Near East Art the Mummy

Near East Art

The Mummy Case of Paankhenamun

Egyptian art of the late/3rd Intermediate Period, observed at Art Institute of Chicago

The Mummy Case of Paankhenamun is a vividly painted sarcophagus or ancient Egyptian coffin. According to the captioned description accompanying the mummy at the museum where it is now housed, the Art Institute of Chicago, the hieroglyphic inscriptions and painted scenes identified the identity of the mummy to the archeologists that discovered it. In life, the mummy was apparently a male individual known as Paankhenamun. He was a doorkeeper in the temple of the god Amun. The central scene upon his coffin shows the hawk-headed god Horus presenting Paankhenamun to Osiris, ruler of the afterlife.

Chronologically, the mummy hails from the third period of ancient Egyptian art, and comes from the geographical region of Cartonnage.

In terms of its construction, it is made with gum, linen, and papyrus and is inlaid with gold leaf. The Third Intermediate Period, Dynasty 22 and was dated 945-715 B.C. The mummy's height is 170.2 cm. Despite the elaborate nature of this design, the honor of becoming entombed in such an ornate case would not be confined to receiving burial in this singular mummy case. This case, again according to the captioned information, would likely have been the least elaborate or interior case of the burial process. It would likely be the first of a series of cases the carefully prepared corpse would have been buried in.

Even contemporary observers from other lands were struck by the stress and elaborate preparations of Egyptian culture regarding burial of the dead during this period, although commoners were not given these sorts of honors, only rulers, aristocrats, and individuals whose lives surrounded the gods such as the mummy delineated above. The historian Herodotus, the Greek father of history, notes that Egyptian priest's duties, and the duties of individuals surrounding the gods such as this doorkeeper, were manifested in rituals of purity and extreme austerity. According to Herodotus, all Egyptian priests shaved their heads, to remain clean before the gods, and a "woman cannot serve the priestly office, either for god or goddess, but men are priests to both; sons need not support their parents unless they choose, but daughters must, whether they choose or no." (Herodotus, Chapter II)

In other words, men were allocated the most important tasks of the society, regarding gods and the dead, while girls were allocated the less important tasks of serving the living. Likewise, the dead were honored with elaborate preparation rituals to send them off into the next, permanent world of death. They were incased in enormous preservative monuments as well as several layers of coffins. Because of this elaborate nature of death ritual, and their focus on religious rituals, Egyptians were often credited by the Greeks for originating their religion, as "the Egyptians, they went on to affirm, first brought into use the names of the twelve gods, which the Greeks adopted from them; and first erected altars, images, and temples to the gods; and also first engraved upon stone the figures of animals." (Herodotus, Chapter II) the practice and the practice of religion, and the practice of art and the practice of burying the dead were conjoined for the Egyptians.