Coffins, particularly Third Intermediate Period coffins, are fascinating to look at and to photograph, which is why I always end up with lots of photos of details from coffins whenever I’ve been to a museum!
This is the outer coffin of a woman called Nany who was “Mistress of the House, Chantress of Amun, King’s Daughter of His Body”. She was probably the daughter of Pinedjem I (a High Priest of Amun who had kinglike status), and died during the 21st Dynasty (c. 3000 years ago).
This bit has such a lot going on it’s hard to pick out all the details. Top centre there’s a winged scarab, presumably Khepri, with a sun disk with uraei above and a djed pillar for Osiris below. To either side are Osiris himself, with Maat behind and Thoth in front.
Below is Nut, with her wing-arms outstretched holding ankhs. She’s got protective cobras, two with wings and two without hanging down from the dividing line between the registers which is also the hieroglyph for the sky. And jackals beneath her wings, with natty red scarves.
I think my favourite details (at least as I look at it this time) are the wadjet eyes with wings and little red upraised arms, worshipping the falcons beneath Khepri’s wings.
It’s now in the Met Museum, acc. no.: 30.3.23.
See it on my photo site: https://photos.talesfromthetwolands.org/picture.php?/1555/
I’ve written about Khepri on the blog before: https://talesfromthetwolands.org/2021/05/07/scarab-beetles-creation-and-the-sun/
And about Maat: https://talesfromthetwolands.org/2020/06/01/the-way-things-ought-to-be/
And jackals: https://talesfromthetwolands.org/2020/04/21/some-sort-of-canid/
Jigsaw Puzzles:
easier: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=21107a9bdfe0
harder: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=0ee6cd400056
Tales from the Two Lands 