Ancient Egyptian Coffins: Past – Present – Future

This collection of papers by leading international experts on the subject of ancient Egyptian coffins, builds on a project based at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, to study and record in detail its collection. Papers address a series of topics including:
the development of coffins in antiquity, including iconographic and text-based studies, providing new insights into ancient Egyptian belief systems at different periods and regional differences in coffin presentation; the post-antiquity history of coffins, including their acquisition and subsequent treatment in museums around the world; developments in technical examination and methods of studying coffins, especially the use of multispectral imaging to provide non-invasive analysis of materials, and what this tells us about construction and decorative techniques at different periods and in response to the availability of different materials and increasing evidence of the re-use of materials and complete re-working of coffins for new owners, leading us to question fundamental attitudes to the purpose of coffins as containers of human remains and the practices of craftsmen in the funerary industry. The papers stem from a conference held at the Museum to accompany a major new exhibition.

Table of Contents

Uta Siffert: Middle Kingdom mummy shaped coffins: investigating meaning and function

Hans-Hubertus Münch: High class coffins? Some remarks on the black coffins of the
Eighteenth Dynasty from KV40

Lisa Sartini: The black coffins with yellow decoration of the New Kingdom: an original iconographic study

Carolina Teotino: The apotropaic entourage of Osiris: The protective genii on sarcophagi and coffins of the Late and the Graeco-Roman Periods

Asja Müller: Contextualising Roman Mummy Masks: The Cambridge Collection

Andrzej Niwinski : Coffins of the 21-22 Dynasties as a source of information about the sacred landscape of Western Thebes

Raphaële Meffre: The funerary ensemble of a Libyan princess of the beginning of the Twenty- second Dynasty and the iconography of early Twenty-second Dynasty cartonnages

P. Buscaglia, M. Cardinali, T. Cavaleri, P. Croveri, G. Ferraris di Celle, A. Piccirillo and F. Zenucchini: Nesimenjem and the Valley of the Queens’ Coffins

Cynthia Sheikholeslami: A Libyan singer in the Karnak temple choir

Fruzsina Bartos: Cartonnages with painted and moulded decoration from the Twenty-second Dynasty

Susanna Moser :The coffin of the Anthropology Museum in Padua and the others: A peculiar type of Late to Ptolemaic Period wooden anthropoid coffins

Yolanda de la Torre Robles: Late Period Coffins from Qubbet el-Hawa tomb 33

Marie Peterková Hlouchova: Late Period wooden coffins from Abusir

Jonathan P. Elias and Carter Lupton: Regional Identification of Late Period Coffins from Northern Upper Egypt

Katalin Kothay: On the dating problems of the coffins of Gamhud

Lisa Bruno, Anna Serotta and Yekaterina Barbash: Ancient Egyptian Coffins at the Brooklyn Museum: New Insights on Manufacture, History and Treatment

Patricia Rigault : The rediscovery and the restoration of the outer coffin of Tanetmit (Louvre N2588) – Twenty-second Dynasty

Marco Nicola, Simone Musso and Simone Petacchi: Non-invasive diagnostic techniques in the authentication and study of Egyptian coffins: the case of the anthropoid coffin of Pakharw, son of Panehesy and the cartonnage of Asetirdis in the Stibbert Museum, Florence

Eman H.Zidan, Mohamed Gamal Rashed and Sabah Abd el Razzik: The conservation of some “unknown” wooden coffins: Re-contextualizing archaeological context, technical examination and conservation approaches

Caroline Cartwright: Identifying Egyptian coffin woods using scanning electron microscopy

N.M.N. El Hadidi, S. Darwish, M. Ragab, H. Abd El Gaoudi, S. Abd El-Razik, M. Abd Elrahman and K. Attia: Beyond the Visible, Merging scientific analysis and Traditional methods for the documentation of the anthropoid coffin of Amenemhât

T. Cavaleri, P. Buscaglia, M. Cardinali