Inner Coffin of Meret-it-es
A (top): 75 1/2 × 33 1/2 × 15 inches (191.77 × 85.09 × 38.1 cm)
B (bottom): 87 × 32 1/2 × 8 1/2 inches (220.98 × 82.55 × 21.59 cm)
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On the body of the coffin, in the central zone from top to bottom: Striding cow between two seated ibis-headed mummiform deities. Below, an image of Osiris (djed-column with his attributes) worshipped by flanking Isis and Nephthys with two baboons above the goddesses. Female figure with lowered arms flanked on each side by three superimposed mummiform deities facing her; five long columns of hieroglyphs (three with blue background alternating with two framed in blue). Thirteen rows of flanking, standing deities on the narrow sides from top to bottom, many with hieroglyphs. On front of rectangular pedestal, three seated mummiform figures (the deceased between Horus and Thoth) on boat heading to right. On short left side of pedestal a boat set into a structure; on short right side, a solar disk on a boat.Exhibition History
Das Geheimnis der Mumien: Ewiges Leben am Nil, Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum, Hildesheim, June 22-November 30, 1997.
Aegyptien, Liebe, Wein und Unsterblichkeit, Rheingauer Weinmuseum, Broemserburg, Ruedesheim am Rhein, July 1-October 31, 1998.
Mumien Graeber, Kostbarkeiten, Ausstellungszentrum Lokshuppen, Rosenheim, December 18, 1998-April 5, 1999.
Mumien fuer die Ewigkeit, Landesmuseum fuer Vorgeschichte, Dresden, August 12-December 5, 1999.
Search for Immortality, Life and Afterlife in Ancient Egypt, Taiwan, March-July 2000.
Remarkably thick and weighing 400 pounds, this coffin was meant to preserve Meret-it-es's mummy so that her spirit could live eternally in the hereafter. In part, to ensure that she would become a divine spirit, she is portrayed as a god with golden flesh and blue hair; her unarticulated body resembles the mummified ruler of the underworld, Osiris.
In the center of the coffin the sky goddess Nut spreads her wings, protecting Meret-it-es. A bit below this, Meret-it-es appears before the ibis-headed god Thoth, having been accepted into the hereafter. High above, on the red plaque, she approaches Osiris: her journey into the next world is complete.
Probably found in Hermopolis Magna [1];
Sayed Mohammad Khashaba (Pasha), Assiut, Egypt [2];
By inheritance to Osman Sayyed Khashaba, Assiut, Egypt, 1953-1972 [3];
Purchased from Khashaba, through Ahmad Fahmi Ali Fahmi, Cairo and Hagop Ohan Simonian, Cairo, by Münzen and Medaillen A.G., Basel, 1972;
Purchased from Münzen and Medaillen A.G. by Michael Emil, by 1976-December 31, 1998;
Purchased from Emil by Millenium Art Holdings Ltd., Jersey, Channel Islands, December 31, 1998-September 30, 2005;
Purchased from Millenium Art Holdings Ltd. by the dealers Noele and Ronald Mele, Westport, CT, September 30, 2005-2007;
Purchased from Noele and Ronald Mele by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2007.
NOTES:
[1] Based on hieroglyphs that appear on the front of the inner coffin.
[2] The provenance of the Meret-it-es Assemblage was presented by Millenium Art Holdings Ltd. in the District Court of Berlin in Berlin-Charlottenburg, November 15, 2005, reference number 9 O 511/05 and in the Superior Court in Berlin-Schöneberg, October 16, 2006, reference number 10 U 286/05.
[3] According to the documentation of the proceedings referenced in note 2, Osman Sayyed Khashaba gave Ahmad Fahmi Ali Fahmi power of attorney to sell the assemblage on his behalf on November 13, 1969. Ali Fahmi in turn granted a delegated power of attorney to Hagop Ohan Simonian on November 15, 1969 and contracted him to sell the objects.
Muzhou Pu, Search for Immortality: Life and Afterlife in Ancient Egypt (Taiwan: Tai bei shi, 2000).
Kathleen Garland, Johanna Bernstein, and Joe Rogers, “Raising Meret-it-es: Examining and Conserving an Egyptian Anthropoid Coffin from 380-250 BCE,” Journal of the American Institute for Conservation 54, no. 1 (2015): 102-113.
