted with stars covering her body, particularly her hands and feet, which were seen as the four cardinal points. She was the granddaughter of the great sun god Ra, but also an important mother figure to him in many of the legends. In Lower Egypt, the Milky Way was viewed as the celestial image of Nut.

Nut is often featured inside of coffin lids as a symbol of the sky over the deceased soul in the afterlife. In this form, she was known as the goddess of death. Almost every sarcophagus located at the Cairo Museum features the figure or face of Nut inside the lid. Some coffins feature her as having protective wings (as here), while others symbolise her as a ladder. Her role in the afterlife tied closely with the view of her as the ultimate mother. The journey of death would bring the dead back to the arms of the goddess-mother Nut, much like night would bring Ra back to her.

Sun disk - The Aten was the disk of the sun and originally an aspect of Ra, the sun god in traditional ancient Egyptian religion. Akhenaten, however, made it the sole focus of official worship during his reign. The worship of Aten was initially dismantled by Tutankhamun and later eradicated by Tutankhamun's former military general Horemheb.

The first known reference to Aten the sun-disk as a deity is in the Story of Sinuhe from the 12th Dynasty, in which the deceased king is described as rising as a god to the heavens and uniting with the sun-disk, the divine body merging with its maker.

The sun is the giver of life, controlling the ripening of crops which were worked by man. Because of the life-giving qualities of the sun the Egyptians worshiped the sun as a god. The creator of the universe and the giver of life, the sun or Ra represented life, warmth and growth. Since the people regarded Ra as a principal god, creator of the universe and the source of life, he had a strong influence on them, which led to him being one of the most worshiped of all the Egyptian gods and even considered King of the Gods. At an early period in Egyptian history his influence spread throughout the whole country, bringing multiple representations in form and in name. The most common form combinations are with Atum (his human form), Khepri (the scarab beetle) and Horus (the falcon).

Eyes of Wedjat - one of the most popular amulets in ancient Egypt, the Wedjat eye represents the healed eye of the god Horus. It depicts a combination of a human and a falcon eye, since Horus was often associated with a falcon. Its ancient Egyptian name, Wedjat, means 'the one that is sound.' In Egyptian mythology Horus’ eye was injured or stolen by the god Seth and then restored by Thoth. The Wedjat eye embodies healing power and symbolises rebirth. An amulet in this shape was thought to protect its wearer and to transfer the power of regeneration onto him or her. It was used by the living as well as for the dead.

Horus, in ancient Egyptian religion, was a god in the form of a falcon whose right eye was the sun or morning star, representing power, and whose left eye was the moon or evening star, representing healing.

The Scarab ( Scarabaeus sacer ) was seen as a symbol of renewal and rebirth. The beetle was associated closely with the sun god because scarabs roll large balls of dung in which to lay their eggs, a behaviour that the Egyptians thought resembled the progression of the sun through the sky from east to west. Its young were hatched from this ball, and this event was seen as an act of spontaneous self-creation, giving the beetle an even stronger association with the sun god’s creative force. The connection between the beetle and the sun was so close that the young sun god was thought to be reborn in the form of a winged scarab beetle every morning at sunrise. As this young sun god, known as Khepri, rose in the sky, he brought light and life to the land.

Scarab amulets were used for their magical rejuvenating properties by both the living and the dead. Scarabs were used by living individuals as seals from the start of the Middle Kingdom onwards.

Ra was the ancient Egyptian deity of the sun. Ra (or Re) was portrayed as a falcon and shared characteristics with the sky-god Horus. At times the two deities were merged as Ra-Horakhty/Re-Horakhty, 'Ra, who is Horus of the Two Horizons'. In the New Kingdom, when the god Amun rose to prominence he was fused with Ra as Amun-Ra.

The cult of the Mnevis bull, an embodiment of Ra, had its center in Heliopolis and there was a formal burial ground for the sacrificed bulls north of the city.

All forms of life were believed to have been created by Ra. In some accounts, humans were created from Ra's tears and sweat, hence the Egyptians call themselves the 'Cattle of Ra'. The sun is the giver of life, controlling the ripening of crops which were worked by man. Because of the life-giving qualities of the sun the Egyptians worshiped the sun as a god. The creator of the universe and the giver of life, the sun or Ra represented life, warmth and growth. Since the people regarded Ra as a principal god, creator of the universe and the source of life, he had a strong influence on them, which led to him being one of the most worshiped of all the Egyptian gods and even considered King of the Gods. At an early period in Egyptian history his influence spread throughout the whole country, bringing multiple representations in form and in name. The most common form combinations are with Atum (his human form), Khepri (the scarab beetle) and Horus (the falcon). The form in which he usually appears is that of a man with a falcon's head, which is due to his combination with Horus, another sky-god. On top of his head sits a solar disc with a cobra, which in many myths represents the Eye of Ra. At the beginning of time, when there was nothing but chaos, the sun-god existed alone in the watery mass of Nun which filled the universe. 'I am Atum when he was alone in Nun, I am Ra when he dawned, when he began to rule that which he had made.'

When Ra was in the underworld, he merged with Osiris, the god of the dead.

Osiris is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was classically depicted as a green-skinned deity with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing the distinctive atef crown, and holding a symbolic crook and flail. Osiris was widely worshipped until the decline of ancient Egyptian religion during the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire.

Osiris was the oldest child of Geb, the Earth deity and Nut, the sky goddess. His wife and sister was Isis, goddess of motherhood, magic, fertility, death, healing, and rebirth. It was said that Osiris and Isis were deeply in love with each other, even in the womb. In the New Kingdom, Osiris was considered the master of the underground world, the next world – the Afterlife.

In the mythology, before becoming master of the Afterlife, Osiris ruled Egypt and taught agriculture and gave laws and civilisation to humans. However, Osiris’s brother, Seth, was extremely jealous of him, so Seth killed Osiris and cut his body into pieces, which he distributed around Egypt. With Osiris dead, Seth became king of Egypt, with his sister Nepthys as his wife. Nepthys felt sorry for her sister, Isis, who wept endlessly over her lost husband. Isis, who had great magical powers, decided to find her husband and bring him back to life long enough so they could have a child together. With Nepthys, Isis roamed the country, collecting the pieces of her husband’s body, reassembling them, and holding them together with linen wrappings. He was one of the first to be associated with the mummy wrap. Isis breathed the breath of life into his body and resurrected him. They were together again and soon afterwards Isis magically conceived a child – Horus.

Osiris then descended into the underworld, where he became the lord of that domain.

Sphinx - in the New Kingdom, the sphinx was a symbol for the sun god as Re-Horakhty, the winged sun disk that appeared on the horizon at dawn. Here the two symbols are combined. Note, however, that Re-Horakhty was more commonly depicted as Horus, the falcon headed god. The sun-god could take many forms. At dawn, he was Khepri, represented as a dung beetle. At sunset, he was Atum, the primordial creator, often shown as a human being dressed in kingly regalia. Already in the Old Kingdom, we know from the Pyramid Texts that these three gods were considered aspects of one being.

Hathor was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sky god Horus and the sun god Ra, both of whom were connected with kingship, and thus she was the symbolic mother of their earthly representatives, the pharaohs. She was one of several goddesses who acted as the Eye of Ra, Ra's feminine counterpart, and in this form she had a vengeful aspect that protected him from his enemies. Her beneficent side represented music, dance, joy, love, sexuality, and maternal care, and she acted as the consort of several male deities and the mother of their sons. These two aspects of the goddess exemplified the Egyptian conception of femininity. Hathor crossed boundaries between worlds, helping deceased souls in the transition to the afterlife.

Hathor was often depicted as a cow, symbolising her maternal and celestial aspect, and she is shown here with a sun disk between her horns, although her most common form was a woman wearing a headdress of cow horns and a sun disk.

Catalog: Thebes, EA22941
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/ and card at the Museum, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Additional text: egyptianmuseum.org/deities-bes, Wikipedia, museums.eu, wolf.org, www.metmuseum.org, brooklynmuseum.org, collections.mfa.org, ancient-egypt-online.com, britannica.com, archaeologicalmuseum.jhu.edu, arce.org

The Atef is the specific feathered white crown of Osiris. It combines the Hedjet, the white crown of Upper Egypt, with curly ostrich feathers on each side of the crown for the Osiris cult. The feathers are identified as ostrich from their curl or curve at the upper ends, with a slight flare toward the base. They may be compared with the falcon tail feathers in two-feather crowns such as those of Amun, which are more narrow and straight without curve.

The Atef crown identifies Osiris in ancient Egyptian painting and sculpture. Osiris wears the Atef crown as a symbol of the ruler of the underworld. The tall bulbous white piece in the center of the crown is between two ostrich feathers. The feathers represent truth and justice. The Atef crown is similar, save for the feathers, to the plain white crown (Hedjet) first recorded in the Predynastic Period and worn as a symbol for pharaonic Upper Egypt

Photo: © Jeff Dahl, via Wikimedia
Permission: GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version

This is the only known example of Anubis with a human head, from the Cenotaph Temple of Ramesses II at Abydos.

Photo: unattributed, reddit.com

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Tanetnahereret

Mummiform coffin (outer sarcophagus).

Mistress of the house, singer of Amun, singer of Amun-Ra king of the gods, great singer of Mut lady of Isheru, supervisor of the nurses.

Shroud, crossed arms, tripartite wig, Usekh collar, earrings, headband, ring.

Length 2150 mm, width 715 mm, height 380 mm, 460 mm.

Catalog: Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 2, E 13027 (coffin E 13034, mummy cover E 13035)
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source and text: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Tanetnahereret

Mummiform coffin (outer sarcophagus).

( This is the best preserved of the decorative panels on this sarcophagus.

It shows the falcon headed god, Horus, kneeling and holding the crook and flail of power and authority.

In front of him is the god Anubis, also kneeling and holding the crook and flail. They sit inside what appears to be a shrine, with an arched roof and walls shown as Djed pillars, a common decorative element on this set of three mummy cases.

This combination of arched roof and djed pillar walls is often used in the model shrines in which Shabti are often placed.

The two gods are kneeling/sitting on a 'divine standard', a horizontal rod mounted on a vertical pole, often with decorations (feathers, strips of cloth) hanging below the platform. It is usually strengthened by one triangulating brace only, not two.

On the right is a woman in a sleeved dress, holding a sistrum and in the adoring pose.  - Don )

Catalog: Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 2, E 13027 (coffin E 13034, mummy cover E 13035)
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source and text: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/
Additional text: Don Hitchcock

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Tanetnahereret

Mummiform coffin (inner coffin of the sarcophagus immediately above)

Mistress of the house, chanteuse-chémayt (singer-shemayet, a singer-musician to a particular god, a position of high status, a title first used in the 18th dynasty) of Amun, singer of Amun-Ra king of the gods, great singer of Mut, lady of Isheru, supervisor of the nurses.

Shroud, tripartite wig, headband, lotus flower, earrings, Usekh collar, ring, crossed arms.

Length 1890 mm, width 550 mm.

Catalog: Painted wood, West Thebes, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 2, E 13034, 791, E 22343, CM19. Mummy cover E 13035, CM 20
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source and text: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Tanetnahereret

Details of the decorations on the inner coffin E 13034 above.

On the right is a woman, standing, adoring, with a sleeved, pleated dress, holding a sistrum.

