Outer Coffin of Meret-it-es
C (bird): 10 1/2 × 2 3/4 × 8 3/4 inches (26.67 × 6.99 × 22.23 cm)
- 102
On each broad side of the lid: 12 standing figures wearing alternatingly green and red dresses and crowned either with stars or disks; arms raised in worship; the deceased, the 13th figure, faces them with arms lowered. Columns of hieroglyphs with blue and ochre backgrounds between figures; hieroglyphs around the deceased. Below, a row of nine images of Anubis (as a jackal) facing opposite direction and seated on a base or tomb.
On each broad side of the body of the coffin, 21 mummiform deities wearing alternatingly green and red dresses and crowned with ma'at feathers face and approach the deceased, who raises hands in prayer to them. A row of hieroglyphs with blue background lies above this scene, and hieroglyphs also appear between the figures. A decorative pattern below.
One end: on top register two images of the deceased, each on a platform worshipping red solar disk with two uraei below. On lower register Isis and Nephthys worshipping djed-column with attributes of Osiris and fetish flanking a radiating red solar disk; images of the deceased standing with lowered arms behind Isis and Nephthys. At the base of upper register a line of hieroglyphs with a blue background; at the base of lower register, a decorative pattern. Hieroglyphs around each figure.
Other end: two registers each with two facing, seated figures of Anubis as a jackal. At the base of upper register a line of hieroglyphs with a blue background; at the base of lower register, a decorative pattern. Hieroglyphs around each figure on lower register.
Falcon with a high crown. The bird was apparently meant to sit on the roof of the outer coffin.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.
Short side of coffin, on your left
Meret-it-es appears four times before two solar disks. She hopes to be resurrected and thereby be like the sun, which is reborn every morning.
Top of coffin
A human-headed bird flies to Meret-it-es' mummy. This is her ba, something akin to the modern idea of personality or soul. Her ba must enter her mummy each evening for Meret-it-es' spirit to be able to walk among the living during the day. The long spell written in hieroglyphs ensures this.
Lid, standing figures and jackals below
Divine powers protect Meret-it-es: the 12 Hours of the Day (each crowned with a solar disk) on this side; the Hours of the Night (each with a star) on the other side; and Anubis, guardian of cemeteries, in his form as a jackal over a tomb or shrine.
Chest (below), standing figures
These 42 judges have threatening names such as: Flaming One Who Came Forth Backwards, Bone Breaker and Blood Eater. Each holds a large knife. Meret-it-es has proclaimed her innocence to them, reciting 42 wicked things she did not do-as, for example: "I have not told lies," "I have not stolen," "My voice was not loud" and "I have not made lawsuits." The judges have believed her and her spirit can now enter the afterlife.
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.
