Ancient Egyptian Tombs by Steven Snape

Author:Steven Snape
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Published: 2010-11-03T00:00:00+00:00

Coffins at the End of the Old Kingdom

Until the end of Dynasty 5 the decoration of coffins was little different to that of the Archaic Period, with the domination of ‘palace-façade’ decoration. Private coffins and royal sarcophagi were, in decorative terms, very similar. The major transformational period, as with the decoration of the Burial Chamber itself, was the end of Dynasty 5 and the beginning of Dynasty 6, specifically (as we have noted) the influence of royal Burial Chamber decoration at the pyramid of Unas. As we have seen, prompted by Unas' example, private individuals began to decorate the walls of the Burial Chambers of their tombs, but with a design scheme very different to that of the king. Rather than Pyramid Texts (which would, of course, have been deeply inappropriate), Burial Chambers of mastaba-tombs of Dynasty 6 developed scenes drawn from the main decorative scheme of the mastaba itself (Kanawati 2005). These themes would eventually and regularly find their way onto the coffin itself during the Middle Kingdom, but in the late Old Kingdom the decorative change to coffins was in the introduction of a range of motifs which would be the core decorative scheme for Middle Kingdom (and later) standard ‘box’ coffins.

The coffin can be seen as an item which is an interface between the body, the tomb and the cosmos. This is manifested in a number of different ways: it is made apparent through the developing decorative content of the coffin, but it is also evident in the way in which the coffin is placed within the tomb. In the Burial Chamber, the coffin is regularly orientated along a north– south axis, often within a stone sarcophagus whose north–south positioning is the most important design consideration of the Burial Chamber itself. The body within the coffin lies on its left side, with its head to the north, facing east. This positioning can be seen as having two distinctly separate but overlapping purposes. For the ka, if one assumes a burial to the west of the Nile Valley (as is the case in the Memphite cemeteries), the body looked towards the Offering Chapel within the tomb and, by extension, the direction from which the Living come with their offerings. This is, of course, a design principle which we have seen applied to other aspects of tomb design, most notably the positioning of the false door, but in this context the coffin, and body within, can be seen on the same terms: as part of a set of physical entities – the stone door, the wooden coffin, the dried flesh of the body – which all contribute to the idea of the tomb as the place where the ka's needs are met. The eastwards orientation can also be seen as an attempt to place the body looking towards the horizon on which the sun will emerge every morning; although rather muted, ideas of rebirth from nature projected onto the tomb-owner will become more important and this is also reflected in the texts and images on the coffin as well as other parts of the tomb.

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