BRITISH MUSEUM PUBLICATIONS ON EGYPT AND SUDAN 4

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN COFFINS

Craft traditions and functionality

edited by

John H. TAYLOR and Marie VANDENBEUSCH

PEETERS LEUVEN – PARIS – BRISTOL, CT 2018 TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Contributors ...... VII 2014 Colloquium Programme ...... IX John H. TAYLOR and Marie VANDENBEUSCH Preface ...... XI

I. CONCEPTUAL ASPECTS: RELIGIOUS ICONOGRAPHY AND TEXTS

Harco WILLEMS The coffins of the lector priest Sesenebenef: a Middle Kingdom Book of the Dead? ...... 3

Rogério SOUSA The genealogy of images: innovation and complexity in coffin decoration during Dynasty 21 ...... 17

Andrzej NIWIŃSKI The decoration of the coffin as a theological expression of the idea of the Universe ...... 33

René VAN WALSEM Some gleanings from ‘stola’ coffins and related material of Dynasty 21–22 ...... 47

Hisham EL-LEITHY Iconography and function of stelae and coffins in Dynasties 25–26 ...... 61

Andrea KUCHAREK Mourning and lamentation on coffins ...... 77

II. RESULTS OF RECENT FIELDWORK AND ARCHIVAL RESEARCH

Marilina BETRÒ The black-varnished coffin of Qenamon and Ippolito Rosellini’s excavations in the Theban necropolis ...... 119

Anna STEVENS Beyond iconography: The Amarna coffins in social context ...... 139

Marilina BETRÒ and Gianluca MINIACI Used, reused, plundered and forgotten: A rare group of early Ramesside coffins from tomb MIDAN.05 in the Theban necropolis ...... 161

Gábor SCHREIBER Mummy-boards from a Theban group burial dating to Dynasty 20 ...... 185

Fruzsina BARTOS An example of a rare Dynasty 22 cartonnage type from the excavation of TT 65 and its surroundings ...... 201 VI TABLE OF CONTENTS

III. COFFINS IN CONTEXT: BURIAL ASSEMBLAGES AND SACRED SPACE

Marleen DE MEYER Reading a burial chamber: Anatomy of a First Intermediate Period coffin in context ...... 217

Wolfram GRAJETZKI The burial of the ‘king’s daughter’ Nubhetepti-khered ...... 231

Gianluca MINIACI Burial equipment of rishi coffins and the osmosis of the ‘rebirth machine’ at the end of the Middle Kingdom ...... 247

Anders BETTUM Nesting (part two): Merging of layers in New Kingdom coffin decoration ...... 275

IV. COFFINS IN CONTEXT: SOCIETY AND CRAFT ENVIRONMENT

Kathlyn M. COONEY Coffin reuse in Dynasty 21: A case study of the coffins in the British Museum ...... 295

Alessia AMENTA New results from the CT scanning of a coffin ...... 323

Edoardo GUZZON Examining the coffins from the collective tomb found by Ernesto Schiaparelli in the Valley of the Queens: An essay on epigraphic and stylistic ‘clustered features’ as evidence for workshops ...... 337

John H. TAYLOR Evidence for social patterning in Theban coffins of Dynasty 25 ...... 349

V. COFFINS IN CONTEXT: REGIONAL VARIATIONS

Katharina STÖVESAND Regional variability in Late Period Egypt: Coffin traditions in Middle Egypt ...... 389

Éva LIPTAY Burial equipment from Akhmim in ancient and modern contexts ...... 403

Alexandra KÜFFER Tracing the history of a coffin and its mummy. The burial equipment from Gamhud at the Museum of Ethnology in Burgdorf (Switzerland) ...... 415

Béatrice HUBER with a contribution from Claudia NAUERTH Coptic coffins from Qarara. The Pfauensarg (peacock coffin) in context ...... 435 BEYOND ICONOGRAPHY: THE AMARNA COFFINS IN SOCIAL CONTEXT

