Falcon-form case containing a corn mummy

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This falcon-headed coffin does not contain an actual mummy but a symbolic Osiris mummy stuffed with grain and sand. The falcon head on the coffin and the hieroglyphic text on the painted lid indicate it is associated with the funerary deity Ptah-Sokar-Osiris. Such coffins and 'mummies' were prepared and buried in annual rites at certain centers as part of the mysteries of Osiris. Subsequent germination of the grain would symbolize the possibility of new life offered by Osiris. This particular example is of a type associated with the site of Tuna el-Gebel.

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