Egyptian Dreams

bcsoicey · Citizen Joined: 02 Feb 2012 Posts: 2

Hello everyone. I am a college student looking for some opinions on a few questions. I am doing this for my art history class, and any help would be great!

First - Why do some Egyptian coffins have more complex designs than other ones?

Second - Why do you think Egyptians followed such strict rules during the mummification process?

Thanks again for you help. I will post the Url where I am basing my questions from.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/online_tours/egypt/mummy_the_inside_story/mummy_the_inside_story.aspx

kylejustin · Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 7:25 am Post subject:

re coffins and texts, the later in egyptian history you get, ie after the new kingdom, it was becoming increasingly obvious that you could no longer stay permanently in your tomb. tomb robbery was rife and tomb decoration must have become less practical. so they started to put the decoration usually reserved for the walls of tombs onto the coffins.

mummies themselves sometimes had spells written on their bandages or shrouds.

coffins also changed shape throughout the millenia. the coffins from the end of the old kingdom i believe were box shaped, and by the time of the 17th dynasty had become anthropoid. i think by roman times, they had done away with coffins altogether.
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Lutz · Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 1:32 pm Post subject: Re: Need some opinions

kylejustin · Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 1:48 pm Post subject:

i think the middle kingdom was the transitional period for putting the texts on the walls. and when you think of it, the new kingdom does not usually have religious texts allover the coffins. the only ones i can think of are tutankhamun's? i cannot remember if his as texts int he inside though. but coffins in the new kingdom had inscriptions, not full blown texts on them. during the 3rd intermediate period, it bacame common to decorate the coffins with scenes fromt he book of the dead, religious texts and the deceased whorshipping the gods. it was also the period where reburials in older desecrated tombs seem to have become more common, and a period where less artifacts where buried with the deceased.
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heaven won't take me.......hell's afraid i'll take over.....

bcsoicey · Citizen Joined: 02 Feb 2012 Posts: 2

Hey thannks for your responses! I thought you all had valid points and good reasoning behind your answers.

Again I appreciate the responses

Lutz · Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2012 3:35 pm Post subject:

kylejustin · Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2012 7:50 am Post subject:

im thinking about the coffins from the third intermediate period lutz. they are heavily decorated with funerary textx, and many mummies discovered from that period are in usurped tombs. like the recent kv 64? is that the number for the new tomb?
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heaven won't take me.......hell's afraid i'll take over.....

nehaali · Citizen Joined: 30 Aug 2014 Posts: 1

No, I'm not trying to start a relationship column for the best come-on lines to pick up mummies. I've never seen one hanging out at a bar, anyway. I suppose something like this might work: "You're aged and yellowed wrappings look lovely in this dim light, and you smell terrific." But that's beside the point.

I've spent quite a lot of time trying to train myself in the typing and dating of coffins and mummies by their appearance. Some books have been very helpful, including Dodson and Ikram (1998), Dodson and Manley (2010), and of course John Taylor's wonderfully detailed chapter on coffins dating to Dynasty 22-Dynasty 26 in The Theban Necropolis: Past, Present, and Future (2003).

Where I've come up short is in typing and dating coffins from the Ptolemaic Period. Most books I've examined present only cursory information on them. The Ptolemies ruled for 300 years, so I have to imagine some degree of study has gone into coffins and mummies of this period. I've heard Egyptologists say that this or that mummy comes from early in the Ptolemaic Period, but I'm left wondering how they know that.

Any sources out there? I'd welcome any papers or articles people might know about. My German has atrophied horribly and my French was never any good to begin with, so if possible I would prefer sources in English.

Your assistance is greatly appreciated. Wink

Lutz · Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2014 7:12 am Post subject:

Maybe you know the "Shire Egyptology" series. The individual volumes offer compact-depth information on individual topics. Included is also an extensive bibliography for further reading...

Judith A. Corbelli : The Art of Death in Graeco-Roman Egypt. - [Shire Egyptology 28]. - Princes Risborough : Shire Publications, 2006. - ISBN : 9780747806479; 0747806470. - 80 p., figs [ills, maps]

John H. Taylor : Egyptian Coffins. - [Shire Egyptology 11]. - Princes Risborough : Shire Publications, 1989. - ISBN : 0852639775. - 68 p., 53 figs [ills, map, plan]

Christina Riggs : Archaism and Artistic Sources in Roman Egypt - The Coffins of the Soter Family and the Temple of Deir el-Medina. - In: Bulletin de l'Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale - BIFAO 106. - 2006. - pp. 315 - 332

Christina Riggs : The Beautiful Burial in Roman Egypt - Art, Identity, and Funerary Religion. - [Oxford Studies in Ancient Culture and Representation]. - Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2005. - ISBN : 9780199276653; 019927665X. - XXI, 334 p., [8] p. of plates, ills [some colour], map

Mark Smith : Dating Anthropoid Mummy Cases from Akhmim - The Evidence of the Demotic Inscriptions. - In: Portraits and Masks - Burial Customs in Roman Egypt. - London : British Museum Press, 1997. - pp. 66 - 71, 2 tables, 6 plates

H. M. Stewart : Mummy-Cases and Inscribed Funerary Cones in the Petrie Collection. - Warminster : Aris & Phillips / Oak Park, Bolchazy-Carducci, 1986. - IX, 84 p., 25 pl

Iker · Citizen Joined: 22 Mar 2014 Posts: 72