Coffin of Teti

Coffin of Teti

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This large rectangular coffin with a slightly arched lid most likely dates to the late 17th or early 18th Dynasty. It has been cobbled together from planks and scraps of sycomore wood. The decoration of the long sides is dominated by checkerboard patterns in black and red, with crudely-painted figural scenes added. On one side are female mourners in white kilts facing an offering stand and piles of offerings; below them is a series of jars set into pot stands. On the other side there are two illustrations, one showing a funerary boat (likely making a pilgrimage to the sacred site of Abydos), and the other, in two registers, depicting offering bearers. On the head end, the goddes Isis stands atop a shrine; an additional panel of wood has been added above this, and two wedjat eyes have been painted here rather than on one of the long sides of the coffin. Nephthys and the mortuary god Anubis in the form of a jackal adorn the foot end . A vertical band of inscription on the lid provides an offering prayer dedicated to the Lady of the House, Teti. Inside the coffin were the mummies of two adults and one child, as well as a faience bowl (26.7.905) and a scarab (26.7.432). This coffin was discovered in one of the tombs in an area of western Thebes called Birabi, or lower Asasif. This area was used for burials until early Dynasty 18, when the site was covered in preparation for the construction of a valley temple at the end of the causeway leading to the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.