Unpublished Mummy Cover of Ra-Hotep from Thebes in the Basement of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (TR. 8. 12. 25. 1)

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Lecturer, Egyptology Department, Faculty of Archaeology, Ain Shams University, Egypt

Abstract

This paper deals with publishing, describing, and discussing the mummy cover that belongs to a non-royal man named Ra-Hotep. The cover was discovered in Thebes and is currently preserved in the basement of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo under inventory numbers (TR. 8. 12. 25. 1- SR. 4. 11294); no other numbers (CG. or JE.) were assigned to it.
This mummy cover and its inventory number in the Egyptian Museum are not referenced in any studies that include coffins, and mummy covers from the Third Intermediate Period, which highlights and adds the significance of this study.
The artistic features and the decoration system indicate that it is dated to the second half of the 21st dynasty. This mummy cover features an irregular composition type for its period; The upper section features an unusually wsx collar in light blue color, while the lower section is adorned with yellow text bands that mimic the longitudinal and transverse straps used in mummy wrappings. Additionally, the entire surface of the lower section is covered with a red net of reticulate that mimics the Osiris's net beads, which serve as the background for the yellow bands.

Keywords

References

Abd Alrahman, Maher. “The Astral and Solar Destinies of the Deceased in the Ancient Egyptian Texts”, Journal of the Faculty of Tourism and Hotels-University of Sadat City, Vol. 4, Issue 2/1, (2020): 24-40.
Bettum, Anders. “Death as an Eternal Process. A Case Study of a 21st Dynasty Coffin at the University Museum of Cultural Heritage in Oslo” unpublished MA thesis, University of Oslo, 2004.
Bettum, Anders. “Faces within Faces: The Symbolic Function of Nested Yellow Coffins in Ancient Egypt” PhD diss., Faculty of Humanities, University of Oslo. 2012.
Billing Nils. Nut: the goddess of life in text and iconography, Uppsala studies in Egyptology; 5, Uppsala: Uppsala University, 2002.
Brech, Ruth. Spätägyptische Särge aus Achmim. Eine typologische und chronologische Studie. Aegyptiaca Hamburgensia 3. Gladbeck: Pewe-Verlag, 2008.
Cauville, Sylvie. Le Temple de Dendara: les chapelles osiriennes, BdE 119, Cairo: French Institute of Oriental Archaeology, 1996.
Chappaz, Jean-Luc. “Le sarcophage de Houner, épouse du vizir
Râ-hotep, et deux fragments inédits du Musée d'art et d'histoire de Genève”, Chronique d'Égypte 61, (1985): 31-42.
Cherpion, Nadine. Les peintres de l’Égypte ancienne: leur langage, leurs palettes, leurs styles. Connaissance de l’Égypte Ancienne 21. Brussels: Éditions Safran. 2023.
Comarmond, Ambroise. Description des antiquités et objets d'art contenus dans les salles du Palais des Arts de la ville de Lyon. Lyon: Dumoulin, 1855-1857.
Cooney, Kathlyn. “Changing burial practices at the end of the New Kingdom: Defensive adaptations in tomb commissions, coffin commissions, coffin decoration, and mummification”, in Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 47, (2011): 3- 44.
