The body was placed in the coffin on its left side, so its face would be directly lined up with the painted eyes on the coffin's side. By the Middle Kingdom the coffin was considered a miniature tomb, and it was decorated with many of the items that had formerly adorned the walls of the tomb.
The goddesses Isis and Nephthys were painted as guards at the head and foot of the coffin. The inside floor of the coffin was painted with Nut, Isis, Osiris, or the Djed pillar Osiris's backbone. The sides bore the four sons of Horus and other deities. Horizontal inscriptions gave not only the owner's name and titles, but also a prayer for offerings.
Vertical inscriptions were prayers to the divinities on behalf of the deceased. During the Middle Kingdom anthropoid coffins appeared. These were coffins carved to the outline of the mummy's body and decorated with the face and wig of the deceased.
They not only copied the mummy's form, but they also served as substitute bodies in case the mummy's body was lost or destroyed.
As time went on, anthropoid coffins were decorated with an increasing number of scenes and inscriptions. Around BCE rishi coffins were popular in the city of Thebes. These coffins were distinctive because the bodies portrayed on the front were covered with feathers from shoulders to feet.
These feathers represented the wings of Isis and Nephthys. During the New Kingdom, coffins and mummy cases could be purchased ready-made. Once purchased, the owner's name and titles could be filled in the blanks left in the inscriptions. The ready-made mummy cases were created by molding the container around disposable cores of mud and straw.
But Neter-Nekhta whose coffin and perhaps a portion of his spirit reside at the Australian Museum may have been going through a different judgement and afterlife journey to prove him a worthy human being. We hope he made his way to the field of reeds — the Egyptian equivalent of heaven. He died two millennia before Jesus Christ in the land where the people of means had much better prospect to get into the kingdom of god.
We, common curious spectators, may be excused to think that a large part of collective social effort in Egypt was in fact to help the rich people to progress from their privileged life to heaven. Egyptian coffin E View fullscreen on Pedestal3D. This undoubtedly privileged man was buried at the large necropolis at Beni Hasan c.
So, his journey in the afterlife was not entirely smooth. And in the entrenched tradition of Egyptology not free from the mysteries. The tomb of Neter-Nekhta was examined by British archaeologists in the early s. It appears by that time the mummy was already missing.
More systematic exploration was conducted in the early s by John Garstang — , a British archaeologist from Liverpool University where he was a reader in Egyptian archaeology. Garstang brought scientific rigour to classical archaeology, producing a detailed documentation of excavations, accompanied by extensive photographic records - rare practice in early 20th-century.
From his observations we know that the tomb was disturbed and modified in antiquity whereby the additional sarcophagus was added into the impromptu enlarged chamber. In addition, rubble was piled on the burial accessories, suggesting some re-arrangements or plundering happened a long time ago. But the tomb contained some pottery, painted crosses and distinct writings carved in the chamber wall by the Coptic monks in around the 6th century AD.
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You cannot download interactives. Egypt was a vast kingdom of the ancient world. It was unified around B. Today Egyptologists, archaeologists who focus on this ancient civilization, have learned a great deal about the rulers, artifacts, and customs of ancient Egypt.
Use these resources to teach your students about the ancient Egyptians. Pharaohs were the heads of state and religious leaders of ancient Egypt. Artifacts include tools, clothing, and decorations made by people. They provide essential clues for researchers studying ancient cultures. Join our community of educators and receive the latest information on National Geographic's resources for you and your students. Skip to content. Image King Tut burial chamber King Tutankhamun was laid to rest here in this well-decorated burial chamber.
Photograph by Victor R. Boswell, Jr. Twitter Facebook Pinterest Google Classroom.
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