PTI | 2 hours 29 min ago
Image for representational purpose only.
London: One mummy — many coffins! Egyptian elite were buried in a coffin placed inside another coffin — in ensembles of up to eight — intended to transform the deceased from human to deity, according to a new study.
“Everybody knows the ancient Egyptian practice of mummifying their dead. What is perhaps less known is that they placed the mummies inside layer upon layer of coffins,” said Anders Bettum, Egyptologist at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, Oslo University.
“The Egyptian coffin sets are based on the same principle that we can observe with Chinese boxes and Russian nested matryoshka dolls, where objects are nested inside each other to constitute a complete ensemble,” he said. The child king Tutankhamun (1334-24 BC) was buried in as many as eight coffins, according to Bettum.
“For men and women who were members of the ancient Egyptian elite at that time, three or four coffins were not unusual,” he said.
According to the researcher nested coffins were not only a status symbol for the Egyptian elite.
“They also played a key role in the process that would link the deceased to their ancestors: to Osiris, the god of the afterlife, and to Amun-Ra, the sun- and creator god,” Bettum said.
The rituals and the myths that were reiterated during the seventy days that a funeral lasted are symbolically rendered on the coffins.
The components of each nest, including the mummy-cover, the inner and outer coffins - reflect the Egyptians' view of the world, researchers said.
London: One mummy — many coffins! Egyptian elite were buried in a coffin placed inside another coffin — in ensembles of up to eight — intended to transform the deceased from human to deity, according to a new study.
“Everybody knows the ancient Egyptian practice of mummifying their dead. What is perhaps less known is that they placed the mummies inside layer upon layer of coffins,” said Anders Bettum, Egyptologist at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, Oslo University.
“The Egyptian coffin sets are based on the same principle that we can observe with Chinese boxes and Russian nested matryoshka dolls, where objects are nested inside each other to constitute a complete ensemble,” he said. The child king Tutankhamun (1334-24 BC) was buried in as many as eight coffins, according to Bettum.
“For men and women who were members of the ancient Egyptian elite at that time, three or four coffins were not unusual,” he said.
According to the researcher nested coffins were not only a status symbol for the Egyptian elite.
“They also played a key role in the process that would link the deceased to their ancestors: to Osiris, the god of the afterlife, and to Amun-Ra, the sun- and creator god,” Bettum said.
The rituals and the myths that were reiterated during the seventy days that a funeral lasted are symbolically rendered on the coffins.
The components of each nest, including the mummy-cover, the inner and outer coffins - reflect the Egyptians' view of the world, researchers said.
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