newly awakened interest in the funerary art and monuments and literature of the Old Kingdom. The hieroglyphs are well cut, and show very great attention to detail, but there is a meagreness about them which makes them easily recognizable as the product of a late period. One of the best known of this class is the sarcophagus of Ankhnes-Neferȧbrā, daughter of Psammetichus II and Queen

Tekhauath, (= (B.M. 32). It was usurped by Amen

*

hetep Pimenth, who added an inscription round the top edge. It measures 8 feet 6 inches by 3 feet 9 inches by 3 feet 8 inches and weighs about 5 tons 15 cwt.1 The sarcophagi which were made after the XXVIth dynasty are sometimes rectangular, having covers with human faces, and sometimes have rounded ends; good examples are the grey granite sarcophagi of Nesqețiu,, from Campbell's Tomb" at Gîzah (B.M. 3), and Ḥapmen, §

(B.M. 23). The anthropoid sarcophagi in basalt of this period are well represented by those of Uaḥabrā, O, and Psemthek (B.M. 1047 and 1384), which, though smaller, closely resemble the huge sarcophagi of Tabnith and Eshmûnâzâr, king of Sidon in the first half of the IVth century B.C., which are described on page 431. At this period the sides and ends of sarcophagi are decorated with rows of figures of gods, each one of whom was supposed to protect a certain member of the body of the deceased. Under the XXXth dynasty and during the Ptolemaïc Period sarcophagi were very massive, and one of the finest examples of these is the sarcophagus

of Nekhtḥerḥeb - meri - Amen,

(the

Nektanebês of the Greek writers), king of Egypt about B.C. 378 (B.M. 10). It is 10 feet 4 inches in length, 5 feet 4 inches in width, and 3 feet 11 inches high, and weighs nearly 7 tons. The cover is wanting. On the inside are figures of gods, at the head and foot are figures of Isis and Nephthys, and on the edge is a border of the amuletic symbols of Osiris and Isis, . The outside is covered with the Vignettes and texts2 of the Ist, IInd, IIIrd, VIth, VIIIth and IXth Sections of the Book "Ammi Ţuat," or Guide to the Other World, which the deceased was supposed to use. Another sarcophagus on which Vignettes and texts from the "Ammi Tuat" and the "Book of the Gates" are also cut is that of Qemḥap (B.M. 1504).

1 The complete text and translation are published in my Sarcophagus of Ankhnesra-neferab, London, 1885.

See Budge, Egyptian Heaven and Hell, Vol. I, London, 1906; Vol. II contains the Book of Gates, and Vol. III a summary of the contents of each work, of which complete translations are given.

The sarcophagus is rectangular and the cover has the form of a truncated pyramid. Other fine, and in some ways more perfect, examples of this class of monument are the sarcophagi of Ankhḥap,

f8, Tcheher,, Thaherpta (?),

in the Egyptian Museum.1 The number of such sarcophagi found in the Museums of Cairo, Europe and America cannot possibly represent all that were made in the Ptolemaïc Period, and we may assume, as is the case with sarcophagi of the Old Kingdom, that many of them are still in the earth or in the tombs in the hills. Under Roman rule, in the case of men of high rank, the coffin seems to have been dispensed with, and a wooden sarcophagus took its place. This consisted of two parts: a long rectangular base-board, from 6 to 8 feet long and from 2 feet 6 inches to 3 feet in breadth, on which the badly made and much-bandaged mummy was laid, and a rectangular, vaulted cover, with angle-posts, from 1 foot 3 inches to 2 feet in height. Pictures of the old Egyptian gods of the dead are painted on the outside of the cover, and on its inside are often found the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac. The gods and scenes painted on such sarcophagi seem to have been chosen solely for their decorative characteristics.

THE EGYPTIAN COFFIN

THE desire to keep the bodies of the dead from touching the earth appears to be a fundamental characteristic of African peoples. The Neolithic Egyptians wrapped them in mats and skins and reed baskets, and at the present time many African peoples wrap up their dead in "trade cloth" and place them carefully in recesses made at one side of the bottom of the grave. The early dynastic Egyptians placed their dead in the contracted position and laid them sometimes in rough wooden boxes, and sometimes in round or oval earthenware boxes. In some cases the box or coffin was placed over the body or bones like an inverted basin. When the Egyptians began to bury their dead stretched out at full length and lying on their backs, the coffins were lengthened, and under the VIth dynasty both forms of coffin were used. The coffin is painted in monochrome, and brief inscriptions are painted in black on it, either a single line of text down the cover, or a single line round the top edges of all four sides. Of the coffins made under dynasties VII-X little is known.

Under the XIth dynasty the coffin was covered with texts written in cursive hieroglyphic characters, and it was evidently the forerunner of the coffins of kings and nobles of the XIIth dynasty. This is proved by Wilkinson's tracing made from a coffin now lost.

1 Full descriptions, with text and plates, will be found in Maspero, Sarcophages des Époques Persane et Ptolemaïque, Cairo, 1908.