Daressy, Georges. “Les cercueils des Prêtres d’Ammon (Deuxième Trouvaille de Deir el-Bahari)”, Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte 8, (1907): 3 - 38
Daressy, Georges. Cercueils des Cachettes royales, Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du musée du Caire; 61001-61044. Le Caire: Imprimerie de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale. 1909.
Daressy, Georges. Ostraca, Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire, nos. 25001-25385. Le Caire: Imprimerie de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale, 1901.
Davies, William. “Travelling the Korosko Road: archaeological exploration in Sudan’s Eastern Desert” in: The Sudan Archaeological Society Bulletin 18, (2014): 214-220. 
Davies, William. Colour and Painting in Ancient Egypt. London: The British Museum Press, 2001.
Dodson, Aidan. Ancient Egyptian Coffins: The Medelhavsmuseet Collection, Stockholm: National Museums of World Culture, 2015.
Faulkner, Raymond. The Ancient Egyptian pyramid texts, Vol.1, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969.
Goff, Beatrice. Symbols of ancient Egypt in the late period: the twenty-first dynasty. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton Publishers, 1979.
Griffith, Francis. The inscriptions of Siûṭ and Dêr Rîfeh. London: Trübner and Co., 1889.
Guimet, Émile. Un jour, j’achetai une momie: Émile Guimet et l’Égypte antique: exposition, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon. Paris: Éditions Hazan; Lyon: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, 2012.
 Hardekopf, Stefanie. Pharaos Kindheit - Pharao als Kind: ein soziokultureller Beitrag zum Königtum im Neuen Reich. Hildesheimer Ägyptologische Beiträge 56. Hildesheim: Gerstenberg, 2022.
Jamen, France and Alain. “Inventory of the 21st/22nd Dynasties yellow coffins" in French museums” in: Proceedings First Vatican coffin, Conference 19 - 22 June 2013, vol. 1, edited by Alessia Amenta and Hélène Guichard (Musei Vaticani, 2017): 129-144.
Jamen, France. “A Textual-Iconographical and Technological Study of Unpublished 21st Dynasty coffins from Lyon: The Coffins of Padikhonsou (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Inv. H 2320-H 2321)”, in: Proceedings first Vatican coffin Conference 19-22 June 2013, vol. 1, edited by Alessia Amenta and Hélène Guichard, (Musei Vaticani, 2017): 219-230.
Janssen, Jac. Commodity Prices from the Ramessid Period: An Economic Study of the Village of Necropolis Workmen at Thebes. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1975.
Johnston, Kea Marie. “Unseen Hands: Coffin Production at Akhmim, Dynasties 21-30”, PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2022.
Krauss, Rolf. Astronomische Konzepte und Jenseitsvorstellungen in den Pyramidentexten, Ägyptologische Abhandlungen 59. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1997.
Leahy, Michael. “The Name of Osiris Written”, SAK 7, 1979, 141-153.
Leahy, Michael. Abydos in the Late Period, PhD diss., Cambridge University: 1977.
Lesko, Leonard. A Dictionary of Late Egyptian. V volumes. (Berkeley: B. C. Scribe Publications, 1982- 1990).
Mercer, Samuel. The Pyramid Texts in translation and commentary. Vol. I. New York; London; Toronto: Longmans, green and co., 1952.
