Coffin Lid and Box

Very damaged small coffin (box and lid) for a child. The stucco on the surface is badly deteriorated. Separate pieces of wood have been added to the basic shape to form the wig lappets and face, which still bear faint traces of paint. On the sides the faint outline of figures remain, and as they appear to be mummiform it is possible that they represent the four Sons of Horus. There is no interior decoration and the planks are held together with many wooden dowels. Surface loss with small amounts of pigment in places. Old infestation evident. The catalogue card of 1936 describes the coffin as containing a wrapped mummy (could that be the child mummy 1978.291.176 ?). John Garstang's team excavated about 250 tombs at "Beni Hasan South" near the mouth of the gorge of the Speos Artemidos in 1904, but this work is less well recorded than that of the earlier shaft tombs he excavated at Beni Hasan. Damaged in the Second World War Two and with no trace of the original accession number the provenance had been lost until 25 October 2015 when it was identified from a list of loans given by the Institute of Archaeology (University of Liverpool) in 1936 (loan no. 33). Compare the style with the coffin for two children in the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. Institute of Archaeology catalogue no. 1194: Painted mummy case of a child. Wood. At one end is a carved human face. Around the neck is a deep pointed collar. Beneath Anubis is showing standing by the bier of the deceased. Provenance: Neighbourhood of Beni Hasan. Dynasty XXII – XXV. CONDITION NOTE 1998: Surface loss, old infestation evident, pigment loss.