Boat Model
Egyptian
2010 – 1961 BC
Wood coated with plaster, painted
53.30.3
Miniatures showing scenes of daily life were often placed in tombs during the Middle Kingdom. The large number of boat models reflects the Nile’s importance in Egyptian life: the river was Egypt’s main road and main source of food (fish and waterfowl).
Boats were also important in funerary rituals and myths. A burial usually included two or more boat models, at least one rigged for sailing (south, upstream on the Nile) and another for rowing (north, downstream). This model comes from the tomb of Djehuty-nakht, which contained fifty-five boat models, probably the largest group found in any Middle Kingdom tomb.
Canopic Jar
Egyptian
ca. 712 – 332 BC
Alabaster
2008.154a-b
Inscription: “Words spoken by Nephthys: May you gather your arms around he who is in you/delimit your protection around Duamutef for the venerated/Osiris Pakesy [?], true of voice”
Inscriptions on Canopic jars vary as widely as epitaphs on modern tombstones. Here the funerary goddess Nephthys, one of the nine primary deities associated with the city of Heliopolis, offers a prayer for Duamutef, one of the Four Sons of Horus who guard the internal organs of the mummy (Duamutef guarded the stomach). The name of the deceased, Osiris Pakesy, is otherwise unknown.
False Door Stele
Egyptian
2475-2345 BC
Limestone
71.39
The false-door stele, a gravestone in the shape of a door, stood between hidden burial chambers and a funerary chapel where offerings were left for the deceased. The stele was the symbolic door through which the Ka of the deceased passed to partake of the offerings.
Images of the deceased, a priestess named Inti, occur six times at the bottom of the relief and once over the “door,” where she is shown enjoying her funerary banquet.
Fragment of a Mythological Papyrus
Egyptian, Theban
975-950 BC
Papyrus, tempera
54.10
Libation Cup
Egyptian
ca. 970 BC
Faience
61.6
This cup belonged to Princess Nesi-Khonsu, wife of High Priest Pinudjem II. It was found at Deir al-Bahri with a group of royal mummies that priests had removed from their original tombs for safekeeping.
Multiple Shabti and Other Figures
Funerary Figure of Nestanebisheru (bottom)
Egyptian
ca. 1070-945 BC
Faience
74.44.6
This funerary figure wears a striated nemes (head cloth) and bears a shortened rendering of the “shabti spell” from chapter six of the Book of the Dead to activate the shabti. Discovered in the 19th century in a royal cache at Deir el-Bahri, the figure belongs to the burial of Nestanebisheru, daughter of Pinudjem II-high priest of Amun at Thebes-and his first wife, Nesykhonsu.
Shabti of Hapi (third to the right)
Egyptian
1539-1185 BC
Wood, polychromed
55.8.1
Shabti are figures buried with the dead intended to be servants in the afterlife. They attend to the deceased as well as do any work needed for them.
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