17 | Slipper coffin

This object is a type of coffin that we today call a slipper coffin.

The name is of uncertain origin, but likely reflects the coffin’s shape – like a slipper – and how a body could be placed inside.

Coffins of this type are usually made of one piece and are large enough to have the body of a deceased individual slip into them.

To close the coffin, a cover or lid decorated with a stylised face was placed on top.

Slipper-shaped coffins like this were used in Egypt from around the New Kingdom onwards.

But some have suggested that the custom was originally not Egyptian – that slipper coffins were first invented somewhere other than Egypt.

According to this theory, they were first used in Western Asia.

This is because many clay coffins dating from at least the 2nd to the 1st Millennium BCE have been found across this area, including in today’s Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Iran.

But archaeologists do like a good debate.

And so, some have argued the opposite, that slipper coffins originate in Egypt.

Most probably it was a type used by the poorer population who could not afford a painted coffin made of expensive imported wood.

A few have even suggested that those who were using these coffins in Egypt were not Egyptians themselves, but there is little evidence to support that idea.

Despite the widespread use of this type of coffin across space and time, the truth is that it is difficult to trace its origins to a particular area or even culture as is the case for many other cultural features.

Peoples of the past, just like us today, adopted and adapted ideas and objects to make them their own.

In this case, the small size of this coffin suggests that it was made for an infant or an embryo.

You can see the details of the face shaped out of and imprinted into the terracotta clay on its upper part.

The thick eyebrows arch above rounded eyes.

Its moulded nose and mouth are small, with openings pinched into the clay.

To the right and left of the mouth you can make out the details of the hands and, looking to the very bottom of the coffin, you can see hints as to where the feet were once protruding but are now broken off.

Regardless of the origins of this type of coffin, this one was clearly made with care, perhaps for a loved one who died at quite a young age and was afforded all the burial rites to ensure a full afterlife.