Mogensen, Maria. Inscriptions hiéroglyphiques du Musée National de Copenhague. Copenhague: Andr. Fred. Höst & Fils, 1918.
Müller, Ingeborg. Die Verwaltung Nubiens im Neuen Reich. Meroitica 18. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2013.
Niwiński, Anderzej. 21st Dynasty Coffins from Thebes, Chronological and Typological Studies, Theben 5. Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1988.
Niwinski, Andrzej. La seconde trouvaille de Deir el-Bahari (sarcophages), Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire 6029-6068. Cairo: Ifao, 1996.
Porter, Bertha and Rosalind L. B. Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs and Paintings. I. The Theban Necropolis. Part 2, Royal Tombs and Smaller Cemeteries. Oxford: Griffith Institute, 2nd edition, 1989.
Ranke, Hermann. Die Ägyptischen Personennamen. Verzeichnis der Namen, Vol. 1. Glückstadt: J. J. Augustin, 1935.
Römer, Malte. Die Ostraka der frühen 18. Dynastie aus Deir el-Bahri und dem Asasif. Bibliothèque générale 73. Cairo: Institut français d’archéologie orientale, 2023.
Saleh, Monnet. Les antiquités égyptiennes de Zagreb. Catalogue raisonné des antiquités égyptiennes conservées au Musée Archéologique de Zagreb en Yougoslavie. Paris: Mouton, 1970.
Schmidt, Valdemar. Sarkofager, Mumiekister,  og mumiehylstre i det gamle Aegypten: Typologisk atlas, med indledning. Copenhagen: J. Frimodts Forlag, 1919.
Schreiber, Gabor. “Mummy Boards from a Theban group burial dating to dynasty 20”, in Ancient Egyptian Coffins. Craft traditions and functionality, British Museum Publications on Egypt and Sudan 4, eds. John Taylor and Marie Vandenbeusch (Leuven: Peeters, 2018). 185-199.
Schreiber, Gábor. “The Mummy-board of Tashedamun from TT 61”, Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, vol. 46, (2006): 185- 195.
Sosa, Milagros.  La Colección Egipcia del Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de la Habana: The Egyptian collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana. La Habana: Museo Nacional de Bellas Arts de la Habana, 2015.
Sousa, Rogério and Anne.  The Tomb of the Priests of Amun Burial Assemblages at the National Museum of Denmark. Gate of the Priests Series Vol. 2. Brill, 2022.
Sousa, Rogério. “Yellow coffins: definition and typology” in: “Yellow” Coffins from Thebes: Recording and decoding complexity in Egyptian funerary arts (21st – 22nd Dynasties), British Archaeological Reports; 3010, edited by Rogério Sousa, 217-224. Oxford: BAR Publishing, 2020.
Sousa, Rogério. Gleaming coffins: Iconography and symbolism in Theban coffin decoration (21st dynasty). vol. I: The sheltering sky. Coimbra: Coimbra University Press, 2018.
Strudwick, Nigel, and John. the Theban necropolis: past, present, and future. British Museum Press, London, 2003.
Taylor, John. “The Burial Assemblage of Henutmehyt: Inventory, Date and Provenance” in Studies in Egyptian Antiquities. A tribute to T.G.H. James, edited by William Vivian Davies, 59-72. London: British Museum Press. 1999.
  Taylor, John. Death and the afterlife in ancient Egypt. London: British Museum Press, 2001.
Taylor, John. Egyptian coffins. Bucks: Shire Publications, 1989.
Van Dijk, Jacobus. “Entering the house of hearts: an addition to Chapter 151 in the Book of the Dead of Qenna”, OMRO 75, (1995): 7-12.
 
