Asset number
406217001
Description
Coffin of Pasherihoraawesheb containing the mummy of a female: this anthropoid coffin with polychrome painted decoration was made for Pasherihoraawesheb, an Incense bearer in the temple of the god Khonsu at Thebes. The red brown colour of the face and hands is confined to the depiction of men and he once wore a divine beard. The eyes and eyebrows are inlaid, a technique which gives a vital lifelike appearance to the face. His long wig is striped yellow and blue in imitation of gold and lapis lazuli and is bound by a floral fillet. The huge floral collar that covers his chest is typical for the period; it is flanked by denizens of the underworld and large figures of the Four Sons of Horus with their characteristic heads. The various scenes across the lid are separated by deities with outstretched wings: the topmost is a solar falcon, the one in the middle is a solar disc, and across the feet is the vulture Nekhbet, patroness of Upper Egypt. In the topmost scene the goddess Maat supports Horaawesheb, as he is led by Horus towards the Four Sons of Horus who stand on a lotus. Before them is the 'imywet' fetish of Anubis and behind them Osiris with his sister goddesses Isis and Nephthys. At each end of the panel, the jackal of Anubis and a cat-headed deity holding a knife and snake offers the deceased protection and new life. In the scene below, the fetish of Abydos is the central element. It is flanked by Horus and Thoth, funerary bulls, undulating snakes and protective winged goddesses. In the next panel, Osiris is represented by an animated 'djed' pillar with royal accoutrements flanked by the four protective funerary goddesses. Neith, Serqet, Isis and Nephthys, the latter two depicted as kites. Over the feet of the lid Shu raises up the barque of the sun god (represented as Khepri, his beetle form) flanked twice by knife wielding lion-headed Wadjet, patroness of Lower Egypt. Apart from Hathor as a cow emerging from the western mountain, the decoration on the sides of the body of the coffin is unusual, although not without parallel. X-rays have shown that the superbly wrapped mummy within this coffin is that of a young female. It exhibits the typical outer appearance of mummies of the period, its outermost shroud held in place by transverse and longitudinal bandages. Mummy of a young adult female. Skull - Mouth closed. All teeth apparently present. No obvious fractures. Thorax and Abdomen - Apparently empty. No fractures or dislocations of the ribs, spinal column, pelvis, or hips. Some of the dorsal intervertebral discs are partially opaque. Arms. Extended. Hands, with slightly flexed fingers, in pubic area. Legs - No fractures or dislocations. Faint lines of arrested growth at the lower ends of the tibiae. An almost certain parcel of viscera lies between the thighs.
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