At the centre is a seated god ( shown with green skin, thus a god, probably Osiris) - Don ), with loin cloth, corselet, and sun disk, holding a crook and a flail. A winged goddess, Nephthys, stands behind the god, protecting him with her wings. The sign/hieroglyph of Nephthys to the right of the figure has been somewhat distorted, possibly for aesthetic/design reasons.


Hieroglyph for Nephthys






Catalog: Painted wood, West Thebes, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 2, E 13034, 791, E 22343, CM19. Mummy cover E 13035, CM 20
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source and text: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Osiris figure

Wooden Osiris figure, unidentified owner.

Circa 1 070 BC - 945 BC

Height 475 mm, length 340 mm.

Catalog: Wood, EA9866
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card with the display at the British Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/ , © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Tanetnahereret

On the left Sokar, a falcon, wearing an atef crown. The thickly painted head section has come off.

Neith protects Sokar with her wings, there are a pair of uraeus cobra figures wearing headdresses and symbolising the power of the gods and the Egyptian monarchy.

On the right is a woman standing, with a sleeved, pleated dress, holding a sistrum, and adoring Sokar.

For the register below, on the left is the jackal/wolf headed god Anubis, with green skin denoting his godly status, wearing a loincloth and corselet and holding the flail and crook of power. On the far left is a standing winged goddess with wings spread, protecting Anubis.

On the right is a woman standing, with a sleeved, pleated dress, holding a sistrum, and adoring Anubis.

Catalog: Painted wood, West Thebes, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 2, E 13034, 791, E 22343, CM19. Mummy cover E 13035, CM 20
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source and text: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Tanetnahereret

Mummy cover of the coffin immediately above

Mistress of the house, singer-musician (chanteuse-chémayt) of Amun, singer of Amun-Ra king of the gods, great singer of Mut, lady of Isheru, supervisor of the nurses.

Shroud, tripartite wig, headband, Usekh collar, lotus flower, earrings, ring, crossed arms.

Length 1730 mm, width 410 mm, thickness 120mm.

Catalog: Painted wood, West Thebes, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 2, E 13035, CM20.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source and text: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Tanetnahereret

Next section of the mummy cover.

( This panel shows the ubiquitous woman in a sleeved dress, holding a sistrum and in the adoring pose on the right.

On the left is a god, probably Osiris, with the green skin given to senior gods. On his head is a green sun disk. He is seated, and is wearing a pleated kilt and holding the flail, crook and ankh, all symbols of power and authority.

On the right of Osiris is the wedjat eye, which represents the healed eye of the god Horus. It depicts a combination of a human and a falcon eye, since Horus was often associated with a falcon.

Its ancient Egyptian name, wedjat, means 'the one that is sound.' In Egyptian mythology Horus’ eye was injured or stolen by the god Seth and then restored by Thoth. The wedjat eye embodies healing power and symbolises rebirth.  - Don )

Length 1730 mm, width 410 mm, thickness 120 mm.

Catalog: Painted wood, West Thebes, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 2, E 13035, CM20.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/
Text: Don Hitchcock. Wedjat eye information from https://www.metmuseum.org/.

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Unidentified Woman

Closeup of the painted wooden mummy-board of an unidentified woman.

Late 21st - early 22nd Dynasty, about 950 BC - 900 BC, from Thebes / Luxor.

Beneath the large floral collar are winged solar discs, the goddess Nut flanked by ba-birds, and many small images of deities. At the foot is the cartouche of the deified king Amenhotep I.

Length 1685 mm, width 380 mm, thickness 120 mm.

Catalog: EA22542
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at the museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Unidentified Woman

Full length view of the painted wooden mummy-board of an unidentified woman, as above.

Catalog: EA22542
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015, 2018
Source: Original, British Museum

The Unlucky Mummy

From the British Museum site, http://www.britishmuseum.org/

Text attributed to: Strudwick (2006)

This object, EA22542, is perhaps best known for the strange folkloric history attributed to it. It has acquired the popular nickname of the 'Unlucky Mummy', with a reputation for bringing misfortune. None of these stories has any basis in fact, but from time to time the strength of the rumours has led to a flood of enquiries.

The mummy-board is said to have been bought by one of four young English travellers in Egypt during the 1860s or 1870s. Two died or were seriously injured in shooting incidents, and the other two died in poverty within a short time. The mummy-board was passed to the sister of one of the travellers, but as soon as it had entered her house the occupants suffered a series of misfortunes. The celebrated clairvoyant Madame Helena Blavatsky is alleged to have detected an evil influence, and ultimately traced it to the mummy-board. She urged the owner to dispose of it and in consequence it was presented to the British Museum.

The most remarkable story is that the mummy-board was on board the SS Titanic on its maiden voyage in 1912, and that its presence caused the ship to collide with an iceberg and sink!Needless to say, there is no truth in any of this; the object had never left the Museum until it went to a temporary exhibition in 1990.

This mummy-board is both a remarkable ancient object and an example of how Egyptian objects can develop their own modern existence.Mummy-boards or covers like this were placed on top of the mummy, which would lie inside one or two wooden coffins decorated in a very similar fashion. The mummy to which this board belonged is said to have been left in Egypt.

No inscriptions on the board identify the deceased, presumably because that task would have been performed by the outer coffins.The wooden board was covered in plaster, serving as a painting ground, with many of the decorative elements modelled in the plaster to give the appearance of raised relief. The decoration was executed with great care in red, blue, and light and dark green; the predominantly yellow effect comes either from the use of a yellow ground or from the varnish, applied to the finished object, which has gradually turned yellow.

On the shoulders of the mummy-board is a massive coloured collar, below which is a series of complex scenes. They include images of baboons worshipping the sun, figures of Osiris, and many protective deities, including the name of Amenhotep I, the dead king worshipped as a local deity in Thebes / Luxor. One of the coffin's functions, other than to act as a container for the body, was to serve as a microcosm, setting the deceased within the larger environment of the universe itself; thus the solar and Osirian symbolism essential to assist the person's rebirth figures prominently. The decoration usual in the Twenty-first Dynasty is perhaps the most elaborate example of this.

From Wikipedia:

The name 'Unlucky Mummy' is misleading as the artifact is not a mummy at all, but rather a gessoed and painted wooden 'mummy-board' or inner coffin lid. It was found at Thebes / Luxor and can be dated by its shape and the style of its decoration to the late 21st or early 22nd Dynasty (c 950–900 BC).

In the British Museum it is known by its serial number EA22542. The beardless face and the position of the hands with fingers extended show that it was made to cover the mummified body of a woman. Her identity is not known due to the brief hieroglyphic inscriptions containing only short religious phrases, and omitting mention of the name of the deceased. The high quality of the lid indicates that the owner was a person of high rank. It was usual for such ladies to participate in the musical accompaniments to the rituals in the temple of Amen-ra; hence early British Museum publications described the owner of 22542 as a 'priestess of Amen-Ra'.

The mummy-board is 162 centimetres (64 in) in length and made out of wood and plaster. The detail is painted upon the plaster, and hands protrude from the wooden mummy-board. For its age, the mummy-board is of good quality.

The mummy-board has acquired a reputation for bringing misfortune, and a vast web of mythology has developed around it. It has been credited with causing death, injury and large-scale disasters such as the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, thereby earning the nickname 'The Unlucky Mummy'. None of these stories have any basis in fact, but from time to time the strength of the rumours has led to a flood of enquiries on the subject. A disclaimer written by Wallis Budge was published in 1934, and yet since that time the myth has undergone further embellishment.

The 'Unlucky Mummy' has also been linked to the death of the British writer and journalist, Bertram Fletcher Robinson. Robinson conducted research into the history of that artefact whilst working as a journalist for the Daily Express newspaper during 1904. He became convinced that the 'Unlucky Mummy' had malevolent powers and died just three years later aged 36 years.

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Pharaoh Amenemopet / Amenemope

Funerary mask of 21st Dynasty Pharaoh Amenemope

According to the analysis of his skeleton performed by Dr. Douglas Derry, Amenemope was a strongly-built man who reached a fairly advanced age. It seems that the king suffered a skull infection which likely developed into meningitis and led to his death. Burial: Amenemope was originally buried in the only chamber of a small tomb (NRT IV) in the royal necropolis of Tanis; a few years after his death, during the reign of Siamun, Amenemope was moved and reburied in NRT III, inside the chamber once belonging to his purported mother Mutnedjmet and just next to Psusennes I. His undisturbed tomb was rediscovered by French Egyptologists Pierre Montet and Georges Goyon in April 1940, just a month before the Nazi invasion of France. Montet had to stop his excavation until the end of World War II, then resumed it in 1946 and later published his findings in 1958.

Photo: tutincommon (John Campana)
Permission: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
Source: Original, Cairo Museum
Text: Wikipedia

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Amenemopet (sandal maker)

Stele of Amenemopet in front of the god Amun-Re in various forms.

Dimensions: 310 mm x 240 mm x 82 mm.

The owner of the stele kneels sacrificially in front of the enthroned god Amun-Re with a high double feather crown, the life-giving ankh symbol and the auspicious sceptre in his hands. The goose and rams pictured refer to the animal manifestations of this god, who had been worshipped as the supreme god in Egypt since the New Kingdom.

The inscription reports that the royal sandal maker of Osiris, Amenemopet, had this stele made for 'the great god Amun-Re, the lord of the two countries, the lord of heaven and powerful lions'.

Catalog: Sandstone, Abydos ÄM 7295
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Neues Museum, Germany
Text: © Card at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DE), http://www.smb-digital.de/

21st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 943 BC

Ibex head

Gilded bronze head of an ibex from a funerary boat, or sacred barque, formerly with glass inserts, 32 cm high.

Other animal heads like this were used as figureheads on funerary and ceremonial boats in Egypt. This particular figurehead would have been on one of the ends of a funerary boat that could have carried the coffin and procession of a very important person or pharaoh to their final resting place.

Funeral processions and religious ceremonies that required such means of travel and luxury were very common at this time in Egypt. It was acquired by the Neues Museum in 1893.

Catalog: Zagazig (? Delta), ÄM 11404
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Neues Museum, Germany
Text: © Card at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DE)
Additional text: https://history2701.fandom.com/wiki/Egyptian_Ibex_Head

21st - 22nd Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 716 BC

Falcon

Figure of a falcon attached to a coffin. Circa 1 077 BC - 746 BC

Catalog: ÄM 873
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Neues Museum, Germany
Text: © Card at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DE)

21st - 22nd Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 716 BC

Resting Jackal

Circa 1 077 BC - 746 BC

Catalog: ÄM 4674
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Neues Museum, Germany
Text: © Card at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DE)

21st - 22nd Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 716 BC

Amenemope

Part of the floor-board of a wooden anthropoid outer-coffin; painted decoration on plaster depicting Amenemope the owner offering to a funerary deity and Nun raising the solar barque; Hieroglyphic text.

Circa 950 BC - 900 BC

( note that this is not from the coffin of Pharoah Amenemope. Names were reused time and again in ancient Egypt, which sometimes makes identification of a particular article difficult - Don )

Made in the 10th Century BC.

Dimensions: Length 477 mm, width 412 mm.

