chest
- Museum number
- EA5907
- Description
-
Painted sycomore-fig wood chest with four legs. The shape of the chest, with tapering lid, and cavetto cornice, echoes that of a traditional shrine. A knob is provided on the top of the lid, and at the corresponding end of the chest, to allow the chest to be secured with cord and wax (which does not survive on this example). The painted decoration, with red, white and black colours, may have served to suggest a more elaborate storage container, made form a variety of precious materials (e.g. ivory, ebony).
The lid is painted with a single column of hieroglyphic text, which reads 'honoured before Osiris, the sailor (?), Denerg(i), true of voice'.
- Dimensions
-
Height: 25 centimetres
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Length: 33.80 centimetres
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Width: 21.70 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
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PM I Part 2 (2nd edition): p.839
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For a selection of New Kingdom boxes see Egypt’s Golden Age (exhibition catalogue, Boston, 1982): 200-4 and Killen, Ancient Egyptian Furniture II (1994) [see p.20 for discussion of 'shrine-shaped boxes', attested in 6th dynasty tomb scenes].
Boxes, typically holding cosmetic items, were a typical part of early New Kingdom elite burials, such as at Thebes (Smith, MDAIK 48 [1992], 206-7).
The name Denerg(i) is known from other New Kingdom sources, see Ranke, PN I: 400 [14]
- Location
- On display (G61/dc5)
- Condition
- good
- Acquisition date
- 1835
- Department
- Egypt and Sudan
- BM/Big number
- EA5907
- Registration number
- .5907
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: BS.5907 (Birch Slip Number)