Websites:
https://ceres.mcu.es/pages/Main
https://collections.louvre.fr/en/
https://collections.mba-lyon.fr/
https://egyptianmuseumcairo.eg/
https://www.britishmuseum.org/
https://www.metmuseum.org/
https://sharinghistory.museumwnf.org/index.php
Abd Alrahman, Maher. “The Astral and Solar Destinies of the Deceased in the Ancient Egyptian Texts”, Journal of the Faculty of Tourism and Hotels-University of Sadat City, Vol. 4, Issue 2/1, (2020): 24-40.
Bettum, Anders. “Death as an Eternal Process. A Case Study of a 21st Dynasty Coffin at the University Museum of Cultural Heritage in Oslo” unpublished MA thesis, University of Oslo, 2004.
Bettum, Anders. “Faces within Faces: The Symbolic Function of Nested Yellow Coffins in Ancient Egypt” PhD diss., Faculty of Humanities, University of Oslo. 2012.
Billing Nils. Nut: the goddess of life in text and iconography, Uppsala studies in Egyptology; 5, Uppsala: Uppsala University, 2002.
Brech, Ruth. Spätägyptische Särge aus Achmim. Eine typologische und chronologische Studie. Aegyptiaca Hamburgensia 3. Gladbeck: Pewe-Verlag, 2008.
Cauville, Sylvie. Le Temple de Dendara: les chapelles osiriennes, BdE 119, Cairo: French Institute of Oriental Archaeology, 1996.
Chappaz, Jean-Luc. “Le sarcophage de Houner, épouse du vizir
Râ-hotep, et deux fragments inédits du Musée d'art et d'histoire de Genève”, Chronique d'Égypte 61, (1985): 31-42.
Cherpion, Nadine. Les peintres de l’Égypte ancienne: leur langage, leurs palettes, leurs styles. Connaissance de l’Égypte Ancienne 21. Brussels: Éditions Safran. 2023.
Comarmond, Ambroise. Description des antiquités et objets d'art contenus dans les salles du Palais des Arts de la ville de Lyon. Lyon: Dumoulin, 1855-1857.
Cooney, Kathlyn. “Changing burial practices at the end of the New Kingdom: Defensive adaptations in tomb commissions, coffin commissions, coffin decoration, and mummification”, in Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 47, (2011): 3- 44.
Daressy, Georges. “Les cercueils des Prêtres d’Ammon (Deuxième Trouvaille de Deir el-Bahari)”, Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte 8, (1907): 3 - 38
Daressy, Georges. Cercueils des Cachettes royales, Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du musée du Caire; 61001-61044. Le Caire: Imprimerie de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale. 1909.
Daressy, Georges. Ostraca, Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire, nos. 25001-25385. Le Caire: Imprimerie de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale, 1901.
Davies, William. “Travelling the Korosko Road: archaeological exploration in Sudan’s Eastern Desert” in: The Sudan Archaeological Society Bulletin 18, (2014): 214-220. 
Davies, William. Colour and Painting in Ancient Egypt. London: The British Museum Press, 2001.
Dodson, Aidan. Ancient Egyptian Coffins: The Medelhavsmuseet Collection, Stockholm: National Museums of World Culture, 2015.
Faulkner, Raymond. The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid texts, Vol.1, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969.
Goff, Beatrice. Symbols of ancient Egypt in the late period: the twenty-first dynasty. The Hague; Paris; New York: Mouton Publishers, 1979.
Griffith, Francis. The inscriptions of Siûṭ and Dêr Rîfeh. London: Trübner and co., 1889.
Guimet, Émile. Un jour, j’achetai une momie: Émile Guimet et l’Égypte antique: exposition, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon. Paris: Éditions Hazan; Lyon: Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, 2012.
 Hardekopf, Stefanie. Pharaos Kindheit - Pharao als Kind: ein soziokultureller Beitrag zum Königtum im Neuen Reich. Hildesheimer Ägyptologische Beiträge 56. Hildesheim: Gerstenberg, 2022.
Jamen, France and Alain. “Inventory of the 21st/22nd Dynasties yellow coffins" in French museums” in: Proceedings First Vatican coffin, Conference 19 - 22 June 2013, vol. 1, edited by Alessia Amenta and Hélène Guichard (Musei Vaticani, 2017): 129-144.
Jamen, France. “A Textual-Iconographical and Technological Study of Unpublished 21st Dynasty coffins from Lyon: The Coffins of Padikhonsou (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Inv. H 2320-H 2321)”, in: Proceedings first Vatican coffin Conference 19-22 June 2013, vol. 1, edited by Alessia Amenta and Hélène Guichard, (Musei Vaticani, 2017): 219-230.
