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Source Description
This panel is from a human-shaped coffin ensemble typically used for the priests of Amun at Thebes, who ruled there during the 21st Dynasty. These wooden coffin groupings usually consisted of two nesting coffins with lids and a mummy board carved to resemble the deceased and placed directly on top of the mummy. The panel is from the exterior right side of the inner container. During the 21st Dynasty, both the interior and exterior of coffins were decorated with amuletic symbols, short texts, and small, highly colored scenes that covered every inch of the surface. The owner of the coffin, not named on the panel, is depicted as a woman in one of the painted scenes.By the 21st Dynasty, decorated chapels and tombs were no longer used. Instead, burials took place in unmarked rock-cut chambers, probably to deter tomb robbers. Religious scenes that had once appeared on tomb walls were now painted on coffins and papyri. The panel is divided into three zones. The upper zone displays uraeus serpents, symbolizing protection, and Maat feathers representing the concepts of justice, truth, and divine order. The second zone contains a religious text, and the main zone below has different sections with representations of Osiris as well as the sun god in their shrines and scared places. The union of the mythologies of Osiris and the solar god Re is significant, as each set of beliefs, both concerned with resurrection and rebirth, was thought to benefit the deceased in their journey through the underworld.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
38642
label
Coffin Panel with Paintings of Funerary Scenes
core
obj
dtoType
object
citationUrl
pageCount
3
Source metadata
id
38642
sourceUrl
contentType
object
stage
normalized
title
Coffin Panel with Paintings of Funerary Scenes
description
This panel is from a human-shaped coffin ensemble typically used for the priests of Amun at Thebes, who ruled there during the 21st Dynasty. These wooden coffin groupings usually consisted of two nesting coffins with lids and a mummy board carved to resemble the deceased and placed directly on top of the mummy. The panel is from the exterior right side of the inner container. During the 21st Dynasty, both the interior and exterior of coffins were decorated with amuletic symbols, short texts, and small, highly colored scenes that covered every inch of the surface. The owner of the coffin, not named on the panel, is depicted as a woman in one of the painted scenes.By the 21st Dynasty, decorated chapels and tombs were no longer used. Instead, burials took place in unmarked rock-cut chambers, probably to deter tomb robbers. Religious scenes that had once appeared on tomb walls were now painted on coffins and papyri. The panel is divided into three zones. The upper zone displays uraeus serpents, symbolizing protection, and Maat feathers representing the concepts of justice, truth, and divine order. The second zone contains a religious text, and the main zone below has different sections with representations of Osiris as well as the sun god in their shrines and scared places. The union of the mythologies of Osiris and the solar god Re is significant, as each set of beliefs, both concerned with resurrection and rebirth, was thought to benefit the deceased in their journey through the underworld.
provenance
Dikran Kelekian, New York and Paris; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1926, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
date
1070-945 BCE (Third Intermediate Period)
citationUrl
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Wood
panels
coffins
imageCount
3
pageCount
3
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
188
height
48.3
depth
22.7
dimensionsRaw
74 x 19 x 8 15/16 in. (188 x 48.3 x 22.7 cm)
Source extras
cul
Egyptian
dynasty
21st Dynasty
med
wood with polychrome paint and varnish
creator_ids
6182
collection_ids
EGY
exhibition_ids
none
Page inventory
seq
1
type
photo
mediaId
0ef56eac6aac1dff
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
2
type
photo
mediaId
99c6b746dbf7b5bb
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
3
type
photo
mediaId
ce85746601653ea0
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no