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Anthropoid coffin of Puia

“Anthropoid” coffins, that is, coffins with the lid shaped in the image of the mummy, gradually replace rectangular coffins starting from about 1800 BC. This specimen belonged to a man named Puia. Its inscriptions do not mention his titles, but he was quite probably the like-named father of the high official Puyemre, second priest of Amon under the woman pharaoh Hatshepsut (1479-1458). It was found by the Egyptologist Robert Mond in a shaft grave not far from the tomb of Puyemre and later purchased by Ernesto Schiaparelli. The burial had been plundered in pharaonic times, when robbers were only interested in precious materials, not in artifacts per se. They stripped away the gold-leaf necklace and gold-leaf imitation mummy-bands inscribed in hieroglyphs. One of the inlaid glass eyes, which the thieves had forgotten or dropped, was recovered by Mond in the tomb. The face and hands were painted in red. At the head and feet are the goddesses of mourning, Isis and Nephthys. On both sides, painted in blue, are the funerary gods Osiris and Anubis (second and fourth figure), alternating with the Four Sons of Horus (first and third figure): Amset and Duamutef on the right, Hapy and Qebehsenuf on the left. This “incomplete symmetry” is typical of Egyptian art. On both sides of the head is a chapel door surmounted by a Horus eye and the shen sign. The mummy (not found), originally lay on the ladder-shaped support.

Provv. 718
Wood
61.5 cm x 47.5 cm x 225 cm
1500–1450 BCE
New Kingdom
Eighteenth Dynasty
Tebe, Sheikh Abd el-Qurna
Purchase Ernesto Schiaparelli
Museum / Floor 3 / Writing Gallery / Showcase 14
  • Donadoni, Anna Maria (a cura di), Passato e futuro del Museo Egizio di Torino: dal museo al museo (Archivi di archeologia), Torino 1989, pp. 53–56.
    Tipo=Opere biblioteca SottoTipo= Autore=Donadoni, Anna Maria (a cura di) Titolo=Passato e futuro del Museo Egizio di Torino: dal museo al museo Sottotiolo= In= Collana=Archivi di archeologia Opera= Luogo=Torino Anno=1989 Menzionato=pp. 53-56 Illustrazione=
  • Mond, Robert, “Report of Work in the Necropolis of Thebes during the Winter of 1903-1904”, Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte 6 (1905), p. 81.
    Tipo=Articolo di periodico SottoTipo= Autore=Mond, Robert Titolo=Report of Work in the Necropolis of Thebes during the Winter of 1903-1904 Sottotiolo= In=Annales du Service des Antiquités de l'Égypte Collana= Opera=6 Luogo= Anno=1905 Menzionato=p. 81 Illustrazione=
  • Osing, Jürgen, “Sprüche gegen die jbh3tj-Schlange”, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 43 (1987), pp. 205–210.
    Tipo=Articolo di periodico SottoTipo= Autore=Osing, Jürgen Titolo=Sprüche gegen die jbh3tj-Schlange Sottotiolo= In=Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo Collana= Opera=43 Luogo= Anno=1987 Menzionato=pp. 205-210 Illustrazione=
  • Roccati, Alessandro-Donadoni Roveri, Anna Maria, “Sarcofago di Puia”, in Donadoni, Anna Maria (a cura di), Dal Museo al Museo. Passato e futuro del Museo Egizio di Torino, Torino 1989, pp. 53–54, fig. 27.
    Tipo=Estratto SottoTipo= Autore=Roccati, Alessandro-Donadoni Roveri, Anna Maria Titolo=Sarcofago di Puia Sottotiolo=Donadoni, Anna Maria (a cura di) In=Dal Museo al Museo. Passato e futuro del Museo Egizio di Torino Collana= Opera= Luogo=Torino Anno=1989 Menzionato=pp. 53-54 Illustrazione=fig. 27
Museo Egizio