Anna STEVENS

Abstract their iconography is ongoing, undertaken in conjunc- tion with a broader project to conserve and investigate This paper provides an overview of twenty deco- the technology of the coffins.3 The South Tombs Cem- rated wooden coffins excavated from the South Tombs etery, as a single-phase, well-excavated and broadly Cemetery at Amarna from 2005 to 2013. It considers sampled burial ground, also brings the opportunity to how the coffins fit temporally and socially within the explore and contextualise burial materials in ways that cemetery, and the social dynamics through which they are not possible at many Egyptian cemeteries, espe- came to be used as burial containers for a small portion cially those excavated before the advent of ‘new of the Amarna population. It suggests that some of the archaeology’ and the careful excavation, sampling and coffins might have been used by family members of the study of mortuary assemblages and human remains. officials who owned the South Tombs, but argues With this in mind, the focus of this paper is the archae- against straightforward associations between coffin use ological and social context of the coffins; the paper and socio-economic strata. asks how the coffins fit into both the burial landscape of the South Tombs Cemetery and, more broadly, the Introduction social environment of ancient Akhetaten. It is also a response to calls for greater consideration of non-elite From 2005 to 2013, the Amarna Project undertook burial practice in ancient Egypt (Baines and Lacovara fieldwork at the South Tombs Cemetery, the largest of 2002, 12–14; Richards 2005, 49–54; Cooney 2007, the burial grounds of ancient Akhetaten (Fig. 1). Over 275–9). the course of the excavations some 378 graves were recorded and a minimum number of 432 individuals The South Tombs Cemetery recovered. Twenty of the burials showed evidence of having contained painted wooden coffins.1 Almost all The South Tombs Cemetery occupies a long wadi in had been subject to heavy looting in antiquity and in the cliffs adjacent to the South Tombs, which represent many cases all that survived were small pieces of wood the elite component of the cemetery. The wadi is about and painted plaster. In eight cases, however, more sub- 400m long, and seems to have been almost completely stantial portions of the coffins survived to be exca- filled with graves, implying that several thousand peo- vated, conserved and studied. ple were buried here. As the only decorated coffins preserved from The approach to fieldwork was to open three main Amarna, these objects offer an unprecedented opportu- excavation windows (Figs 2 and 3), termed the Upper nity to explore religious beliefs concerning death and Site, Lower Site and Wadi Mouth Site, with smaller the afterlife during the Amarna Period.2 A study of exposures at the Middle and Wadi End Sites and some

1 With post-excavation analysis continuing, this figure is some- where it is dated to the later New Kingdom, but information in what preliminary, but unlikely to change very much. diary entries and archive photos (VII.6.13.065–6) suggests an 2 The coffins from the South Tombs Cemetery are probably not, Amarna Period date is possible (Bettum 2015, 32; a fuller dis- however, the first Amarna Period coffins that the site has cussion of the coffin is pending). yielded. The Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft, while clearing the 3 This work is being undertaken by Anders Bettum (Oslo sand and rubble from the courtyard of house P47.6 in the Main Museum) and a team of conservators and materials scientists City in 1912, uncovered a coffin sitting adjacent to the boundary headed by Julie Dawson (Fitzwilliam Museum) and Lucy Skin- wall of the courtyard (Borchardt and Ricke 1980, 106, plan 29). ner. For preliminary reports, see Dawson and Skinner (2013; The coffin is only mentioned briefly in the excavation report, 2014), Skinner (2015) and Bettum (2015). 140 A. STEVENS

Fig. 1: Map of Amarna by Barry Kemp, based partly on survey data from Helen Fenwick. BEYOND ICONOGRAPHY: THE AMARNA COFFINS IN SOCIAL CONTEXT 141

Fig. 2: Plan of the South Tombs Cemetery showing the areas excavated between 2006 and 2013 by Barry Kemp and Anna Stevens, based partly on survey data from Helen Fenwick. 142 A. STEVENS

