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

ClassificationsAncient Egyptian Art

Coffin Base of Pashedkhonsu

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodThird Intermediate Period, Dynasty 21

Date1076-944 BCE

MediumWood, pigment

Credit LineCharlotte Lichirie Collection of Egyptian Art

Dimensions2' 3 15/16" x 11 13/16" (71 x 30 cm)

Object number1999.001.015 A

Label TextLike many of the most beautiful coffins of the Twenty-first Dynasty, this one belonged to a high official from Thebes - Pashedkhonsu, high priest of Amun at Karnak. Pashedkhonsu is shown wearing the divine beard that associates him with Osiris, the god of the dead. His chest is covered with a representation of an elaborate floral collar, through which his clenched fists emerge. Scarabs and sacred images decorate the rest of the lid in designs modeled in plaster to give them a three-dimensional quality. The shimmering, yellow varnish mimicked the sheen of gold.

The sides of the coffin are also elaborately decorated and show Pashedkhonsu in front of piles of food offerings and various gods. The interior of the coffin has been somewhat damaged but still retains images of a goddess with sun disk and cow horns at the bottom standing above a djed-pillar. The sides are decorated with depictions of mummiform gods standing before sketchily drawn offering tables. The interior of the head end is adorned with a frontal depiction of a ba-bird flanked by parallel offering inscriptions.
Exhibition HistoryJuly Egyptian Preview, Michael C. Carlos Museum, July 18-20, 1999
Searching for Ancient Egypt, Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama, October 3, 1999 - January 16, 2000
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, October 6, 2001 - Present
Published ReferencesPeter Lacovara and Betsy Teasley Trope, The Realm of Osiris (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2001), 51.

Terms

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

Status

On view

Collections