CIRCA 4TH CENTURY B.C.

Cf. S. D'Auria et al., Mummies and Magic: The Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1988, p. 236, no. 195 for a similar coffin. "Falcon cults were scattered throughout Egypt, and Horus had many local cults. In the Late Period and Graeco-Roman periods, falcons were mummified by the thousands and buried in the sacred animal necropolis, sometimes with other birds or animals, at sites including Buto, Kom Ombo, Abydos, Sakkara, and Giza. The mummies, which were not always those of complete birds, were tightly wrapped and sometimes provided with cartonnage masks in the form of falcon's heads, or buried in coffins. In the Late Period, bronze boxes surmounted by figures of falcons were also used to house falcon mummies." Food, such as mummified small mammals and snakes, were also secreted in shrines.