Fig. 3: A view across the excavations at the Upper Site in 2008 (Photograph: G. Owen).

investigation of isolated squares on the edges of the interments are plotted according to age and sex, they cemetery.4 As the fieldwork progressed, it became clear reveal a mixed distribution, with the burials of adults, that the burials had been affected not only by looting, children and infants, and males and females, intermin- but by one or more flash floods that formed or enlarged gled. Presumably these are, at least in part, family a channel down the axis of the wadi, and washed away groups. While most graves contained only a single looted materials from the burials. Despite these events, individual, there were examples of multiple burials, in much evidence remained from which to reconstruct a which the deceased persons seem to have been interred picture of burial practice. Careful excavation has pro- at the same time, although it is never possible to be vided some understanding of what is likely to be miss- certain of this. ing from robbed and flood-damaged graves – at least Overall, a sense of simplicity and uniformity pre- in general terms, if not on a burial-by-burial basis. vails across the graves; some of this is a side effect of The social patterning that underlies the organisation looting, but certainly not all. In terms of superstructure, of the graves is difficult to reconstruct, but when the most burials were probably marked with a rough stone

4 A summary of the work up to 2012 is provided by Kemp et al. EgyptianArchaeology from 2005 to 2013, and the final excava- (2013). Preliminary excavation reports appear in the Journalof tion monograph is in preparation. BEYOND ICONOGRAPHY: THE AMARNA COFFINS IN SOCIAL CONTEXT 143

Fig. 4: a (left) A roughly carved stela with a triangular motif (obj. 39425). b (right) A well-preserved stela showing a seated man and woman receiving offerings (obj. 39938).

cairn, a small number of which survived the looting. set within a frame. Two small limestone pyramidia Sometimes a stela seems to have been placed at the were also recovered from the site, one measuring 44cm graveside, usually made of limestone and with a dis- in height and the other, not quite intact, surviving to tinctive pointed shape, finishing at the top in a single, 36cm. The latter has a small round-topped niche on one double or triple triangle (Fig. 4). The decoration rarely face that presumably was once carved or painted with survives, but traces of carving on some suggest that the an image of the deceased (Kemp 2010, 16–17, fig. 6; main scene was an image of the deceased sitting in Kemp et al. 2013, 69, fig. 4). A preliminary interpreta- front of a table of offerings. This scene is usually tion of these stelae and pyramidia is that they combine placed within a recess, giving the impression of a stela a model of a rock-cut tomb (the pointed element) with 144 A. STEVENS

Fig. 5: A mud-brick burial chamber encountered at the Upper Site during 2006.

a memorial representation of the deceased (on a stela), though, simple constructions such as low stone cairns the pointed iconography presumably implying a solar were the norm. association. As regards the artefact record, potsherds were by far None of the stelae were found insitu, although one the most common item recovered during the excavation example – unique in being round-topped and made of (Rose 2007; 2008; 2014; Rose and Gasperini 2015), a granular off-white plaster – was found with pieces potentially originating both from offerings left grave- of impressed mortar that suggest it was attached to a side and within the burial pit itself. The disturbance of stone grave cairn (obj. 39448; Stevens and Shepper- the site largely removed sherds from their original con- son 2009, 19–20, fig. 9). One of the pyramidia has a text, although there were examples of vessels found in shallow rectangular recess in its base and might thus situ within graves, a few containing food offerings have been raised up on a foundation, while small frag- (Clapham 2007; 2015). There were also examples of ments of mud brick, found very occasionally in dis- jars with probable ‘killing holes’. Otherwise, grave turbed grave fills and bulk sand deposits, are possibly goods were fairly rare, but did include items of personal the remains of small mud-brick superstructures. One adornment or significance such as cosmetic implements, of the excavated graves had a mud-brick burial cham- and amuletic or ritual objects, such as scarabs, used ber and it seems a good candidate for a superstructure presumably to aid the transition to the afterlife and of some kind (Fig. 5). If so, nothing survived the loot- ensure well-being thereafter. ing and weathering insitu, although fragments of a The deceased individuals were usually wrapped first window grille found in a disturbed grave nearby per- in textile and then placed in a burial container, of which haps originated from such a structure. Undoubtedly, five different kinds were encountered. By far the most BEYOND ICONOGRAPHY: THE AMARNA COFFINS IN SOCIAL CONTEXT 145 Fig. 6: Distribution map of wooden coffins at the Wadi Mouth Site. 146 A. STEVENS

