15 | Khonsuhotep’s coffin

This coffin set includes an inner coffin and a cover for the mummified individual Khonsuhotep.

Both pieces are made of wood and decorated with motifs relating to Khonsuhotep’s funerary beliefs.

We can see that Khonsuhotep is crowned on both pieces with a headband.

This ‘crown of justification’ represents the declaration of the deceased as ‘true of voice’ following the important judgement of the dead.

Khonsuhotep has defeated death to enter the afterlife.

Also representing this rebirth is the intricately detailed collar shown on the inner coffin and the cover.

The floral design is painted in dashes of red, blue and green all neatly filling the necklace bands.

At the centre is a winged scarab with its sun disc, the scarab positioned cleverly over the area where the heart would be.

Between its hind legs is a circular sign with a line at its base.

This is the ‘shen’ ring believed to represent eternal protection.

By now, you may be wondering why the scarab, this beetle-shaped object, is associated with rebirth.

The ancient Egyptians were very close observers of nature and noticed how the dung beetle of the Nile Valley pushed huge balls of manure from which it appeared that life would spring.

So, they compared this with the sun being pushed into the sky or reborn at dawn every day, bringing life to all on earth.

The rising sun was the god Khepri, the ancient Egyptian word meaning ‘to come into being’, and the symbol used to spell this in hieroglyphs is the dung beetle.

And so, the scarab became a powerful symbol of rebirth.

Various other symbols of rebirth and images of the afterlife decorate the coffins.

Notice the sleeves of the arms?

The inner coffin has bracelets showing a winged cobra of a protective goddess who could create the breath of life.

On your right, she protects the falcon symbol of the west, the direction of the setting sun where the dead gather.

On your left, another winged cobra protects a mummified figure lying on an ornate bed.

This could be the god Osiris, or Khonsuhotep in his form as Osiris.

The cobra here is Osiris’s consort, Isis, who, by flapping her wings, also gives Osiris the breath of life.

Below the crossed arms of the coffin and cover are images of other divine figures.

Among the most prominent is the sky goddess Nut, stretching her wings in a protective embrace.

Note also the figure of Khonsuhotep presenting offerings to the divine – he is represented as an individual with a cone on his head or as a human-headed bird with a cone on the head.

The bird represents the ba, the soul that was believed to return to the body after death, and to move about in the afterlife.

Such imagery strengthened the magical protective power of this nested coffin set.

Khonsuhotep was laid to rest into the protective embrace of Nut.

Crowned as true of voice, he was encased with the knowledge that his figure presented offerings to the important deities of the afterlife.

Surrounded by goddesses, gods and royal ancestors all protecting Khonsuhotep, the coffin set prepared him well for his journey to eternal life.