Catalog: Painted plaster on wood, Thebes, EA69851
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Existence in the afterlife was believed to be essentially like the earthly life, a state of being in which the dead would have similar needs to those of the living - for food, drink, clothing and protection from dangers.

The funerary cult was chiefly directed towards satisfying these requirements. The social divisions which distinguished the king from his subjects were also believed to be perpetuated after death. In the Old Kingdom, the king alone was thought to ascend to the sky to join the gods; other individuals would dwell in the 'Beautiful West', beneath the earth or in the tomb itself. As time passed the distinctions between the royal and the non-royal afterlife were lost.

Both the king and his subjects might exist either in the underworld kingdom of Osiris or in the company of Ra as he travelled across the sky. Safe passage to the realm of the dead was a major concern. To reach it, the deceased had to be equipped with the special knowledge needed to pass gates and portals guarded by divinities. Acceptance into the afterlife also depended on proper conduct during life. Judgement of the dead by Osiris divided the blessed (akhu) from the damned (mutu), who did not experience rebirth.

21st - 22nd Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 716 BC

The Greenfield Papyrus

Book of the Dead of Nestanebetisheru, frame 63.

Full page black line vignette (of Spell 125) showing judgement and weighing of the heart against Maat. The deceased stands before an enthroned Osiris, with Isis and Nephthys behind him, as Anubis weighs the deceased's heart whilst Thoth records and Ammit stands by. In the top right-hand corner is a separate register showing a winged-beetle on a barque before four seated figures. Two separate hieroglyphic labels written in black ink identify Osiris.

Circa 950 BC - 930 BC

Dimensions: For this panel, length 646 mm, width 535 mm.

The Greenfield papyrus is a papyrus that contains an ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead and is named after Mrs. Edith Mary Greenfield. It is in the British Museum, London, England. It has a length of 37 metres.

It is one of the longest and most beautifully illustrated manuscripts of the 'Book of the Dead' to have survived. Originally over thirty-seven metres in length, it is now cut into ninety-six separate sheets mounted between glass. It was made for a woman named Nestanebisheru, the daughter of the high priest of Amun Pinedjem II. As a member of the ruling elite at Thebes, she was provided with funerary equipment of very high quality. Many of the spells included on her papyrus are illustrated with small vignettes, and besides these there are several large illustrations depicting important scenes.

Inscription translation: Titles/epithets include : First Leader-in-Chief of Musicians of Amonrasonther; Priestess of Amun-Ra Lord of Iurud; Priestess of Inheret-Shu Son of Ra; Servant of the Archive of Amonrasonther Titles/epithets include : High Priest of Amun.

Catalog: Papyrus, Deir el-Bahri (Thebes), First Cache, EA10554,63
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Additional text: Wikipedia

21st - 22nd Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 716 BC

Papyrus inscribed with a charm on behalf of the deceased.

Circa 1 070 BC - 900 BC

Small papyri such as this were placed at the neck of the mummy.

Sheet of papyrus with hieratic text in black ink; funerary text, the composition numbered 'Book of the Dead chapter 166' by Pleyte (an independent composition in 21st Dynasty burials).

Height 20 cm, width 17 cm.

Catalog: Papyrus, Thebes, EA75026
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st - 22nd Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 716 BC

Padiamenet

Book of the Dead of Padiamenet, head baker of the Amun Domain.

Circa 950 BC - 900 BC

After the New Kingdom many Books of the Dead contained only a small number of spells written in hieratic, the script of daily life. A single coloured illustration was placed at the beginning; here Padiamenet makes an offering to Osiris.

Length 100 cm (frame), width 28 cm (frame).

Hieratic text in red and black ink; full colour offering-vignette.

Catalog: Papyrus, Thebes, EA10063
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st - 22nd Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 716 BC

Tomb of Ta-baket-en-ta-aschket, called Ta-mit. Canopic jar with lid in the shape of a human head.

Dimensions: 355 x 135 x 135 mm.

Catalog: Limestone, painted, labeled, ÄM 20146
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Neues Museum, Germany
Text: © Card at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DE), http://www.smb-digital.de/

21st - 22nd Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 716 BC

Tomb of Ta-baket-en-ta-aschket, called Ta-mit. Canopic jar with lid in the shape of the head of a baboon.

Dimensions: 350 x 135 x 135 mm.

Catalog: Limestone, painted, labeled, Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, Thebes West, Tomb 28, ÄM 20147
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Neues Museum, Germany
Text: © Card at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DE), http://www.smb-digital.de/

21st - 22nd Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 716 BC

Tomb of Ta-baket-en-ta-aschket, called Ta-mit. Canopic jar with lid in the shape of the head of a jackal.

Dimensions: 385 x 130 x 155 mm.

Catalog: Limestone, painted, labeled, Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, Thebes West, Tomb 28, ÄM 20148
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Neues Museum, Germany
Text: © Card at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DE), http://www.smb-digital.de/

21st - 22nd Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 716 BC

Tomb of Ta-baket-en-ta-aschket, called Ta-mit. Canopic jar with lid in the shape of the head of a falcon.

Dimensions: 350 x 145 x 145 mm.

Catalog: Limestone, painted, labeled, Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, Thebes West, Tomb 28, ÄM 20149
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Neues Museum, Germany
Text: © Card at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DE), http://www.smb-digital.de/

21st - 22nd Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 716 BC

Canopic Jars

Four canopic jars with lids in the shape of the heads of the four sons of Horus, protective deities.

In 1911 the tomb of Ta-baket-en-ta-aschket was excavated in the necropolis at the Ramesseum in Theben-West, from the apparently intact burial of Ta-baket-en-ta-aschket, who was a granddaughter of King Takelot II. The canopic jars were made of limestone and decorated with black paint.

The canopy lids, in which the intestines of the deceased that were removed from the body during the mummification process were kept, are shaped as heads of the protective sons of Horus.

The vertical inscriptions include the victim formula for the deceased and the names of the Horus sons. The lid of the ÄM 20146 canopy has the shape of a human head. As a rule, the Horussohn Amset, to whom the liver was assigned, was depicted as a human-headed god with a mummy body. His identification as an Amset is further confirmed by the black inscription on the vessel . The cover of ÄM 20147 represents a baboon head, which is the usual iconography for the Horus son Hapi, the patron god of the lungs. The inscription also names him as Hapi.

Furthermore, the lids from ÄM 20148 and ÄM 20149 have the shape of a jackal and a falcon's head. Iconographically as well as inscribed, they refer to the Horus sons Duamutef and Qebechsenuef, who were responsible for the protection of the stomach and intestines.

Interestingly, the deceased is called Ta-mit in the inscriptions of the canopic jars with the human and jackal head, while in the inscriptions of the other two canopic jars she is named with her full name Ta-baket-en-ta-aschket.

Catalog: ÄM 20146, ÄM 20147, ÄM 20148, ÄM 20149.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Neues Museum, Germany
Text: © Card at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, I. Liao, http://www.smb-digital.de/, (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DE)

21st - 25th Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 656 BC

Imsety

Painted wooden figure of Imsety, an Egyptian deity.

The figure has been left unfinished by the painter, who has omitted the central inscription and the details of the collar.

Height 305 mm, length 190 mm, width 85 mm.

Catalog: Painted wood, Provenance unknown, EA61106
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st - 25th Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 656 BC

Osiris

Circa 1 000 BC - 700 BC

Osiris' scourge and the crosier are attributes of rulers. The myth of death and resurrection of the god expresses the hope of renewal of life.

Bronze, face with gold plating.

Catalog: Bronze, Inv. H 568
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source and text: Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe Germany

21st - 25th Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 656 BC

Dummy Canopic Jar

Painted limestone dummy Canopic jar, circa 1 070 BC - 664 BC. The jar is made in one piece. It shows the head of Qebhsenuef, yet the inscription names Duamutef.

Qebehsenuef is an ancient Egyptian deity. He is one of the four sons of Horus in Egyptian mythology, the god of protection and of the West. In the preparation of mummies, his canopic jar was used for the intestines. He is seen as a mummy with a falcon head, as this canopic jar portrays.

Duamutef was originally represented as a man wrapped in mummy bandages. From the New Kingdom onwards, he is shown with the head of a jackal. In some cases his appearance is confused or exchanged with that of his falcon-headed brother Qebehsenuef, so he has the head of a falcon and Qebehsenuef has the head of a jackal. In war, the most frequent cause of death was from injuries in the torso and stomach. The deity protecting this organ was associated with death by war and gained the name Duamutef, meaning "adoring his motherland".

Height 186 mm.

Catalog: Limestone, Provenance unknown, EA26639
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Additional text: Wikipedia

21st - 25th Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 656 BC

Coffin ensemble

With the disappearance of the richly decorated individual tombs of earlier periods, the coffins (and the papyri) became the only image-bearers in the context of the burial in the 3rd intermediate period. Scenes of everyday life no longer exist, but the representation of the deceased before various otherworldly gods and the illustrations of the Book of the Dead do. In addition, parts of underworld books such as the Amduat and the Book of Gates, which in the New Kingdom had exclusively adorned the walls of tombs in the Valley of the Kings, are now placed on the coffins of priests in particular.

The Amduat is a funerary text that describes the journey of regeneration of Re, the Egyptian sun god, through the 12 hours of the night from sunset, symbolising death, to sunrise, symbolising rebirth.

Catalog: Painted wood and plaster
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, Ägyptischen Museum München
Text: Museum card, © Ägyptischen Museum München
Additional text: Wikipedia

21st - 25th Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 656 BC

Dummy Canopic Jar

Painted limestone dummy Canopic jar, circa 1 070 BC - 664 BC. The jar is made in one piece. It shows the head of Duamutef, the jackal.

Height 310 mm, diameter 145 mm.

Catalog: Limestone, Provenance unknown, EA36546
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st - 25th Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 656 BC

Four Sons of Horus

Wax mummiform figures of the four Sons of Horus, circa 1 070 BC - 664 BC.

In order, left to right:

EA15563: Wax figure, height 133 mm, repaired.
EA15564: Wax figure, height 133 mm.
EA15573: Wax figure, height 133 mm.
EA15576: Wax figure, height 133 mm.

Duamutef: jackal form, protected the stomach.
Hapi: baboon form, protected the lungs.
Qebehsenuef: falcon form, protected the intestines.
Imsety: human form, protected the liver.

Catalog: Wax, Thebes, EA15563, EA15564, EA15573, EA15576 (in order, left to right)
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st - 25th Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 656 BC, Third Intermediate Period

Nakhtefmut

Sycomore fig wood stela of Nakhtefmut: there is one scene on this round-topped stela, below a curved sky-sign and eight columns of text with the usual funerary invocation. The god Ra-Horakhty, mummiform, is enthroned on the left behind an altar covered by a lotus-flower. On the right stand the priest of Amun Nakhtefmut, son of the priest 'Imn-ms, and his daughter, the lady Šp-n-ʒst, in an attitude of worship.

The stela is well preserved apart from a vertical crack on the right side and some gouges on the surface. The background of the stela is white. The sky-sign is blue. The hieroglyphs are black on yellow. Ra-Horakhty has a yellow body and face with black details, red poll, blue wig, red disk bordered by white, and a yellow uraeus edged in black. His arms are red with yellow bracelets, two sceptres are yellow, while the was-sceptre is blue. He is seated on a blue and red throne edged in yellow placed on two pink pedestals with red ends.

