© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University. Photo by Peter Harholdt.

ClassificationsAncient Egyptian Art

Coffin Base of a Priestly Official

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodThird Intermediate Period, Dynasty 21

Date1076-944 BCE

MediumWood, painted gesso

Credit LineCharlotte Lichirie Collection of Egyptian Art

Dimensions73 5/8 x 21 1/4 x 11 in. (187 x 54 x 27.9 cm)

Object number1999.001.013 A

Label TextThis coffin appears to have been made for a priestly official in the temple of Amun at Karnak, but it was never finished. The hieroglyphic text that would have recorded the name of the owner was left blank, although it does bear the titles of priest ("god's father") and scribe. In addition, the coffin never received its outer coat of yellow varnish, leaving the colors, particularly the "Egyptian blue," as vivid as the day they were painted. While most colors used by the ancient Egyptians were simple mineral pigments, this bright blue is a ground glass-frit colored with copper. This process produced a remarkably stable blue and was prized throughout the ancient world.

The sides of the coffin have been painted in a broad and lively hand, made more vivid by the lack of surface coating. Unfortunately, probably due to this lack of protection, the painted gesso surface of the lid has been almost entirely lost, leaving nothing but bare wood. The head end decoration has also been lost, but fortunately the sides are well preserved and include scenes of Hathor of Deir el-Bahri and other gods and goddesses, including Re, Osiris, Anubis, and Nut. On the proper left, beginning at the foot end, is a depiction of a pyramid-topped tomb in the desert with a large image of a Hathor cow in front. After this are images of Osiris, Isis, and Nephthys worshipping the Abydos fetish and images of Re, Osiris, and the goddess of the west adoring another Abydos fetish.

On the proper left side of the coffin are images of Nut and Osiris, Anubis, Osiris, Re, and a winged scarab over a depiction of the evil serpent Apophis, his body cut with many knives. At the foot end is another rendering of a pyramid-topped tomb with a Hathor cow, here fronted by an image of Anubis. The interior painting is largely obscured by remains of the mummy wrappings stuck with resin, although traces of an image of the Goddess of the West are still visible on the floor. The resin also seeped into, and discolored, the sides of the coffin. However, the images still visible on the interior sides were boldly drawn with figures of Osiris and gods of the underworld and with an image of a ba-bird with outstretched wings at the head end of the coffin.
Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2001 - Present
Published ReferencesPeter Lacovara and Betsy Teasley Trope, The Realm of Osiris (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2001), 48.
Darrah Johnson-McDaniel, Christopher A. Barrett, Asma Sharafi, and Tina T. Salguero, "Nanoscience of an Ancient Pigment," Journal of the American Chemical Society 135 (2013): 1677-1679.

ProvenanceEx coll. Niagara Falls Museum, Niagara Falls, Canada. Purchased by MCCM from William Jamieson (1954-2011) [Golden Chariot Productions], Toronto, Canada.

Status

On view

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