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Rectangular box coffin belonging to a man named Khety whose tomb was found, still intact, in Beni Hasan. The coffin is made of sycomore fig and is inscribed with a single line of standard formulae calling for Osiris and Anubis to provide offerings for Khety’s use in the afterlife. There is a pair of wedjat-eyes on one side allowing the deceased to see out. Khety’s job titles are not specified, but it is likely that he was a fairly wealthy person since his burial included models of people working on his behalf, presumably reflecting his earthly standard of living as well as his intentions for his status in the afterlife. These models include E.71.a.1903, E.71b.1903, E.71c.1903, E.71d.1903 and E.71e.1903.
Each side of the box is constructed from two edge-jointed planks (although part of one side is missing), tangentially sawn and only roughly finished. The joints are secured with dowels, most of which are made of sidr. The corners are mitred with a small butt joint at the top. In addition to the dowels along each corner, there is a tied joint at the top and bottom. Dowel holes along the bottom of the panels indicate how the base fitted within the walls. The lid is also made of two planks (full-length). On the underside are three roughly shaped retaining battens pegged into the planks across the centre and one at each end. The carpenters cut two marks into the top of the foot-end panel of the box to match up with marks on one of these battens, presumably to give an indication of which way around the lid fitted.
The interior of the coffin is bare wood, except for a thin white paste sealing the joints. On the exterior, a very thin discontinuous layer of calcite acts as a ground for the earth pigment paint. Flaws in the wood were filled with a rough paste and painted with a slightly darker paint.
Drafting lines drawn against a straight edge using a reed pen are visible in the location of the hieroglyphic text and eyes. The lines continue from the coffin box to the lid, suggesting that the final decoration was applied after the coffin was complete and closed. The text was sketched in black then coloured with a thin layer of Egyptian blue. A small trail of blue droplets shows where the scribe let his brush drip onto the surface of the lid.
Height: 50 cm
Length: 186 cm
Width: 44.4 cm
Method of acquisition: Given (1903) by The Beni Hasan Excavation Committee
12th Dynasty#
Middle Kingdom
Circa
-2010
BCE
-
-1950
BCE
Accession number: E.71.1903
Primary reference Number: 50676
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Antiquities
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
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IIIF Manifest
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Coffin" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/50676 Accessed: 2024-11-02 14:24:50
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/50676
|title=Coffin
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-02 14:24:50|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-50676
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<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/ant/ant48/large_E_71_1903_01_200605_adn21_dc2.jpg"
alt="Coffin"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">Coffin</figcaption>
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