Day 10 - Coffin

  

January 22, 2018

This room, another study gallery (109) contains literally thousands of objects, some large, some tiny, from various burials. I see beads made of amethyst and carnelian and faience and turquoise, something that appears to be a string instrument carved of wood and with frets, a wooden boat in which the oarsmen appear to be rowing vigorously, straining against the current, perhaps. 

What I want to write about is an elaborately painted wooden coffin, maybe 8 feet long and 3 feet high. It sits on four bars, which appear to be painted a teal color only at the ends --the only parts visible to the casual viewer who isn't seated on the floor as I am!  The body of the coffin is divided into four vertical zones, themselves defined by about 60 long, narrow rectangles, which are in turn divided horizontally into many zones. The design in each rectangle is distinct from the designs in the adjacent rectangles, but they all appear to be symmetrical around a central axis - that is rectangles 1 and 60 are the same, 2 and 59 are the same, and so on, with one significant exception: Toward ine end of the coffin, two eyes, wide open and strongly outlined in black, gaze out. The guard explained to me that bodies were buried on their sides, so the eyes on the coffin's sides enabled the deceased to look out at all the treasures (and everyday objects as well) that were buried with them.  The designs in the rectangles are geometric (small squares, zigzag lines),  and the colors (teal, a reddish tan, black, and white) give an appearance that is both lively and relaxed. The lid is defined by a long. horizontal rectangle, but it, too, continues the four main registers concept seen in the body; vertical lines from the body extend to the side of the lid as well.

The top, in contrast, is far simpler. It's largely unpainted; 4000 years later, you can see the grain of the wood! A relatively narrow band extends down the center of the band and contains numerous hieroglyphs- the decedent's name and attributes, maybe? A prayer for his well-being in the afterlife? (I assume the coffin contained a man, but who knows? Well, someone knows, but not I!) 

What I wonder, though, is how the painter decided on the designs. Was he just following tradition? Did he exercise any originality, thinking, "Hmm, this would look good here"?  Or, most intringuigingly, did the decedent have a say in what the coffin should look like? Did he say, "I like teal and brown," and did the painter then heed his preferences? Or did the coffin's decoration happen after the person was no more?  (Later, I realize that brown is the color of earth and teal of water -- surely this is the symbolic meaning, an association with life after death.)

It comes to me that Jews are traditionally buried in the plainest box possible. Was this in contradistinction to what the goyim (here, literally, "nations") around them did? I hope my own burial will be a long time from now, but of course, in Egyptian time, it won't be. Would I want decorations on my coffin, and if so, of what kind? Something more floral, maybe, to give some sense of ongoing life. But then, I don't expect archaeologists to excavate my coffin in another few thousand years.