Box from a "Stola" Coffin

The figures on the interior of this finely decorated wooden coffin from the Third Intermediate Period are painted in a detailed, colorful style. In the center of the box interior stands the deified King Amenhotep I, depicted as mummiform and thus in the guise of Osiris, ruler of the dead. The king is attended by a priest wearing a panther skin, a kneeling woman (likely a goddess), a human-headed ba-bird (an aspect of the coffin owner's intangible identity), and a seated god.

Funerary vignettes, including the deceased—shown in some instances as male and in others as female—before various gods and images of Hathor as a cow emerging from the mountain, decorate the exterior. There is no mention of the owner's name among the many inscriptions.

The decoration of this coffin box, especially the inclusion of the deified Amenhotep I, suggests that it dates to the end of Dynasty 21 or the beginning of Dynasty 22. The lid most likely included red bands, known as stola, around the neck of the deceased, as can be seen, for example, in the nested coffin set of Amemopet (17.2.7a.1, .2).