Janssen, Jac. Commodity Prices from the Ramessid Period: An Economic Study of the Village of Necropolis Workmen at Thebes. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1975.
Johnston, Kea Marie. “Unseen Hands: Coffin Production at Akhmim, Dynasties 21-30”, PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 2022.
Krauss, Rolf. Astronomische Konzepte und Jenseitsvorstellungen in den Pyramidentexten, Ägyptologische Abhandlungen 59. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1997.
Leahy, Michael. “The Name of Osiris Written”, SAK 7, 1979, 141-153.
Leahy, Michael. Abydos in the Late Period, PhD diss., Cambridge University: 1977.
Lesko, Leonard. A Dictionary of Late Egyptian. V volumes. (Berkeley: B. C. Scribe Publications, 1982- 1990).
Mercer, Samuel. The Pyramid Texts in translation and commentary. Vol. I. New York; London; Toronto: Longmans, Green and co., 1952.
Mogensen, Maria. Inscriptions hiéroglyphiques du Musée National de Copenhague. Copenhague: Andr. Fred. Höst & Fils, 1918.
Müller, Ingeborg. Die Verwaltung Nubiens im Neuen Reich. Meroitica 18. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz 2013.
Niwiński, Anderzej. 21st Dynasty Coffins from Thebes, Chronological and Typological Studies, Theben 5. Mainz am Rhein: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1988.
Niwinski, Andrzej. La seconde trouvaille de Deir el-Bahari (sarcophages), Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire 6029-6068. Cairo: Ifao, 1996.
Porter, Bertha and Rosalind L. B. Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs and Paintings. I. The Theban Necropolis. Part 2, Royal Tombs and Smaller Cemeteries. Oxford: Griffith Institute, 2nd edition, 1989.
Ranke, Hermann. Die Ägyptischen Personennamen. Verzeichnis der Namen, Vol. 1. Glückstadt: J. J. Augustin, 1935.
Römer, Malte. Die Ostraka der frühen 18. Dynastie aus Deir el-Bahri und dem Asasif. Bibliothèque générale 73. Cairo: Institut français d’archéologie orientale, 2023.
Saleh, Monnet. Les antiquités égyptiennes de Zagreb. Catalogue raisonné des antiquités égyptiennes conservées au Musée Archéologique de Zagreb en Yougoslavie. Paris: Mouton, 1970.
Schmidt, Valdemar. Sarkofager, Mumiekister,  og mumiehylstre i det gamle Aegypten: Typologisk atlas, med indledning. Copenhagen: J. Frimodts Forlag, 1919.
Schreiber, Gabor. “Mummy Boards from a Theban group burial dating to dynasty 20”, in Ancient Egyptian Coffins. Craft traditions and functionality, British Museum Publications on Egypt and Sudan 4, eds. John Taylor and Marie Vandenbeusch (Leuven: Peeters, 2018). 185-199.
Schreiber, Gábor. “The Mummy-board of Tashedamun from TT 61”, Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, vol. 46, (2006): 185- 195.
Sosa, Milagros.  La Colección Egipcia del Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes de la Habana: The Egyptian collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts in Havana. La Habana: Museo Nacional de Bellas Arts de la Habana, 2015.
Sousa, Rogério and Anne.  The Tomb of the Priests of Amun Burial Assemblages at the National Museum of Denmark. Gate of the Priests Series Vol. 2. Brill, 2022.
Sousa, Rogério. “Yellow coffins: definition and typology” in: “Yellow” Coffins from Thebes: Recording and decoding complexity in Egyptian funerary arts (21st – 22nd Dynasties), British Archaeological Reports; 3010, edited by Rogério Sousa, 217-224. Oxford: BAR publishing, 2020.
Sousa, Rogério. Gleaming coffins: Iconography and symbolism in Theban coffin decoration (21st dynasty). vol. I: The sheltering sky. Coimbra: Coimbra University Press, 2018.
Strudwick, Nigel, and John. the Theban necropolis: past, present, and future. British Museum Press, London, 2003.
Taylor, John. “The Burial Assemblage of Henutmehyt: Inventory, Date and Provenance” in Studies in Egyptian Antiquities. A tribute to T.G.H. James, edited by William Vivian Davies, 59-72. London: British Museum Press. 1999.
  Taylor, John. Death and the afterlife in ancient Egypt. London: British Museum Press, 2001.
Taylor, John. Egyptian coffins. Bucks: Shire Publications, 1989.
Van Dijk, Jacobus. “Entering the house of hearts: an addition to Chapter 151 in the Book of the Dead of Qenna”, OMRO 75, (1995): 7-12.
 
Websites:
https://ceres.mcu.es/pages/Main
https://collections.louvre.fr/en/
https://collections.mba-lyon.fr/
https://egyptianmuseumcairo.eg/
https://www.britishmuseum.org/
https://www.metmuseum.org/
https://sharinghistory.museumwnf.org/index.php

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