Coffin of Prince Amenemhat

This coffin contains the plundered mummy of a royal infant who may have lived during the first part of Dynasty 18 and was reburied in this simple wooden child's coffin from a later era. Amenemhat's name and title (he is called here "King of Upper and Lower Egypt") were roughly painted over a inscription already on the lid. On the chest of the child's rewrapped mummy, the priests tied a painted wooden pectoral (19.3.210) depicting the deified Amenhotep I. Garlands of persea leaves (25.3.146a) and long-stemmed lotus buds (25.3.146b) were laid within the coffin, and a rough pottery bowl filled with dates and other fruits (19.3.211) provided eternal sustenance for Amenemhat.

The coffin was discovered by the Museum's Egyptian Expedition beneath a large rock high in the cliffs of the Theban massif, not far from the Royal Cache (DB 320) in which many of the kings and queens of the New Kingdom had been reburied by priests of the Third Intermediate Period. Nearby was a shaft tomb containing a number of wooden boxes containing mummified food offerings (see 19.3.212-.289a, b) that may have been part of the prince's original burial.