Footboard of Pakherenkhonsu's Cartonnage Case

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This footboard, which would have been attached to the bottom of Pakherkhonsu's cartonnage mummy case, is divided into two registers. On the top are Isis and Nephthys with close-cropped hair, wearing sheath dresses that leave their breasts uncovered. The goddesses, who are labeled with their names and epithets, flank a column of text that reads: "King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Osiris, Foremost of the Westerners, Lord of Abydos." Below is a figure of a galloping "Apis" bull, sacred to the god Ptah, carrying the mummified body of Pakherkhonsu on his back. The cartonnage itself was too badly damaged to be saved, but photographs taken in the field show that it represented the deceased with a striped, tripartite wig (falling to below the shoulders in the back and over each shoulder), with the goddess Nephthys on top of the head. The face was painted a light pinkish red, and the eyes were inlaid. Adorning the mummiform body, which had been shaped on a form and then cut in half up the back, were rows of deities, 20 in all, each identified with a part of the body and the name of the god. On the back was a large djed pillar with a feather crown, symbol of the god Osiris. The goddess Isis, sister of Nephthys and sister-wife of Osiris, was depicted on the feet.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art