Fig. 7: Coffin 8 (obj. 40106) after conservation treatment (Photograph: N. Peters).

common was a mat that had been wrapped around the A brief description of the decorated coffins and body and bound with rope. It was made usually of palm their archaeological context follows.5 It should be mid-rib (gereed) or tamarisk sticks, or less often of noted that during the earlier fieldwork seasons the palm-leaf, halfa-grass, reed or sedge (Paqua 2015; coffins were photographed extensively in situ and Clapham 2015). There is evidence for the use of pot- lifted out of the ground without treatment. From 2011, tery coffins, although only as a few fragments found a new approach to excavating the coffins was insti- during surface survey (Rose 2005, 24), and a single gated, with the use of cyclododecane (CDD), a wax example of a mud coffin, for an infant (Ind. 301; Ste- that is applied in liquid form to the surface of an vens, Shepperson and King Wetzel 2013, 6–8, fig. 4). object and forms a rigid shell that helps the object to Forty wooden coffins were also encountered. Twenty be lifted. The CDD is later allowed to sublime into the take the form of simple undecorated boxes, which in all air in a controlled environment. This allowed an cases were far too degraded to be lifted and studied improved recovery rate, but the need for rapid appli- further. But around twenty graves showed evidence of cation of the CDD limited the time available to pho- having contained painted wooden coffins. All but one tograph and study the coffin walls as they were of these graves had been robbed, often reducing the exposed, the controlled sublimation of the CDD being coffins to small fragments of wood and plaster. Sub- an ongoing process. There is, therefore, only a partial stantial portions of eight examples were however pre- record at present of most of the coffins excavated served. Most of the coffins were coloured black, the post-2011, while the study of the very fragmentary paint often apparent even when only small fragments examples also largely awaits completion. survived; and while the coffins were often too dam- aged to determine their shape, at least eight were anthropoid. The decoration on most of the eight better- The decorated coffins preserved examples falls into two broad groups: those TheWadiMouthSite that continue the pre-Amarna tradition, utilising BD 151 and assimilating the deceased with Osiris, and those in Three decorated coffins were found at the Wadi which these elements are replaced by figures of humans Mouth Site (Fig. 6). One of these, in square AM111, undertaking ritual activity. It is not yet clear how much survived only as fragments of wood and painted plaster. interplay might exist between the two decorative To judge from the scale of the grave, the coffin was schemes (Bettum 2015). There is one exception: a rec- adult-sized, but no human remains survived, nor were tangular coffin for an infant with yellow and black there any objects, other than a few potsherds, in the bands (Coffin 8 below). grave fill.

5 The numbering of the eight better-preserved coffins follows that interred in the coffins is the work of the bioarchaeological team of Bettum (2015); all have in addition object and/or excavation headed by Jerry Rose (University of Arkansas) and Gretchen numbers. The determination of the age and sex of the individuals Dabbs (Southern Illinois University). BEYOND ICONOGRAPHY: THE AMARNA COFFINS IN SOCIAL CONTEXT 147 Fig. 8: Distribution map of wooden (and mud) coffins at the Lower Site. 148 A. STEVENS

The other two coffins, both excavated in 2012, were The second, Coffin 8, was a small rectangular coffin better preserved. One was a full-size anthropoid coffin, decorated with yellow text bands with black frame Coffin 7 (obj. 40105). The wood was badly rotted and lines, the bands and image panels left blank (obj. somewhat crushed and the decorated plaster layer was 40106; Stevens, Shepperson and King Wetzel 2013, 4; in particularly bad condition. It was covered in CDD to Bettum 2015; Fig. 7). The coffin was consolidated in enable lifting, but from what was visible during exca- the ground and lifted intact, before undergoing conser- vation it seems to be of the traditional type. The name vation treatment (Peters 2015). The skeleton was not Tiy can possibly be read (Bettum 2015). Inside the cof- removed, but seems to be that of a child aged around fin there remained the lower body of a female aged 3 or 4 years (Ind. 332). between 40 and 45 years (Ind. 300).

