POLYCHROME WOOD SARCOPHAGUS FRAGMENT

POLYCHROME WOOD SARCOPHAGUS FRAGMENT

Panel of cedarwoord (?) coffin painted in black, red and green colors on white stucco depicting in two rows of vertical columns, the seven jars for the ‘seven sacred oils’ in lower row, their names written in hieroglyphs in upper row:
celebration fragrance, laudatory oil, cedar-balsamum, ‘nechenem’ oil, ‘toewat’ oil, exquisite cedar-oil, exquisite Lebian-oil.

Ex coll. architect J.B. Ingwersen, Netherlands, acquired from Ancient Art, Amsterdam, 1975; thence coll. H.D., Netherlands
Dim. 28 x 47 cm.

Middle Kingdom, 11th – 12th Dyn., c. 2000-1800 BC

Part of the inner short side of a rectangular Herakleopolitan type of coffin
Cf. W.C. Hayes, The sceptre of Egypt, New York (1953) 1978, part I, pp. 312-320, figs 204-207