The altar is blue and yellow, while the lotus-flower is blue with a yellow base and pink stem. The male figure has a red body or pink when covered by his garment, which is otherwise white with black stripes. His features are black, wig blue with black details, fillet white, cone red and white and lotus blue and white. The body of the female is pink except where covered by her white gown with black stripes. Her collar is blue, wig blue with black details, fillet white, cone red and white and lotus blue and white. The lower border consists of blue above a yellow stripe. The sides and bottom are plastered in white.

Height 295 mm, width 207 mm.

Catalog: Sycomore fig wood, painted, Thebes EA37899
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st - 31st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 332 BC

Top part of a sarcophagus

Circa 1 085 BC - 332 BC.

The collar is crowned by falcon heads. The kneeling sky goddess Nut, spreads her arms and wings at the base of the collar.

Catalog: inv. 70/33
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source and text: Original, Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe Germany

21st - 31st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 332 BC

Toeris

Third intermediate to late period.

Statuette of Toeris or Taweret, a protective ancient Egyptian goddess of childbirth and fertility.

Faience, circa 1440 BC.

The deity is typically depicted as a bipedal female hippopotamus with feline attributes, pendulous female human breasts, the limbs and paws of a lion, and the back and tail of a Nile crocodile.

Height 77 mm.

The name Taweret means 'she who is great' or simply 'great one', a common pacificatory address to dangerous deities.

Catalog: Faience, place of discovery unknown, Inv.no. 2618
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source and text: Original, Museum August Kestner, Hannover
Additional text: Wikipedia

21st - 31st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 332 BC

Toeris

Third intermediate to late period.

Statuette of Toeris or Taweret, a protective ancient Egyptian goddess of childbirth and fertility.

Faience, height 55 mm.

Catalog: Faience, Saqqara or Benha (Delta), Inv. no. 1929.374
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source and text: Original, Museum August Kestner, Hannover
Additional text: Wikipedia

21st - 31st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 332 BC

Gnomon

Bronze gnomon, circa 1 069 BC - 332 BC.

Under the protection of the god Thot, shown as a baboon.

Height 35 mm, thickness 81 mm

Catalog: Sully, Rez-de-chaussée, L'écriture et les scribes, Salle 335, Vitrine 6: Poids et mesures, E 11558
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source and text: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France
Additional text: https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010007834

21st - 31st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 332 BC

Fan

Part of a fan, First Millennium BC.

Height 34 mm, width 39 mm.

Fans and fronds of various shapes were indispensable personal items for both women and men. They not only added a touch of coolness, but also repelled annoying flies and mosquitoes. In this example, only the connecting piece between the handle and the actual frond has survived, a combination of papyrus (from the outline or shape) and lotus blossom (petals on the shaft).

Feathers were originally stuck into the seven holes on the upper edge, so that the fan as a whole looked like a stylised palm tree.

Catalog: inv. no. 1952.144
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source and text: Original, Museum August Kestner, Hannover

21st Dynasty - 31st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 332 BC

Amulet ring

Faience: length of the plate 68 mm, diameter of the ring behind it 20 mm.

The comparatively very wide and long decorative plate covered several fingers when worn and had an openly apotropaic ( protection against evil and bad luck - Don ) function for the deceased.

This is known because it shows, surrounded by a cartouche crowned with two double feathers, in a crouching position, the 'main actors' of the classic King-God drama: Osiris, the deceased ruler; Horus, his son and heir, personification of the living king; the enemy brother Seth; and the divine sisters and wives Isis and Nephtys.

Catalog: Faience, place of discovery unknown, Inv. Nr. 2808
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Text: Kayser (1969)
Source: Original, Museum August Kestner, Hannover

21st Dynasty - 31st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 332 BC

Amulet ring (as above)

Note that the actual ring is behind the plate, and is not visible in the colour photograph I took at the museum, above, further up this webpage. It has been strengthened in its attachment to the plate by two small plates stretching from the ring to the ends of the main plate, as shown in this image from the catalog of the exhibition. Similar rings may have been for important occasions, but would have been impractical for daily use because of discomfort. This is obviously not a problem in this case for the deceased - Don 

Catalog: Faience, place of discovery unknown, Inv. Nr. 2808
Source: Paper catalog at Museum August Kestner, Hannover

21st Dynasty - 31st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 332 BC

Model of a house

Limestone model of a house. Three storeys are depicted, with two doors on the ground level, and square windows on the upper floors (the middle floor windows feature cross-braces, while those above are represented with mesh coverings, perhaps of wood or metal).

The sculptor has indicated the exterior brickwork, with courses rising towards the corners of the building. This construction method is typical of Third Intermediate and (especially) Late Period mud brick architecture. The top of the model is damaged, but a rooftop space is suggested.

This is Third Intermediate and (especially) Late Period mud brick architecture.

Height 210 mm, width 110 mm, depth 95 mm.

Catalog: EA2462
Photo: (left) Don Hitchcock 2015
Photo: (right) © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at museum display, http://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

21st Dynasty - 31st Dynasty: 1 077 BC - 332 BC

The God Anubis

The oldest magical practice is to banish a power that is recognised as dangerous and to make it compliant by placing the field in which this being tends to cause mischief under its special protection and invoking it with evocative names.

The Greeks, for example, knew the perils of the Black Sea only too well and for this very reason named it 'Pontos Euxeinos - Hospitable Sea'. A classic case of such a 'euphemism' in Egypt is the idea of Anubis, the god of the dead ('Inpu' in Egyptian).

Literally, this name means 'little dog'. His form, however, is that of a jackal with a pointed snout, erect ears, high neck and long tail, his dreaded activity being to scratch out and eat the dead. Nevertheless, or precisely for this reason, Anubis was declared the helper of the deceased, embalming the corpse and keeping it safe while lying on or near the sarcophagus.

Admittedly, another, less contradictory aspect also made this idea possible and kept it alive. Once tamed, the jackal remains a carnivore; but at the same time it becomes the loyal guardian of its master, and becomesl very threatening and belligerent towards the stranger. Thus, a second jackal god, originally probably inseparable from Anubis, is called 'Wepwawet- way opener'. He appears early on as the king's protector in his escort and differs from Anubis only in his vigilant, upright posture.

Wepwawet may originally have been seen as a wolf, but certainly from earliest times as the king's protector. One inscription from the Sinai states that Wepwawet 'opens the way' to the victory of King Sekhemkhet (Third Dynasty, circa 2650 BC).

In later Egyptian art, Wepwawet was depicted either as a wolf or a jackal, or as a man with the head of a wolf or a jackal. Even when considered a jackal, Wepwawet usually was shown with grey, or white fur, reflecting his lupine/wolf origins. Height 224 mm, length 775 mm.

Labelled in the museum catalogue as being from the First Millenium BC.

Catalog: Painted wood, origin unknown, Inv. nr. 4520
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source and text: Original, Museum August Kestner, Hannover
Additional text: Paper Catalogue, Museum August Kestner, Hannover, Wikipedia

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Pharoah Shoshonq I

Chest and lid for the canopic jars of Pharoah Sheshonq I, circa 930 BC

( note that, unusually, exactly the same scene is repeated on all four sides of this chest - Don )

Predecessor: Psusennes II. Successor: Osorkon I

Children: Osorkon I, Iuput A, Nimlot B

Shoshenq I (Egyptian ššnq), also known as Sheshonk or Sheshonq I , was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the founder of the Twenty-second Dynasty. Of ancient Libyan (Meshwesh-Berber) ancestry, Shoshenq I was the son of Nimlot A, Great Chief of the Ma, and his wife Tentshepeh A, a daughter of a Great Chief of the Ma herself. He is presumed to be the Shishaq mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, and his exploits are carved on the Bubastite Portal at Karnak.

Though provided with negligible text, the chest is here included as the only certain survivor of the lost royal burial. Of Egyptian alabaster and in square naos form, the box is covered by a lid provided with a cavetto cornice and torus mouldings.

(base: 480 x 480 x 530 mm; lid: 580 x 545 x 175 mm).

The naos as a small shrine is known in its typically Egyptian form since the beginning of Ancient Egyptian history. It eventually came to be represented as an Egyptian hieroglyph, as shown here.

The interior is carved into four compartments, approximately 15 cm in diameter. On each lateral side, Isis and Nephthys enfold their wings across the surface. Text appears only on the front, with slight damage from a crowbar once used in prying off the lid. The roof of the lid is decorated with a spread vulture facing the front; the separate head is now lost. Serpents are carved along the side edges.

Possible burial sites include Thebes, Tanis, Bubastis, Memphis, or Heracleopolis. A Theban origin is suggested by Capart 1941, 254, but questioned by Yoyotte 1988b, 42 and 47 n. 9.

Text: [The Lord of] Diadem[s], Hedjkheperre-setepenre, (2) Lord of the Two Lands, Sheshonq, beloved of Amon, (3) [given] life (4) like Re forever.

Catalog: Calcite - Alabaster, ÄM 11000/1-2
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015, 2018
Source: Original, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Neues Museum, Germany
Text: © Card at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DE)
Additional text: Wikipedia, http://www.worldhistory.biz/ancient-history/58801-55-canopic-chest-nbsp-berlin-11000.html

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Djedkhonsouiouefânkh

Exterior mummiform coffin, with shroud, tripartite wig, Usekh collar, headband.

Titles: Father of the god beloved of the god, priest-hepet-oudjat of Mut the lady of heaven, servant of the god of Nekhbet the white, Horoudja (father, father of the god beloved of the god, the one who opens the gates of heaven at Karnak), Ioufaa (grandfather, servant of the god of Amun-Ra king of the gods, great agent in charge of the city)

( note that the nose has been damaged, possibly during transportation - Don )

Length 2100 mm, width 660 mm, thickness 420 mm.

Catalog: Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 2, N 2582
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source and text: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Osiris figure

Wooden Osiris figure inscribed for the Chief Craftsman of the Domain of Amun, Amenmose.

Early 22nd Dynasty, circa 900 BC.

The figure of Osiris has been coated with bitumen, stands on a pedestal, and holds a sceptre and flail.

Height 390 mm.

Catalog: Wood, bitumen, EA9861
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card with the display at the British Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/ , © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Statue of the Nile god Hapy

Reign of Osorkon I, circa 924 BC - 889 BC.

They briefly ruled together, but Sheshonq died first and was buried at Tanis, then Egypt's capital.

The fleshy body symbolises the river's fertility. Hapy holds a table of offerings, from which hang geese, quails, lotuses, pomegranates and grapes. He presents his produce to Amun-Ra, in whose principal temple this statue stood.

A relief behind Hapy's left leg shows who dedicated the statue: Sheshonq, high priest of Amun-Ra in Thebes. He was designated heir to the throne of his father, Osorkon I. They briefly ruled together, but Sheshonq died first and was buried at Tanis, then Egypt's capital.

Quartzite/sandstone statue of the Nile-god, Hapy holding an offering table before him. The features of the god are believed to be those of Osorkon I, and there is a relief representation of the donor, Sheshonq, High Priest of Amun and son of Osorkon, on the left side.

The god is otherwise surrounded by relief representations of the abundance he brings to Egypt; the base, the dorsal pillar and the rim of the offering table are all inscribed with hieroglyphic texts - recording the dedication, parents' names and names and titles of the donor.

