Inner Coffin and Mummy Board of Pasebakhaienipet Third Intermediate PeriodThebes (Deir el-Bahri), Egypt

Description

Object Label: Magical decoration ensuring the deceased’s wishes was at first put on tomb walls, but in Dynasty 21, the most elaborate decoration began to appear primarily on coffins. The lid of this coffin shows Osiris, the god of the dead, depicted multiple times; Nut, the sky goddess; and, on the interior, the goddess of the afterlife—three deities who together create a miniature universe for the mummy to inhabit. The outsides of the box depict the deceased’s journey to the afterlife, including the final judgment by weighing his heart against the feather of truth, while the mummy board shows him as a living presence arrived in the next world. Carbon-14 dating conducted in 2009 indicates that Pasebakhaienipet, who was the mayor of Thebes, died between 1110 and 939 B.C.E., a date supported by the Twenty-first Dynasty style of his coffin. His elaborate coffin and mummification in the most expensive style suggest his high status in Egyptian society. Caption: Inner Coffin and Mummy Board of Pasebakhaienipet, ca. 1075–945 B.C.E.. Wood (cedar and acacia), gesso, pigment, 12 5/8 x 21 5/8 x 76 3/8 in. (32 x 55 x 194 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 08.480.2a-c. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)