Coffin and Mummy of Paankhaenamun

This is the burial case of an ancient Egyptian man named Paankhaenamun, and his mummified body still lies inside it. The case is about one hundred and seventy centimetres long, roughly the height of a small adult, and narrow, shaped like a standing body. It is made of cartonnage, a material built up from layers of linen or papyrus and plaster, which can be painted. Your eye will go first to the gilded face, which shines with gold leaf, and then to the bright painted scenes and rows of hieroglyphs, the picture-writing of ancient Egypt, covering the surface below.

Start with the face at the top. It looks young and smooth, yet X-rays of the body inside show that Paankhaenamun was middle-aged. The gold face shows an ideal, not a portrait. Then move down to the middle of the case, where the central scene is painted. On one side, a falcon-headed god, Horus, leads the dead man forward. Facing him is Osiris, shown wrapped like a mummy. Look around this scene for other gods and goddesses, and for the bands of hieroglyphs, which carry the man's name and title.

This case was made in Thebes, now the city of Luxor in Egypt, during the reign of Osorkon I, about 924 to 889 BCE. Mummification was the Egyptian practice of drying a body so it would last. The body was anointed with oils and spices, protected with amulets, which are small charms, and wrapped in linen. It was then set inside a series of nesting coffins, one within another. This painted cartonnage case was the innermost shell, the one closest to the body.

The writing and pictures on the case do more than decorate it. They name Paankhaenamun and state his wish to live well in the afterlife. One inscription says he was the doorkeeper of the temple of Amun, and the names and titles suggest he lived at Thebes. The gods around him are there to help him on his journey. Look once more at the central scene, where Horus presents the dead man to Osiris, the ruler of eternity. It shows the moment the whole coffin was made to bring about.