Production date circa 900 BC.

Height 220 cm (max), width 57 cm, depth 92 cm. Inscription position: base, dorsal pillar and offering-table.

Titles/epithets include High Priest of Amun.

Named in inscription & portrayed: Osorkon I, Sheshonq.

Named in inscription: Amun.

Findspot: Thebes, Karnak, temple of Amun-Ra
Catalog: Quartzite/sandstone, EA8
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card with the display at the British Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/ , © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Temple-relief, gateway showing Osorkon II and Karomama, his wife

Red granite temple-relief, from a gateway in the temple at Bubastis, showing relief representations of Osorkon II and Karomama, his wife, standing in adoration before an unidentified deity, with cartouches above; some traces of colour survive.

Height 1753 mm (max), width 1067 mm (Max)

Named in inscription & portrayed: Osorkon II, Karomama B.

Production date: circa 850 BC

Findspot: Tell Basta (Bubastis), Temple of Bastet, gateway
Catalog: Red granite, EA1077
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card with the display at the British Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/ , © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Osiris figure

Wooden figure of Ra-Horakhty, covered with black resinous substance, mummiform on pedestal, but without cavity.

Early 22nd Dynasty, circa 945 BC - 850 BC.

Height 435 cm.

Catalog: Wood, bitumen, EA9871
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: © Card with the display at the British Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/ , © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Djed-khonsu-iuef-ankh

Circa 900 BC.

Catalog: Wood, stucco, West Thebes, ÄS 63b
Photo: Don Hitchcock  2018
Source: Original, Ägyptischen Museum München
Text: Museum card, © Ägyptischen Museum München

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Djedkhonsouiouefânkh

Interior Mummiform coffin with shroud, tripartite wig, Usekh collar, headband.

Titles: Father of the god beloved of the god, priest-hepet-oudjat of Mut the lady of heaven, servant of the god of Nekhbet the white, Horoudja (father, father of the god beloved of the god, the one who opens the gates of heaven at Karnak), Ioufaa (grandfather, servant of the god of Amun-Ra king of the gods, great agent in charge of the city)

Length 1940 mm, width 550 mm, thickness 280 mm.

Catalog: Painted wood, West Thebes, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 2, N 2578.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/
Text: Don Hitchcock. Wedjat eye information from https://www.metmuseum.org/.

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Djedkhonsouiouefânkh

Mummy cover in cartonnage, making up a case made of tightly fitting layers of linen or papyrus glued together.

Interior Mummiform coffin with shroud, tripartite wig, plaited false beard, Usekh collar.

Titles: Father of the god beloved of the god, priest-hepet-oudjat of Mut the lady of heaven, servant of the god of Nekhbet the white, Horoudja (father, father of the god beloved of the god, the one who opens the gates of heaven at Karnak), Ioufaa (grandfather, servant of the god of Amun-Ra king of the gods, great agent in charge of the city)

On the chest a bird with ram's head (Khnum, god of fertility) surmounted by a sun disc, and holding a Shen Ring in each claw.

To the right and below in this image we can see a Uraeus, a rearing cobra, symbol for the goddess Wadjeta, wearing the Hedjet, the white crown of Upper Egypt, as well as the sons of Horus, Qebehsenuef with the head of a falcon and bearing the crook and flail of authority, and Duamutef, portrayed with the head of a jackal/wolf.


On a lower register is the goddess Nephthys, identified by her hieroglyph shown at left, and shown with wings outstretched for protection.

( Hieroglyphs may face left or right - Don )




Length 1750 mm, width 450 mm.

Catalog: Painted cartonnage, West Thebes, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, Vitrine 2, N 2617.
Photo and hieroglyph: Don Hitchcock 2015, 2018
Source and text: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/
Additional text: Don Hitchcock

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Ânkhpakhéred barber of the domain of Amon

(right) Mummiform coffin, decorated.

Shroud, tripartite wig, headband, Usekh collar.

Other inscriptions: Imennesuttaouynakht (father).

Length 1880 mm, width 550 mm, thickness 290 mm.

Catalog: Painted wood, plant and organic material, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, N 2595, Durand n°175-176

(left) On the inside of the coffin is a painting of Nut, on a large scale, front view, standing, and with ears pierced.

(centre) Mummy cover of Ânkhpakhéred barber of the domain of Amon, in cartonnage, making up a case made of tightly fitting layers of linen or papyrus glued together.

Shroud, hands hidden, tripartite wig, Usekh collar.

Decorations: On the chest a bird with ram's head (Khnum, god of fertility) surmounted by a sun disc, and holding a Shen Ring in each claw.

On the abdomen are two symmetrical depictions of Osiris with a shroud, standing, wearing the Hedjet, the White Crown of Upper Egypt, and holding a Was Sceptre. In this image can also be seen a Uraeus, a rearing cobra wearing the Deshret, the red crown of Lower Egypt, so coloured to represent the red sands of the desert.

Below this is a falcon with wings spread, wearing a sun disc.

Length 1660 mm, width 400 mm.

Catalog: agglomerated and stuccoed fabric, Aile Sully, Room 321, the Sarcophagi, N 2622, Durand n°175-176

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source and text: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/
Additional text: Don Hitchcock.

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Padiouf

Mummiform coffin of Padiouf.

Names and titles: Padiouf (father of the god of Amun, pure priest initiated at Karnak); Penpy (father, superior of the carpenters of the king of the domain of Amun, superior of the secrets of the domain of Amun); Imenemhat (grandfather); Djedhoriouesânkh (mother, housewife).

Height 2000 mm, width 585 mm.

Catalog: Wood, N 2579
Location: Aile Sully, Salle 322, La momie, Vitrine 3
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source and text: Original, Louvre Museum, https://collections.louvre.fr/

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Libation Bowl

Priests used bowls like this in temples for liquid offerings to the gods. Two faced of the goddess Hathor adorn the rim. Flat depictions of persons were usually in profile, but Hathor's face was widely displayed in frontal view. In such images she has cow's ears, but she could also be represented with horns or as a cow.

Hathor was Egypts most universal goddess and the bowl stood probably in the temple of a different deity. However, it bears no inscriptions to reveal where this was.

22nd Dynasty, circa 945 BC - 715 BC.

Findspot: Karnak (?)
Catalog: Granodiorite (?), EA1386
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/,© Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Denytenamun

Denytenamun, Priest of Amun.

22nd dynasty around 945-850 BC Thebes / Luxor.

Mummy of a man of middle age. Resin has been poured on the linen wrappings.

Skull - The mouth is closed, but some teeth are missing. An incisor and two premolars are lying in the nasal area. Artificial eyes are inserted in the orbits, but the eye in the left is displaced. There are no obvious fractures and the cervical spine appears intact.

Thorax and Abdomen - The ribs and spinal column have no fractures or dislocations. There is a pectoral in the form of a bird with open wings, with a heart-scarab below it. A dense mass occupies the left thoracic apex; this is almost certainly a mixture of sand and mud. The four parcels of viscera fill the rest of the thorax. A large swab of linen has been pushed into the flank-incision which is covered by a metal plate. There is a large rounded granular mass in the pelvis. The pelvis and hips appear normal.

Catalog: Painted sycomore fig wood, linen, resin, human tissue, metal, EA6660
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Ankhkherednefer

Pink granite naophorous ( carrying a naos, a shrine - Don ) block-statue of Ankhkherednefer. There is a scarab on top of the head and with incised cartouches of Osorkon II on the arms.

Image of Osiris within the shrine, incised Hieroglyphic text round the edge of the shrine, three columns of incised Hieroglyphic text on the pointed-topped back-pillar.

Height 62 cm, width 28 cm, depth 38 cm

Named in inscription: Osorkon II

Findspot: Tell el-Maskhuta
Catalog: Pink granite, EA1007
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/,© Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Denytenamun

Denytenamun, Priest of Amun.

Circa 945 BC - 850 BC.

The decoration of the lid includes many allusions to rebirth through the agency of the sun-god: winged sun-discs appear above the face and below the collar, the solar barque is painted above the hands, and the dead man adores two different forms of the sun-god. The use of different colour schemes for the lid and the case of the coffin is very unusual.

( So far as I can tell, the case is the dark coloured, apparently undecorated object joined to the lid, and resting on the (modern) grey base in this image. I thought at first that it was simply a modern support for the coffin lid, but according to the text above, that is not so. Click on the image to see the full size version - Don )

The mummy itself is described as follows:

Arms - Extended. Hands with fingers extended in pubic area.

Legs - There is a large oval opacity between the thighs. This may represent a package of resin-impregnated linen possibly containing shed epidermis. No fractures, dislocations, or lines of arrested growth seen.

Base and lid of the anthropoid sycomore fig ( Ficus sycomorus ) wooden coffin of Denytenamun, Priest of Amun: wooden mask with inlaid eyes, perhaps a portrait of the deceased, is inserted over the face; lid - polychrome painted wig and wide collar, overlaid with 'braces', hands in relief, representation of sun-god on solar-barque protects the breast with Osiris, flanked by Isis and Nephthys, with wings poised in a gesture of protection.

Below, a vertical register of hieroglyphs runs down the centre of the body and is flanked by six vignettes:
1 and 2: the deceased worships manifestations of the sun-god.
3 and 4: the cow of Hathor and the bull of Ptah-Sokar-Osiris stand before the western mountains and the tomb of the deceased.
5 and 6: the four Sons of Horus, with jackals beneath, the foot section is damaged in places; the base - is decorated with representations of funerary deities, in yellow outline on a dark ground; also some fragments of mummy-wrapping, some coated in resin, now removed from the coffin.

Length 175 mm ( width ? - Don ) (max;wrappings).

Length: 1620 mm (mummy).

Titles/epithets include : Priest of Amun.

Catalog: Painted sycomore fig wood, linen, resin, human tissue, metal, Thebes, EA6660
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Denytenamun

Denytenamun, Priest of Amun, close up.

( As with all images on this site, click on the image to see the full size photo - Don )

A wooden mask with inlaid eyes, perhaps a portrait of the deceased, is inserted over the face.

The head has a polychrome painted wig and a wide collar.

Catalog: Painted sycomore fig wood, linen, resin, human tissue, metal, EA6660
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Denytenamun

Denytenamun, Priest of Amun.

The wide collar is overlaid with 'braces'.

A representation of the sun-god on a solar-barque protects the breast.

Catalog: Painted sycomore fig wood, linen, resin, human tissue, metal, EA6660
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Denytenamun

Denytenamun, Priest of Amun.

Below the solar-barque are hands in relief, shown in a decorative band including lotus flowers. The band below includes green leaves and a sun disk flanked by a pair of Uraei, representations of a sacred serpent as an emblem of supreme power, worn on the headdresses of ancient Egyptian deities and sovereigns.

Catalog: Painted sycomore fig wood, linen, resin, human tissue, metal, EA6660
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Denytenamun

Denytenamun, Priest of Amun.

Osiris, flanked by Isis (left) and Nephthys (right), with wings poised in a gesture of protection.

A small figure, the deceased (?) sheltering between the wings of Nephthys proffers a basket containing a representation of the Wedjat eye, the eye of Horus. A larger Wedjat eye and basket is shown within the outspread wings of Isis.

