Coffin fragment of Pakherenkhonsu

Coffin fragment of Pakherenkhonsu

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fragments of three nested anthropoid coffins and a cartonnage case for the Doorkeeper of the House of Amun, Pakherenkhonsu, were found in a pit (Pit 1) in Tomb MMA 832, a reunsed tomb of Dynasty 11 that contained material from a number of later burials. This board, bearing an ink sketch of Pakherenkhonsu himself, comes from the head end of the middle coffin box. Pakherenkhonsu is shown here as an older man, with a bald head and a few extra pounds, attesting to his sedentary occupation. In his right hand is a broom, perhaps a symbol of his priestly rank and temple duties. The freehand drawing, a masterpiece of Egyptian art, captures the essence of the living person with a minimum of detail. It belongs to a group of statues and reliefs made at Thebes in Dynasty 25, which use the rules of traditional Egyptian art to achieve startlingly realistic effects.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Coffin fragment of PakherenkhonsuCoffin fragment of PakherenkhonsuCoffin fragment of PakherenkhonsuCoffin fragment of PakherenkhonsuCoffin fragment of Pakherenkhonsu

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.