Coffin of Harmose

New Kingdom
ca. 1479–1458 B.C.
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 116
Finely crafted of pinewood and painted in brilliant colors, the anthropoid coffin of the singer Hormose was discovered in the limestone chip dumped on the slope below Senenmut's tomb chapel (TT 71). The face is overlaid with gold foil and the eyes are carved of alabaster and obsidian set into ebony sockets. Next to the coffin lay Hormose's lute, now in Cairo, and two forked wooden staves, one of which is tipped with a bronze ferrule (36.3.167, .268).

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Coffin of Harmose
  • Period: New Kingdom
  • Dynasty: Dynasty 18
  • Reign: Joint reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III
  • Date: ca. 1479–1458 B.C.
  • Geography: From Egypt, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, Tomb of Senenmut (TT 71), below, burial of Singer Harmose, MMA excavations, 1935–36
  • Medium: Wood, gesso, paint, gold
  • Dimensions: H. 212.5 cm (83 11/16 in.); W. 55 cm (21 5/8 in.); D. 60 cm (23 5/8 in.); Th. of boards 4 cm (1 9/16 in.)
  • Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1936
  • Object Number: 36.3.172a, b
  • Curatorial Department: Egyptian Art

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