Undecorated Coffin
Late Period
Discovered in the courtyard of the much earlier temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri, this coffin was part of an embalming cache. It had been filled with mummification materials, including bags of natron and sawdust, and placed at the bottom of a shallow pit. Large pots were packed around it, and then it was covered by layers of straw, several mats, garlands, and a broken frame made of papyrus and palm sticks. This material was made sacred through its contact with the body and its use in the process of a ritual transformation.
The coffin itself takes the form of a sah, a body transformed through the process of embalming. It is undecorated, covered with only a preparatory layer. The shape, with no arms or hands indicated and the feet resting on a shallow pedestal, suggests a date in the 25th or early 26th Dynasty.
For more on this coffin, see this online article.
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