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Coffin Lid of Tawaher
This lid is decorated for a woman named Tawaher, who served as a musician in the cult of the god Amun-Re. On each of the long sides, she is shown standing before a table piled high with offerings.
The other scenes on the lid illustrate the journey of the sun god. On one long side, he is shown with the head of a raptor, traveling in his day barque through the day time sky. On one short end, the disk of the sun is escorted over the horizon by canids so that the god can travel, on the opposite long side, through the night sky. As he passes here through the Underworld, he has the head of a ram. On the second short end, the sun god, now in the form of a scarab beetle, is reborn at dawn to begin the cycle again.
Together, these scenes evoke the four cardinal directions to create a cosmogram. On the interior is a figure of the sky goddess, Nut. The inscriptions are funerary spells meant to help Tawaher achieve eternal life as a blessed spirit.
Tawaher was the daughter of a priest and official named Diskhonsu and his wife Ruru. The box of her coffin, along with her mummy, is now in the Rosicrucian Museum, San Jose.
The other scenes on the lid illustrate the journey of the sun god. On one long side, he is shown with the head of a raptor, traveling in his day barque through the day time sky. On one short end, the disk of the sun is escorted over the horizon by canids so that the god can travel, on the opposite long side, through the night sky. As he passes here through the Underworld, he has the head of a ram. On the second short end, the sun god, now in the form of a scarab beetle, is reborn at dawn to begin the cycle again.
Together, these scenes evoke the four cardinal directions to create a cosmogram. On the interior is a figure of the sky goddess, Nut. The inscriptions are funerary spells meant to help Tawaher achieve eternal life as a blessed spirit.
Tawaher was the daughter of a priest and official named Diskhonsu and his wife Ruru. The box of her coffin, along with her mummy, is now in the Rosicrucian Museum, San Jose.
Artwork Details
- Title: Coffin Lid of Tawaher
- Period: Late Period, Saite
- Dynasty: Dynasty 26
- Date: 664–525 B.C.
- Geography: From Egypt, Egyptian Antiquities Service excavations, 1885–86; Probably from Upper Egypt, Thebes
- Medium: Wood, gesso, paint
- Dimensions: L. 165 cm (64 15/16 in); W. 40 cm (15 3/4 in)
- Credit Line: Funds from various donors, 1886
- Object Number: 86.1.30
- Curatorial Department: Egyptian Art
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