Ankhefenmut's Coffin

Date: Dynasty 21, 1069-945 B.C.
Medium: Wood with gesso and pigment
Dimensions: 73" L x 9" HT x 16 1/2" D
Provenance: Bab el-Gasus, Egypt
Credit: Gift of Samuel W. Brown
Accession Number: 1909.18.1b
Comments:

According to the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the coffin, this coffin belonged to Ankhefenmut, a priest of the temple of Mut and a sculptor.  Ankhefenmut lived during the 21st Dynasty. This elaborately decorated coffin includes images and prayers to protect his body and provide for his spirit in the afterlife.

The sides of the coffin of Ankhefenmut are decorated with gods and mythological scenes to protect him on his journey to the afterlife.  The scene on the head end would have been the image of the goddess Nephthys but it has been rubbed away, probably in being put into or taken out of the tomb. A column of hieroglyphic text beside it reads: "Nephthys, sister of a god, eye of Re, mistress of the necropolis in the West.”