The two deities, Ra and Horus, were often merged as Ra-Horakhty.


Hieroglyph for Osiris, a portable chair and an eye: Q2, D4. This may be seen in the hieroglyphs at the head of Osiris.

Hieroglyph for Isis, a throne (or seat), Q1. This may be seen in the hieroglyphs at the head of Isis. Hieroglyphs may face left or right.

Hieroglyph for Nephthys, a basket on top of the plan of an estate: O6, V30. This may be seen in the hieroglyphs at the head of Nephthys.

Catalog: Painted sycomore fig wood, linen, resin, human tissue, metal, EA6660
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Hieroglyphs by Don Hitchcock after Gardiner (1927)
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Additional text: Wikipedia

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Denytenamun

Denytenamun, Priest of Amun.

On the left is the classic depiction of Ra (or Re) the Egyptian sun-god. The figure wears a sun disk and uraeus as a headdress, has a falcon head and human body, and carries the crook and the flail, symbols of authority and power. He is seated on a throne.

On the right is another god, presumably the sun-god, since the skin is the green shade of a god, the figure sits on a throne, carries the crook and flail, and wears the symbol of the sun-god, the scarab, as a headdress.

The leopard skin served as a powerful symbol of regeneration.

Catalog: Painted sycomore fig wood, linen, resin, human tissue, metal, EA6660
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Hieroglyphs by Don Hitchcock after Gardiner (1927)
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Additional text: Wikipedia

Here we can see the deceased adoring the sun-god.

Catalog: Painted sycomore fig wood, linen, resin, human tissue, metal, EA6660
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Hieroglyphs by Don Hitchcock after Gardiner (1927)
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Additional text: Wikipedia

The bull of Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, or Apis (left), and the cow of Hathor (right), stand before the western mountains and the tomb of the deceased.

( By the time of the New Kingdom, tombs had small pyramids constructed over or around their entrances, as shown on this coffin, and in the image of the tomb below from Deir el-Medina. - Don )

Catalog: Painted sycomore fig wood, linen, resin, human tissue, metal, EA6660
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Reconstructed pyramid above a tomb at Deir el-Medina, similar in general outline to the tombs shown on the panel above.

( Note the steep sided, small pyramidion on top of the pyramid - Don )

Photo: John Williams and Dudley Hubbard
Rephotography: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Poster at museum display, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

The four Sons of Horus, left to right: Imsety (human), Qebehsenuef (falcon), Duamutef (Jackal), Hapi (baboon).

These were the personifications of the four canopic jars, which accompanied mummified bodies. Isis was often seen as the mother of the four sons of Horus.

Catalog: Painted sycomore fig wood, linen, resin, human tissue, metal, EA6660
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

On the foot are two paired Wedjat Eyes, and two paired images of jackals, representing Anubis.

The foot section is damaged in places. The base is decorated with representations of funerary deities, in yellow outline on a dark ground; it originally had some fragments of mummy-wrapping, some coated in resin, now removed from the coffin.

Catalog: Painted sycomore fig wood, linen, resin, human tissue, metal, EA6660
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Coffin Lid of Hor

Coffin Lid of Hor, decorated with a winged ram-headed figure representing the sun-god, and a series of compartments containing images of various deities, including Osiris, Isis, Nut, Thoth, and the Sons of Horus. The central motif is the fetish of Osiris, associated with his cult-centre at Abydos. A figure of Maat, personification of right and truth, is painted at the throat.

Catalog: EA6659
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Pensenhor

Base and lid of the wooden coffin of Pensenhor, a Libyan who settled in Egypt. It is anthropoid in shape, with polychrome painted decoration on a white ground. The figure wears wig and collar, and the lid is decorated with religious scenes, including representations of Osiris, the four Sons of Horus, Thoth and Isis, and a prayer to Osiris.

Unusual features include the vignette showing Anubis weighing the heart of the deceased and the emblem of Osiris hung over the collar. The foot section is decorated with a representation of the deceased before Osiris and Isis. .

Representations of Osiris, the sons of Horus, Thoth, Isis, Anubis, Nut.

Catalog: Painted wood, plaster, Thebes, EA24906
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Pensenhor

Decorated base and lid of the wooden coffin of Pensenhor.

The interior of the base is decorated with a full-length representation of Nut with outstretched arms.

Hieroglyph for Nut.

This consists of W24, a water pot, X1, a small loaf of bread, and N1, the symbol for sky.

Note that the painter of the coffin base has put the symbol for sky upside down compared with the other two.





Egyptologists believe that Nut was a sky goddess originally worshiped by the early tribes of the Nile Valley area. In Lower Egypt, the Milky Way was viewed as the celestial image of Nut. She was adopted into the family tree of the Egyptian gods as the daughter of Shu, the god of the air, and Tefnut, the goddess of moisture. She became the sky, while her brother Geb became the god of earth.

In the creation story, Egyptians viewed Nut and Geb as passionate lovers. At one time, they embraced so tightly that nothing could come between them. Shu became jealous and separated the two. Shu became the air that moves between the sky and the earth. This story explained the separation of the sky from the earth. The mythological separation came too late, and Nut was pregnant. She gave birth to all of the stars and planets. Her children would always stay close to her as she was the sky.

In addition, she had four children who were themselves gods – Osiris, Set, Isis, and Nephthys.

Catalog: Painted wood, plaster, Thebes, EA24906
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Hieroglyphs by Don Hitchcock after Gardiner (1927)
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Additional text: www.ancient-egypt-online.com/, Wikipedia

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Pensenhor

The lid is decorated with religious scenes, including representations of Osiris, the four Sons of Horus, Thoth and Isis, and a prayer to Osiris; unusual features include the vignette showing Anubis weighing the heart of the deceased.

Catalog: Painted wood, plaster, Thebes, EA24906
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Pensenhor

The lowest part of the main coffin displays paired images of Horus, the falcon-headed god, shown here with wings protecting or displaying the Shen Ring, a circle with a line tangent to it, and representing eternal protection.

In Gardiner's sign list, it is sign V9.

In this case, the sun disc is shown within the Shen Ring.

On the foot itself of the coffin, the deceased is shown adoring Osiris, with Nephthys, his sister, standing behind him.

Catalog: Painted wood, plaster, Thebes, EA24906
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Additional interpretation and text: Don Hitchcock

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Pensenhor

On the toe of the coffin may be seen paired images of Anubis in canine form, and wearing the usual red sash, as well as paired images of the Shen Ring.

Catalog: Painted wood, plaster, Thebes, EA24906
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Additional interpretation and text: Don Hitchcock

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Nesperennub

Mummy of a priest, aged 30-40 years, named Nesperennub, son of Ankhefenkhons. The body is encased in a painted cartonnage mummy-case, shown in this image.

Skull - Mouth closed. Some teeth missing. There is considerable dental attrition. Artificial eyes inserted in orbits. Bound on to the top of the head is an opaque object resembling a skull-cap. This may possibly be a package containing the placenta.6 The cervical spine appears intact. There are no obvious fractures.

Thorax and Abdomen - Filled with dense packing material probably obscuring the four parcels of viscera. In the right upper zone of the thorax there are two scarabs and a small pencil-like object, very probably a bird-bone, lying just below the mid-shaft of the clavicle.

There is a pectoral with open wings and a rectangular plate over the flank-incision. There are possible pathological changes in the anterior third of the 2nd left rib. There is a large rounded mass in the pelvic region. The dorsal and lumbar intervertebral discs are partially opaque.

Arms - Extended. Hands with extended fingers over the pubic area. On the ring finger of each hand is a ring with a rectangular bezel.

Legs - No fractures. Numerous well-defined lines of arrested growth are visible at the lower ends of the tibiae.

Anthropoid wooden coffin: possibly designed for a woman, but inscribed with the name of Nesperennub, son of Ankhefenkhons, Opener of the Two Gates of Heaven in Karnak, Libationer of the Temple of Khons at Karnak, with polychrome painted face, wig and collar, with vertical register of hieroglyphs in white down body and a further register in blue around the sides of the coffin.

Height 290 mm (Mummy: Height measured from horizontal orientation, lying flat (not including handling board).
Height 277 mm (Coffin base).
Height 322 mm (Coffin lid,excluding tenons).
Height 397 mm (Coffin lid, including tenons)
Height 610 mm (Coffin lid and base combined)
Length 1921 mm (coffin)
Length 1730 mm (mummy)
Width: 571 mm (coffin)
Depth: 450 mm (mummy)

Titles/epithets include : Opener of the Two Gates of Heaven in Karnak; Libationer of the Temple of Khons at Karnak

Catalog: Painted wood, plaster, linen, Thebes EA30720
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Djed-Mut-iu-ef-anch

Dimensions: Length x Width x Height: 1890 x 510 x 560 mm

Weight: approx. 100 kg

This anthropomorphic coffin belonged to a man named Djed-Mut-iu-ef-anch, son of Mut-dit-ef. He was the 'water carrier' of the Amun temple. The term 'water carrier' refers to a person who takes care of much of the necessary routine work, thus relieving the other workers of considerable effort, and contributing decisively to the success of a venture.

Different and unusual production techniques can be found on different components of the coffin cover. On the coffin lid, a canvas layer was laminated from the head to the breast, upon which a primer and a painting layer have been used. The eyebrows and eyelids are modelled from hard wax and are painted, and inserted into pre-formed recesses.

The design of the decoration below the wide necked collar, shown with a phoenix amulet, is also unusual. It begins with ba-birds seen in the shoulder regions. In the two following pictures, all four Horus sons are depicted with human heads. These are more usually depicted as human, baboon, jackal and falcon-headed.

They also wear the costume of the living. Behind them are a falcon on the left and a heron on the right. The middle panels show the Osiris fetish standing behind the goddesses on the left and a boat with the Sokar falcon on the right. In the lowest scenes Horus and Thot can be seen in front of the open shrines, where there is a mummy. On the shrines there is a Horus falcon with a double crown. In contrast to the elaborately decorated coffin lid, the yellow-primed coffin case of Djed-Mut-iu-ef-anch is decorated with only a ribbon of hieroglyphic inscription encircling the entire coffin case.

Catalog: Wood, primed (white), painted; partly with canvas layer, Thebes, ÄM 48
Photo: (left) Don Hitchcock 2015
Photo: (right) Sandra Steiß, http://www.smb-digital.de/ (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DE)
Source: Original, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Neues Museum, Germany
Text: © Card at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, http://www.smb-digital.de/ (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DE)
Additional text: from http://www.smb-digital.de/, text by I. Liao according to Germer, R. and Kischkewitz, H. and Lüning, M., Berlin Mumiengeschichte, results of a multidisciplinary research project, Regensburg 2009, pp. 80ff.)

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Close up of Djed-Mut-iu-ef-anch

Catalog: Wood, primed (white), painted; partly with canvas layer, Thebes, ÄM 48
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Neues Museum, Germany

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Djedkhonsiufankh

Mummy of Djedkhonsiufankh. The mummy, when acquired, was in a gilded cartonnage mummy-case and wooden coffin with a gilded face and inlaid glass (?) eyes bearing painted deities and the name Djedkhonsiufankh, son of Pennestytawy, son of Nesamun.

Skull - No obvious fractures. The mouth was closed; details of the teeth are poor. No artificial eyes were visible, but these may well have been obscured by bone shadows.

