Coffin of the priest Amenemipet

From the burial of Amenemipet, possibly Deir el-Bahari, Thebes, Egypt
Late 21st or early 22nd Dynasty, 950-900 BC

Plastered and painted coffin

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).

C.A.R. Andrews, Egyptian mummies (London, The British Museum Press, 1984)