Unpublished Anthropoid Wooden Coffin of Padiatum at Beni-Suief Museum

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Tourism and Hotels, Fayoum University, Fayoum. Egypt

2 Curator of Beni-Suef Museum, Ministry of Egyptian antiquities

Abstract

The ancient Egyptians had paid attention to death and resurrection. They have faced many difficulties, including how they will preserve the body of the deceased, whether through embalming or a safe place for burial, providing the deceased with protection to arrive the netherworlds easily. This paper aims to study and date an unpublished anthropoid wooden coffin of Padiatum, who lived during Late Period; it is now preserved at Beni-Suief museum under registration Num 1245. This anthropoid coffin was found during excavation in Sediment el-Gabal. The authors are the first people who will deal with dating this coffin in an academic method through iconography and text study. The dating of the coffin has not been identified previously. So, the authors could date this anthropoid wooden coffin based on decorations and texts analyses; the authors will introduce more evidence to prove the argument dating of this anthropoid coffin. Neither surveying nor comparing the decoration and scenes techniques have been done by authors. The paper, then, compared these decoration features on the coffins which are extracted from sediment el-Gabal and results are discussed. This paper is developed using analytical and comparative approaches based on document and decorations analyses. Moreover, major similarities and differences among decorations on this coffin and other techniques have been resulted. The paper concluded that this coffin with these decoration patterns was executed through Late period of Egypt. The level of implementation of these decorations and inscriptions are typical to the period of end of Late Period. It can approximately be dated from 26th to 30th Dynasty.

Keywords