Thorax and Abdomen - Entirely filled with what is probably a mixture of sand, sawdust, and resin. It is likely that the four visceral packs are embedded in this material. Over the lower end of the sternum is a winged pectoral. Above the pectoral is a small amulet ('was'-sceptre perhaps) and below a scarab.

Details of the ribs are poor, but the dorsal and lumbar vertebrae show gross osteo-arthritic changes. An opaque rectangular flank-plate covers the embalming incision on the left side of the abdomen. There is considerable subcutaneous packing in the region of the thighs. The pelvic cavity has also been tightly packed. No obvious fractures or dislocations of the pelvis.

Arms - Extended. The palms of the hands (fingers extended) cover the genital area. No obvious fractures or dislocations.

Legs - The long bones appear normal and there are no fractures, dislocations or lines of arrested growth. In the bandages between the thighs is a ring with a scarab as a bezel. The bones of the feet are within normal limits. Also listed as Djedkhonsefankh on the museum card associated with the display.

22nd Dynasty, about 945-716 BC from Thebes / Luxor.

Catalog: EA6662
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Djedkhonsiufankh

Mummy of Djedkhonsiufankh, fourth prophet of Amun at Karnak, 22nd Dynasty, about 945-716 BC from Thebes / Luxor.

Also listed as Djedkhonsuefankh, and as Djedkhonsefankh, second son of Pinudjem I, brother of Masaharta.

Catalog: EA6662
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Djedkhonsiufankh

Cartonnage case of Djedkhonsiufankh, fourth prophet of Amun at Karnak, 22nd Dynasty, about 945-716 BC from Thebes / Luxor.

The cartonnage case has been extensively decorated with gilded low-relief scenes showing the sun god in the form of a ram-headed falcon, the sons of Horus and the goddesses Isis and Nephthys with wings outspread in protection over the body.

After the body was placed in the coffin the surface was coated with a layer of molten resin which has obscured the scenes and inscriptions.

Catalog: EA6662
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Djedkhonsiufankh

Cartonnage case of Djedkhonsiufankh, fourth prophet of Amun at Karnak, 22nd Dynasty, about 945-716 BC from Thebes / Luxor.

The colour black was closely associated by the Egyptians with death and resurrection. At several periods, coffins and other funerary objects were coloured black, often with inscriptions and decoration in gold leaf or yellow or white paint. The coffin of Djedkhonsefankh typifies this colour scheme. The face is covered with gold leaf, and has inlaid eyes, while the main features of the decoration are executed in cream coloured paint.

On the lid are figures of the goddess Nut and a scene of a child-god shaking a sistrum before the jackal-diety Anubis. The compartments below contain depictions of the dead man in the presence of various gods, including the deified king Amenhotep I. Along the sides of the case are scenes drawn from the repertoire of the Books of the Underworld, which illustrate the denizens of the kingdom of Osiris and the treatment, according to the blessed and the damned. These scenes include deities armed with knives, and a large serpent spitting fire towards the decapitated enemies of the sun god.

Catalog: EA6662
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Evolution of coffins

Cartonnage, a material consisting of layer of linen and plaster, was extensively used in the manufacture of mummy-masks, coffins, and other funerary objects.

It was versatile, malleable, and easily decorated, besides being cheap and quick to produce. While linen was the standard base material for making cartonnage, alternatives were sometimes employed. These included mud and - in the Ptolemaic-Roman period - discarded documents written on papyrus.

The earliest funerary objects made of cartonnage were mummy-masks dating from about 2 100 BC. Complete mummiform coffins of cartonnage were introduced during the Middle Kingdom and were used sporadically during the succeeding centuries.

In the 22nd Dynasty, however, one-piece body-cases made of cartonnage were adopted throughout Egypt as the standard type of innermost coffin. They were constructed by applying layers of linen to a mud and straw core, which was afterward removed. The mummy was then inserted through a rear aperture and secured in place by tight lacing. The plastered surface of the case was painted and inscribed. Such a case could not be reused without fracturing the surface, thus defeating attempts at 'recycling'.

Photo: Unattributed, back of cartonnage case showing central lacing. 22nd Dynasty, about 900 BC. (British Museum)
Source: Poster, British Museum
Rephotography: Don Hitchcock 2018
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, https://www.britishmuseum.org/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Panehsy

The Ancient Egyptian Panehsy was Prophet of Amenhotep (I) of the Forecourt, during the reign of Ramesses II . He had a troubled career as viceroy in Nubia.

Panehsy or Pinehesy was Viceroy of Kush during the reign of Ramesses XI, the last king of the Egyptian 20th Dynasty. Sometime during the reign of Ramesses XI, Pinehesy succeeded in temporarily suppressing the Theban High Priest of Amun, Amenhotep. Although this 'suppression of the High Priest of Amun' used to be dated quite early in the reign (prior to year 9 of the reign), recently the communis opinio has changed to the view that it took place only shortly before the start of the Whm Mswt or Renaissance, an era which was inaugurated in regnal Year 19, probably to stress the return of normal conditions following the coup of Pinehesy.

Following this suppression, Pinehesy was chased out of the Thebais, although it is not entirely clear who ended this anarchic period. It seems that Pinehesy more or less maintained his position in Nubia for over a decade. Some ten years after the suppression, in year 10 of the Whm Mswt, the Renaissance, the then High Priest of Amun and Viceroy of Kush, Piankh, went on an expedition to 'meet Pinehesy'. Although this is seen by many Egyptologists as an expedition to attack Pinehesy, this is little more than speculation. Other Egyptologists have suggested that Piankh may have rather gone south to negotiate with Pinehesy. Of the outcome of this undertaking very little is known. It seems, however, that Pinehesy died of old age while still in control of Lower Nubia.

The Theban Tomb TT16 is located in Dra' Abu el-Naga', part of the Theban Necropolis, on the west bank of the Nile, opposite to Luxor. It is the burial place of the Ancient Egyptian Panehsy, who was Prophet of Amenhotep (I) of the Forecourt, during the reign of Ramesses II.

Panehesy's wife is named Ternute (or Tarennu). A brother of Panehesy by the name of Pahesy appears in a scene with the procession of a vase of Amun. The tomb is rather roughly hewn from the rock, and the decoration is poor. A scene of the barque of Amenhotep I has been almost totally destroyed, but other scenes showing Panehsy and his wife standing before Osiris are preserved.

More Details:
Measurements: 14 x 46 x 178 cm
Material: cartonnage
Date: ca 925 - 850 BC
Place: Luxor (Egypte)

Cartonnage: In a technique similar to papier-mâché, scraps of linen or papyrus were stuck together with resin and/or plaster, and moulded to the shape of the body, forming a type of shell, and used to make mummy cases and masks. After the material dried it could be painted or gilded, and the shell could be decorated with geometric shapes, deities, and inscriptions.

(The technique of cartonnage has several advantages. It would have been much easier and faster to get a realistic portrait of the person concerned, it was light and easy to handle, it did not crack, and was certainly a lot cheaper than wood, which had to be imported at huge expense from places such as Lebanon - Don )

Photo (left) : https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/asset-viewer/cartonnage-of-panehsy/aQGxprcVBpeTtg?hl=en-gb

Photo (right): Don Hitchcock 2014
Source: Original, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden.
Additional text: Wikipedia

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Panehsy

For the ancient Egyptians, life was very important after death. They prepared for death throughout their life, as much as was practicable. Around 900 BC mummies were prepared with cartonnage as skintight sleeves. The material of such a sleeve comprised linen soaked in gum arabic. This was then plastered on the mummy, pulled off when dry, and then tied on the back with laces. The sleeve was painted in many colours, and often covered with gold leaf.

The mummy sleeve of Panehsy is a very nice specimen. The paintings, winged figures of gods and hieroglyphics, have a general protective significance. On the back of the sleeve is a djed-pillar, the Egyptian symbol for sustainability and continued existence. The djed symbol is one of the more ancient and commonly found symbols in Egyptian mythology. It is a pillar-like symbol in hieroglyphics representing stability. It is associated with Osiris, the Egyptian god of the afterlife, the underworld, and the dead. It is commonly understood to represent his spine.

Material : cartonnage
Length : 178 cm
Date : about 925-850 BC.
Location : Luxor (Egypt)

Photo and text: http://www.rmo.nl/collectie/afdelingen/egyptenaren/de-mooiste-objecten/panehsy
Additional text: Wikipedia

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Panehsy

Superb photograph by Michiel 2005 of the face of the mummy sleeve of Panehsy.

Photo: © Michiel 2005, http://www.ipernity.com/doc/288839/18779683

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Djedmontefanch

Mummy coffin of Djedmontefanch, a priest of Amun, ~ 945 BC - 712 BC

The lid of the mummy case of Djedmontuiufankh bears painted decorations that include rituals and spells from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. This book was a kind of guide for the dead man as he journeyed through the afterlife, so that his soul could live on, 'housed' in the mummy and its case. For centuries, the Egyptians had painted such scenes on the walls of their tombs. But around 1000 BC, when Djedmontuiufankh, a priest of Amun, died and was mummified, the political and social situation in Egypt had become volatile. Important personages were buried in bare, hidden chambers in the rock so that grave robbers could not find them. Mummies were placed in cases, and all the symbols, rituals, and spells had to be painted on those cases.

The wooden lid of Djedmontuiufankh’s mummy case shows the priest in the form of the god Osiris. Every dead person became an Osiris, destined to rise from the dead. This is why Djedmontuiufankh is wearing a long divine wig and braided divine beard and has crossed his hands over his chest, holding two schematically depicted sceptres. On his chest and belly lie protective figures of the god Horus (shown with a falcon’s head), the sky goddess Nut, and the disc of the sun. Between them are smaller figures of gods and many columns of hieroglyphic text. The rest of the mummy case, which is not on display here, is decorated inside and out with many other scenes, including offerings, the burial, and the ritual cleansing of the dead man by the goddesses Isis and Nephthys.

30 x 50 x 188 cm

Photo and text: © https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/asset-viewer/mummy-coffin-of-djedmontefanch/AgGc_ydkCp9v6Q?projectId=art-project

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Djedmontefanch

This photograph shows both the upper surface of the two part coffin of Djedmontefanch, as above, and its lower section, the inside of which has been richly decorated.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2014
Source: Original, Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden.

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Child Mummy-Case

Cartonnage mummy-case and skeleton of a child who suffered from the disease osteogenesis imperfecta

From Speos Artemidos, Beni Hasan, circa 945 BC - 716 BC.

Osteogenesis imperfecta is a disorder arising from inadequate formation of bone tissue, resulting in delicate bones, often referred to as 'brittle bone' disease. The remains of this infant constitute the best-preserved instance of the condition from antiquity.

The skull shows a characteristic deformity caused by the stress of supporting the cranial vault. The bones are light and distorted due to massive fracturing.

It is evident that the cartonnage case itself could have accommodated a larger child. The cartonnage mummy-case is in the form of Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, anthropoid, wearing wig, beard and plumed sun-disc, decorated with polychrome painted funerary deities and protective falcons, with vertical register of hieroglyphs down centre of the body. The foot end of the case is now missing.

Length 730 mm.

Catalog: EA41603
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015, 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at the museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Temple lintel

Temple lintel, circa 900 BC, the divine enemy, in the guise of an antelope, being sacrificed by Pharaoh Osorkon.

