Skip to main content

Coffin: E.216.1903

Object information

Current Location: In storage

Entities

Categories

Description

All that has survived of this coffin are two long planks from the bottom of each long side. They originally formed part of a Middle Kingdom box coffin, dated by Wolfram Grajetzki to the mid- to late 12th Dynasty (about 1985-1750 BC).

The coffin was found at Beni Hasan by John Garstang in 1903, but it is not clear which tomb it comes from. Wolfram Grajetzki suggests it was from tomb 135. The decoration shows what is known as a palace facade, thought to indicate that the dead person inside was a form of Osiris, who was considered the king of the underworld and thus needed to be housed in a royal enclosure. The name of the coffin owner, Nakht, survives in several places.

Find spot

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (1903)

Dating

Middle Kingdom
-1985 - -1773

Components of the work

Front Side Height 12 cm Length 2.17 m Thickness 2 cm
Rear Side Height 13 cm Length 2.16 m Thickness 2 cm

Materials used in production

Wood

References and bibliographic entries

Identification numbers

Accession number: E.216.1903
Primary reference Number: 50823
Oldmuseumnumber: E.W.67
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Thursday 9 September 2021 Last processed: Friday 8 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Antiquities

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Coffin" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/50823 Accessed: 2024-11-23 15:47:47

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/50823 |title=Coffin |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-23 15:47:47|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-50823

Sign up for updates

Updates about future exhibitions and displays, family activities, virtual events & news. You'll be the first to know...