Inner Coffin of the Sistrum-Player of Amun Shebenwen
Shebenwen, a sistrum-player of Amun-Re and the daughter of Djedjhor, had an unusually fine wooden inner coffin. The delicate features of her face are framed by a shingle-patterned wig topped by a wide fillet. On the lower part of the fragmentary lid an elegantly painted scene shows her being led by the ibis-headed god Thoth before Osiris, ruler of the Netherworld. The long inscription beneath this scene is the text of the "Negative Confession" from the Book of the Dead (Chapter 125). Shebenwen appears again on the interior as a small standing mummy, above a large figure of the sky-goddess Nut.
This coffin, along with fragments of her outer qersu coffin, intermediary anthropoid coffin, and cartonnage coffin, was discovered in a pit filled with broken coffins on one of the terraces of the 18th Dynasty temple of Hatshepsut.
This coffin, along with fragments of her outer qersu coffin, intermediary anthropoid coffin, and cartonnage coffin, was discovered in a pit filled with broken coffins on one of the terraces of the 18th Dynasty temple of Hatshepsut.
Artwork Details
- Title: Inner Coffin of the Sistrum-Player of Amun Shebenwen
- Period: Third Intermediate Period
- Dynasty: Late Dynasty 22 to early Dynasty 23
- Date: mid 8th century B.C.
- Geography: From Egypt, Upper Egypt, Thebes, Deir el-Bahri, Middle Terrace Coffin Cache, MMA excavations, 1930–31
- Medium: Cedar wood, paint, gesso
- Dimensions: L. 188 cm (74 in.)
- Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1931
- Object Number: 31.3.102a, b
- Curatorial Department: Egyptian Art
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332–250 B.C.
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