Fig. 9: Preliminary reconstruction of Coffin 3 (unit 13281) based on field photographs (Drawing: B. Kemp). BEYOND ICONOGRAPHY: THE AMARNA COFFINS IN SOCIAL CONTEXT 149

TheLowerSite no skeletal elements remained, with two exceptions: a grave with coffin fragments in square V104 contained Excavations at the Lower Site revealed the remains skeletal elements from an adult male aged 35–50 years of eleven decorated coffins (Fig. 8). Most survived (Ind. 117), while the skeleton of a man aged 35–45 only as small fragments of wood and painted plaster, years (Ind. 71) was found adjacent to, and may have although four were more substantially preserved. Of originated from, an unoccupied grave with coffin frag- the former, the majority were so badly robbed-out that ments in U102.

Fig. 10: Preliminary reconstruction of Coffin 4 (unit 13262) based on field photographs (Drawing: B. Kemp). 150 A. STEVENS

Fig. 11: An offering bearer and text columns on the side of Coffin 4 (unit 13262), photographed during excavation.

The 2010, 2011 and 2012 seasons produced better- placed at the shoulder. In neither case were any skeletal preserved coffins. In 2010, work in square Y105 remains or burial goods preserved within the grave. yielded, within the space of a single week, two full- The 2011 coffin, Coffin 5 (unit 13438), was situated sized coffins that remained largely intact apart from in square AA105 and was again almost intact apart their lids, which had been smashed through by robbers from the lid (Stevens 2012a, 4–5, fig. 4). While one of in order to remove the contents. Unfortunately, the ini- the coffin panels is still covered in CDD, on the other tial impression of good preservation was misleading; traces of four standing figures can be discerned. The the wood survived largely as a grainy powder held decoration is very poorly preserved, and requires closer together by the layers of paint and gypsum plaster on study, but one of the figures is clearly jackal-headed its surfaces. The coffins were lifted out of the ground (Fig. 12). The coffin was densely filled with jumbled in fragments after a photographic record was made, bone representing the remains of four individuals. The from which reconstruction drawings have been pro- most complete, and most likely to have been the origi- duced (Kemp 2010, 18–21, figs 7–8). nal occupant, was a female aged 15–18 years (Ind. Both coffins are of the ‘new type’ with human offer- 199A). Bones from a foetus (Ind. 199D) suggest she ing bearers and columns of text on their walls. Coffin may have been pregnant at the time of death. There 3 (unit 13281; Fig. 9) has four male offering figures were no remaining grave goods. separated by columns of hieroglyphs, with a fifth A further coffin with what seems to be traditional female figure at the shoulder. The name bands alternate imagery, Coffin 6 (obj. 40107), was found in 2012 in the personal names Hesy(t)en-Ra and Hesy(t)en-Aten. square AL105. It had been smashed into pieces by rob- Coffin 4 (unit 13262; Figs 10 and 11) was slightly bers, but some of the wood was in good condition, larger, at 2m long, and shows on each wall four men retaining a black-painted ground with cream-coloured carrying offerings or standing before a table of offer- decoration, a jackal-headed figure again visible ( Bettum ings, each figure separated by columns of largely unin- 2015). The grave contained skeletal elements from a telligible hieroglyphs. A larger table of offerings is child aged 8–12 years (Ind. 315). BEYOND ICONOGRAPHY: THE AMARNA COFFINS IN SOCIAL CONTEXT 151

TheMiddleSite

No decorated coffins were found at the Middle Site, where only a small area was excavated, although two plain wooden coffins were present; Fig. 13 shows their locations.