The coffin was made for Queen Khnem-nefer-ḥetchet, the wife

and was inscribed with twenty-three Chapters of the Middle Kingdom Recension of the Book of the Dead.1 It is probable that the coffin of Amamu2 (B.M. 6654) belongs to this period.

rest.

At Al-Barshah and elsewhere in Upper Egypt under the XIIth dynasty coffins were made of thick planks of various kinds of wood and were rectangular in shape, and except in size they are practically duplicates of the massive wooden sarcophagi which were made at this period. There is an inscription on the outside of the cover of one line or more, which usually begins with and contains a prayer by the deceased to Anpu or Osiris, or both, for a liberal supply of funerary offerings, and a "happy burial," i.e., a stately funeral, in a good and safe tomb, and the due performance of all the prescribed rites and ceremonies when his body is laid to An inscription, also in one line or more, runs round the top edges of the two sides and two ends of the coffin, and at right-angles to this are six, eight, or twelve lines of hieroglyphic text in which the deceased declares himself to be the vassal of the Four Sons of Horus-Mestȧ, Hapi, Tuamutef and Qebḥsenuf-and other gods. Usually these short perpendicular lines of text are six in number, three on each side, but the correct number is eight, four on each side, and they were intended to represent the four main bandages of the mummy. At one end of one side of the coffin the two Utchats, are painted, and they were intended to secure for the deceased the strength and protection of the two eyes of Her-ur, i.e., the Sun and Moon, by day and by night for ever. Sometimes these Utchats rest upon the doorway of the tomb, with its folding-doors shut and bolted. The doorway is to all intents and purposes a copy of the "false door" seen in the maṣṭabah tombs of the IVth dynasty at Gîzah and Sakkârah. In some instances a small rectangular door is actually cut in one side of the coffin, and it seems to have been specially made to provide a means of ingress and egress for the soul when it visited its body in the tomb. A good example of this door is afforded by the coffin of Menthu-hetep (B.M. 6655); here the door has a sliding panel. The inside of the cover is sometimes decorated with stars, but usually it is covered with texts written in hieratic. On the upper edges are painted representations of all the objects that were to be offered to the deceased according to the Liturgy of Funerary Offerings. On one side another "false door" and the Vignette of the Islands of the Blessed are painted in colours, and 1 For a facsimile of Wilkinson's tracing see Budge, Hieratic Papyri, 1st Series, pll. XXXIX-XLVIII, London, 1910.

2 For a facsimile see Birch, Egyptian Texts of the Earliest Period, London, 1886.

all the rest of the space on both sides is covered with hieratic texts. On the floor of the coffin are diagrams illustrating the various sections of the Kingdom of Osiris and the "Two Ways" thither, the one by land and the other by river. The texts on the sides contain extracts from the Pyramid Texts of the VIth dynasty, and Chapters from the great collection of religious texts that was compiled by the priests under the Middle Kingdom. But all coffins of the period of the XIth and XIIth dynasties were not so elaborately decorated, and many of them are made of thin planks of not very sound wood, which were merely washed over with a mixture of lime and yellow ochre.

Between the XIIth and the XVIIIth dynasties the shape of the coffin was changed, probably as a result of the growth of the cult of Osiris, and the anthropoid coffin came into use. One of the finest examples of this kind of coffin is undoubtedly that of king An-Antef (B.M. 6652). The eyes and eyelids are inlaid after the manner of the statues of the Old Kingdom, and the face was intended to be a portrait. The body is covered with gilded feather-work-a form of ornamentation that seems to have originated at this periodand stars, and the inscriptions contain addresses to the deceased by Isis and Nephthys. Some assign this coffin to the XIth dynasty, but it probably belongs to a later period. A great many coffins in the various large National Collections belong to the period that lies between the XIIth and the XVIIIth dynasties, but it is quite impossible to assign anything like exact dates to them. The oldest of them have carved wooden faces, set in heavy wigs, and the fronts are decorated with figures of the goddess Nut under the form of a vulture, and with painted feather-work (B.M. 52050, 52051). The inscription down the front, in addition to a prayer for offerings, frequently includes the words from the Pyramid Texts, “Thy mother Nut spreads herself over thee in her name of Mystery of Heaven, she makes thee to live as a god, and to be without enemies." The Egyptian text reads:

The finest and most beautiful painted coffins found in Egypt date from the XVIIIth dynasty,1 and the nobles and priests of AmenRā were provided with most luxurious funerary equipment. It was no uncommon thing for a great noble to be buried in three coffins, the outermost serving as a sarcophagus. The coffins are well shaped and well made, and both inside and outside are covered with Vignettes and long texts from the Theban Book of the Dead, and

1 A good series of reproductions of fine coffins will be found in Gauthier, Cercueils Anthropoïdes des Prêtres de Montou, Cairo, 1913, and the Guide to the Egyptian Rooms I-III in the British Museum, London, 1924.