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

ClassificationsAncient Egyptian Art

Model Coffin

Place CreatedEgypt, Africa

CultureEgyptian

PeriodMiddle Kingdom, Dynasty 12

Date1939-1760 BCE

MediumWood, pigment

Credit LineAnonymous gift

Dimensions6 7/16" (16.3 cm)

Object number1998.016.002

Label TextThe mummy-shaped coffin first appears in the Middle Kingdom. This miniature model coffin may have been made to lie on a bier on board a model funeral boat or to serve as a votive substitute for the actual coffin. The wig, face, and collar represent a mummy mask over a bandaged body; this configuration later developed into the familiar anthropoid coffin. Often such coffins were placed inside an outer box coffin and propped on their sides so that they could peer through the eyes painted on the side in the same manner as a mummy.

This example is shown with a full wig typically worn by women of the period. At her throat, she wears a magical sweret bead for protection and a broad collar. A column of text runs down the front, which reads: An offering which the king gives to Anubis who is upon his mountain, who is in his wrappings [...].
Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, October 1998 - February 2000
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2001 - Present
Published ReferencesBonhams Knightsbridge, Fine Antiquities (June 10, 1997), 37, lot 179.
Peter Lacovara, "The New Galleries of Egyptian and Near Eastern Art at the Michael C. Carlos Museum," Minerva 16 (2001), 9-16.
Peter Lacovara and Betsy Teasley Trope, The Realm of Osiris (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 2001), 46.

ProvenanceEx private collection, United States, purchased from Bonhams, London, June 10, 1997, lot 179.

Status

On view

Collections