Catalog: Limestone, Memphis, Gl. 78
Photo: Don Hitchcock  2018
Source: Original, Ägyptischen Museum München
Text: Museum card, © Ägyptischen Museum München

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Tentosorkon

Vignette papyrus of a woman named Tentosorkon

Early 22nd Dynasty, circa 945 BC - 900 BC

A further development of funerary text tradition during the 21st- 22nd Dynasties was the production of papyri containing only vignettes with brief captions.

Book of the Dead of Tentosorkon with brilliantly painted vignettes; frame 3.

Height 296 mm (frame), length 760 mm (frame)

Titles/epithets include : Lady of the House; Chantress of Amun-Ra, King of the Gods

Inscription note: Book of the Dead: (frame 1) offering vignette ; (2) 125 - 130 ; (3) vignette 110 - 149 - adoration of sun vignette.

Catalog: Papyrus, Thebes, EA9919,3
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at the museum, http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Nephthys

Statue of Nephthys, standing, arms forward, wearing a dress with necklace, a cloth covered wig (perruque en poches), sign of Nephthys.


Hieroglyph for Nephthys






Like her sister Isis, Nephthys bears the hieroglyph of her name on her head.

( the sign of Nephthys is a basket on top of the glyph representing the plan of an estate, on her head, shown in this sculpture as being in red, white, black and brown - Don )

Nephthys was the sister of Isis and Osiris. She was associated with mourning, the night/darkness, service (specifically temples), childbirth, the dead, protection, magic, health, embalming, and beer.

Height 925 mm, width 147 mm, depth 315 mm.

Catalog: Painted wood, Aile Sully, Room 323, Crypt of Osiris, Vitrine 13, E 125
Photo and Hieroglyph: Don Hitchcock 2015, 2021
Hieroglyph redrawn after Budge (1920)
Source and text: Original, Louvre Museum, Paris, France, https://collections.louvre.fr/
Additional text: Wikipedia

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Painted Stela

22nd Dynasty, about 945-716 BC. Provenance unknown.

In tombs of earlier periods, a stela served as the focal point of the funerary chapel, where offerings to the dead were made.

During the Third Intermediate Period, when few tombs possessed individual chapels, a small stela was sometimes deposited near the coffin. This example, made for a man named Ir, is typical of its period. It depicts the deceased making an offering to the sun god Ra-Horakhty, who usually replaced Osiris on 22nd Dynasty funerary stelae.

Catalog: EA66425
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card with the display at the British Museum, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Menat

Part of a Menat: Harsiesi in front of the lion headed goddess Sakhmet.

This image is from a ritual Menat necklace, depicting a ritual being performed before a statue of Sekhmet

Sekhmet is on her throne, where she is flanked by the goddess Wadjet as the cobra and the goddess Nekhbet as the griffon vulture, symbols of lower and upper Egypt respectively. The supplicant holds a complete menat and a sistrum for the ritual.

Circa 870 BC.

This link provides a clear explanation of the Menat and its role in ceremony.


Catalog: Thebes, bronze with inlays, ÄM 23733
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Neues Museum, Germany
Text: © Card at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DE)
Additional text: Wikipedia

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Beads

Row One a (top left)

Amulets and beads on one string: beads, fancy barrels, faience; spheroids and one barrel, carnelian, cylinders, gold (on copper?); one barrel, alabaster?; amulets, a) gr. gl. baboon; b) gr. gl. Sekhmet; c) stone implement, alabaster; d) hawk; e) lyre.

From Lahun/Illahun.

Length 340 mm, Accession Number LDUCE-UC6824.

Row One b (top right)

String of beads, various shapes in antimony

From Lahun/Illahun.

Length 130 mm, Accession Number LDUCE-UC6825.

Rows Two and Three

String of beads: rings, cylinders, drops, fancy barrels, pendants (Brunton types 46 N, P) of faience; barrels, amber; flattened spheroid, antimony. Labelled as 'found together', but find not documented.

Found at Lahun/Illahun together with 6827, 6828, 6829.

Length 440 mm, Accession Number LDUCE-UC6826.

Row 4

String of beads. Multiples (segmented) 56K and other types, black faience.

From Lahun/Illahun.

Length 410 mm, Accession Number LDUCE-UC6827.

Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, Petrie Museum, London, England
Text: Card / online catalogue, the Petrie Museum, © 2015 UCL. CC BY-NC-SA license.

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Khonsumeh

Praying statue of God's Father of Khonsu, Khonsumeh, circa 900 BC.

Dimensions: 305 x 84 x 104 mm.

The bronze statuette of a god-father of the Chon, named Meh-Chonsu, is shown as a bald-headed priest, who is dressed in a long, pleated skirt, smooth sleeved shirt and sandals. Around his neck is an amulet in the form of the falcon-headed moon god of Chon. His hands lie on the front of the apron, almost touching the shoulders of an Osiris statuette, which is in high relief on the apron. On the right side of the robe is a priest with an incense burner in his right hand. On the other side, the same priest in relief is holding two bullet-like objects in his hands. On the upper body of the Meh-Chonsu there are further fine decorations in engravings. On the back, the gods' family Osiris, Horus and Isis are depicted under a heavenly hieroglyph in a rectangular image. On the sleeves of the shirt, you can see the man-shaped Amun-Re with double-crowned crown, and on the left the ithyphallic (showing an erect penis) Amun of Luxor.

The statuette shows a representation of protection by the god Osiris, also protected by other depicted deities like Chons and Amun. The priest Pa-scheri (en) -Its, most likely a family member of the Meh-Chonsu, represented at the same time the god of Osiris as well as the owner of the statuette Meh-Chonsu. This statue belongs to the relatively small group of particularly high-quality metal inlays of the Third Intermediate Period. The separately made arms are also typical of their creation time. (I. Liao)

The figure of Khonsumeh, whose enlarged, elongated, and shaved head dominates his small face, wears a long, pleated sash kilt and a plain shirt with elaborate sleeves. Together, these features exemplify the priestly style that first flourished in reliefs and paintings during the Ramesside period and that remained highly influential throughout the Third Intermediate Period in depictions of individuals in temple roles. A number of details suggest a relatively early date for this statuette, including the large bright eyes with a crease in the lid and the added figural elements, which have parallels in works from the tenth and ninth centuries BC. Khonsumeh is described in an inscription on the front of the statue as a ' God's Father of Khonsu ', and he wears an image of this god as a pendant. On the sides of the statue are representations of Pasherienese, a ' God's Father of Atum '. The title ' God's Father ' has a complicated history; by the Ramesside period it had probably come to signify a priestly rank below that of ' prophet ', but in the Third Intermediate Period, when, as noted above, priestly titles proliferated and shifted somewhat in meaning, the exact significance of the title is difficult to pinpoint.

Catalog: Bronze, inlaid with electrum, hollow casting, ÄM 23732
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2018
Source: Original, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Neues Museum, Germany
Text: © Card at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, I. Liao at http://www.smb-digital.de/ (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 DE)
Additional text: Schorsch (2007)

22nd Dynasty: 943 BC - 716 BC

Khonsumeh

The statue of Khonsumeh has paired deity figures on the upper arms. These images are linear, but on the skirt of the statue are two images, cast in high relief, of a man named Pasherienese, probably a releative of Khonsumeh, making offerings. These images reflect a long-standing tradition, dating to the late Old Kingdom, of depicting family members on the sides of a private statue. In the Third Intermediate Period such figures sometimes appeared on stone statues, but that of Khonsumeh is the only known example in metal. The function of the male figures is clearly distinguished from those of divinities both by their offering pose and by the plastic modelling, which lends them an almost three-dimensional quality.

Equally formal is the framed scene on the back of the statue which shows the deities Osiris, Horus, and Isis*. While this group evokes the funerary domain, the separate figures of Amun-Re and Amenemopet on the upper arms point to a temple role for the statue, and this is further emphasised by the three-dimensional image of Osiris that Khonsumeh presents. Was this figure perhaps installed, like similar stone statues, in a temple court or collonade to function continuously as a focus for offerings to the spirt of Khonsumeh? Or was its role closer to that of the statues of God's Wives, and as such was it intended to be placed near the cult image on the processional barque on festal occasions?

( *note that the goddess on the left in this image could be Hathor. Hathor was often depicted as a cow, symbolising her maternal and celestial aspect. Both Isis and Hathor were also depicted as a woman wearing a headdress of cow horns and a sun disk, as is the case here - Don )

Catalog: Bronze, inlaid with electrum, hollow casting, ÄM 23732
Photo and text: Schorsch (2007)
Source: Original, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Neues Museum, Germany

22nd Dynasty or later: 943 BC - 400 BC

Dagger Mould

Kushite dagger mould, 900 - 400 BC, from Kawa.

Bronze daggers were made with this pottery mould.

Catalog: EA63584
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2015
Source: Original, British Museum
Text: Card at museum display, © Trustees of the British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

References

1. Budge E., 1920: Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, Vol. 1 (1920), London, John Murray, Albemarle St.
2. Evans A., 2023: The lives of beetles, a natural history of Coleoptera, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-23651-3
3. Gardiner A., 1927: Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs, 3rd Ed., pub. Griffith Institute, Oxford, 1957 (1st edition 1927), pp. 438–548 (pdf), http://web.ff.cuni.cz/ustavy/egyptologie/pdf/Gardiner_signlist.pdf
4. Harer W., 1985: Pharmacological and Biological Properties of the Egyptian Lotus, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 22 (1985), pp. 49-54 Published by: American Research Center in Egypt DOI: 10.2307/40000390
5. Kákosy L., 1995: 'The Soter Tomb in Thebes', in S.P, Vleeming (ed.), Hundred-Gated Thebes: Acts of a Colloqium on Thebes and the Theban area in the Graeco-Roman Period, Leiden: Brill, 61- 67
6. Lichtheim M., 1980: Ancient Egyptian Literature: The late period, University of California Press, 1980 - History - 248 pages
7. Mariette A., 1857: Le Serapeum de Memphis,d, Publié sous les auspices de S.E.M. Achille Fould, Ministré d'État, Paris, Gide, Libraire-Editeur, 5 Rue Bonaparte
8. Martin G., 1991: Hidden Tombs of Memphis, Thames and Hudson, London 1991
9. Maspero G., 1903: History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, London : Grolier Society
10. Pommerening, T., Marinova, E., Hendrickx, S., 2010: The Early Dynastic origin of the water-lily motif, Chronique d’Egypte, 85 (2010): 14-40
11. Raven M., 1980: Papyrus-sheaths and Ptah-Sokar-Osiris Statues, RMO, 1980 - 296 pages
12. Robins G., 2008: The Art of Ancient Egypt, Harvard University Press, 2008 - Art - 271 pages
13. Rowe A., 1936: A catalogue of Egyptian scarabs, Chicago
14. Schorsch D., 2007: Gifts for the Gods: Images from Egyptian Temples, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.) Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007 - Metal sculpture - 240 pages
15. Strudwick N., 2006: Masterpieces of Ancient Egypt, University of Texas Press, 1 Nov. 2006 - Social Science - 352 pages
16. Taylor J., 2010: Journey Through the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, Harvard University Press, 2010 - History - 320 pages

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