LATE PERIOD - PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 400-30 B.C.

Beautifully decorated on every surface in well-executed polychromy, the coffin of Djedhor, son of Nakht-khonsu is remarkable for its wealth of painted detail. Djedhor’s face is gilded, and wears a plain wig and a beard with upturned end decorated in a spiral design, all reflecting his divinization. A magnificent floral collar across the chest features 14 rows of elements. The swelling forms of the coffin suggests strength and even musculature in the lower section, where the outline of calves are shown, and the coffin is provided with a decorated plinth and back pillar. Inscriptions in black hieroglyphs on the front and in detailed polychrome signs on the back pillar provide Djedhor’s name and filiation. As Meffrè has noted (op. cit.), “Thanks to its texts which mention Osiris Naref, Nâret-khentet and Northern Abydos, it is clear that this coffin comes from the Herakleopolis region. Its affinities with coffins found in Abusir el-Meleq suggest that it also comes from this necropolis”. “Northern Abydos” was an ancient designation for the area of Herakleopolis, reflecting the importance of Osiris in that region. Based on photographs and notes from Otto Rubensohn’s 1904-05 excavations at Abusir el-Meleq, it is likely that Djedhor’s coffin was found within a limestone sarcophagus carved to receive it. Coffins of similar style and date were found arranged in rows, reflecting the burial of several generations of an elite local family.

The decorative program of Djedhor’s coffin reflects that of other coffins of similar date from Abusir el-Melek: a winged scarab, below which is a figure of Nut with her wings outstretched, above five columns of vertical text and five registers of deities on each side facing the central text panels. The decoration is elaborate and well-drawn, especially the figures of deities and the five lines of polychrome hieroglyphic text on the back pillar of the coffin, below the wig. There is much detail to enliven the coffin’s decoration: two human-headed ba-birds representing the soul of Djedhor alight with raised arms on Nut’s wings; falcons with outstretched wings on either shoulder wear the combined crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt; the monotony of standing deities is relieved by a figure of a goddess pouring water into a basin on a tall stand. Even the plain surfaces of the rear part of the wig are provided with protective depictions of kneeling goddesses (only that of Isis is preserved). Despite the general adherence to tradition, there are some surprising details, and no strict adherence to symmetry - for example, a slim baboon with outstretched arms breaks the regularity of the decoration of the front of the coffin, just above the legs. The legs are modeled in relief on the exterior, but also rendered in painted outline: the feet of the deceased are shown wearing sandals, an aspect of the “clothes of the living” that begins to appear in the New Kingdom and becomes more elaborately displayed in the Roman era.