TheUpperSite

Remains of five probable decorated coffins were found at the Upper Site (Fig. 14). The disturbed fill of the mud-brick tomb chamber in square G51, excavated in 2006, contained fragments of plastered and painted coffin wood, and also loose pieces of gold leaf. The same fill contained about half of the skeleton of a prob- able male aged 20–35 years (Ind. 21). A grave pit crossing squares I52 and J52 also contained small frag- ments of painted plaster that are perhaps from a coffin once interred here. A small portion of a juvenile skel- eton, aged around 6.5 years (Ind. 62) was found within the grave, but was possibly intrusive. Another entirely robbed-out grave crossing squares H51 and I51 also contained painted plaster fragments, some perhaps from a coffin lid; in this case, no skeletal remains sur- vived. In the latter two examples, both excavated in 2007, only small amounts of painted plaster were found, but the very regular shape of the grave pit and the heavy disturbance are noteworthy – both are typical of graves with painted coffins. The 2007 excavations yielded a third example, Fig. 12: A jackal-headed figure on the side of Coffin 5 Coffin 1, in square H52 (objs 37841–52, 37854, 37987; (unit 13438), after conservation treatment Kemp 2007, 21–2, fig. 8). The grave had been heavily (Photograph: L. Skinner). looted and the coffin survived mostly as fragments of

Fig. 13: Distribution map of wooden coffins at the Middle Site. 152 A. STEVENS Fig. 14: Distribution map of wooden coffins at the Upper Site. BEYOND ICONOGRAPHY: THE AMARNA COFFINS IN SOCIAL CONTEXT 153

TheWadiEndSite

The 2012 excavations at the Wadi End Site produced small fragments of plaster and wood from a decorated coffin, the same grave containing parts of an adult skel- eton (Ind. 292), of indeterminate age and sex (Fig. 16).

Who was buried at the South Tombs Cemetery?

The South Tombs Cemetery is not the only non-elite cemetery for Akhetaten, and it is not entirely straight- forward to ascertain who was buried here. There were at least three burial grounds located at the North Tombs, and each of the workers’ villages, the Workmen’s Vil- lage and Stone Village, had its own small cemetery (see Fig. 1). It has been proposed – on the basis of levels of degenerative joint disease, trauma and mus- culo-skeletal stress at the South Tombs Cemetery – that many of the people buried here had undertaken hard labour that might have included quarry work (Kemp et al. 2013, 71–4). The intention was not to imply, how- ever, that these people necessarily belonged to a sepa- rate workers’ community as such. The most straightforward explanation of the fact that there are two main cemetery groups at Amarna, one at Fig. 15: The mask from Coffin 2 (obj. 38819) the north and one at the south, is that this reflects the after conservation treatment. division of the residential suburbs of the city into two zones, the North Suburb and North City to the north of the Central City, and the Main City to its south (see plaster and degraded wood. Recognisable amongst the Fig. 1). Undoubtedly, some caution needs to be exer- former are facial elements including two modelled ears, cised here. The high priest Panehesy, who evidently painted red, and it is likely that many of the fragments lived in the Main City (Griffith 1924, 302, pl. XXXIII), are from the coffin lid. It remains to be ascertained also having a formal residence beside the Great Aten whether parts of the coffin case were also present, or Temple (Pendlebury 1951, 26–7, fig. 6, pls XI, XXX.1, whether the lid might have been thrown in from else- XXXI), was not buried at the South Tombs, but was the where. Human remains belonging to a female aged owner of North Tomb 6. Below his tomb, there is a 30–39 years (Ind. 29) were found in association with small cemetery of pit graves, not yet excavated, but the fragments, but nothing remained of any grave with Amarna Period pottery on its surface, which was goods. perhaps used by Panehesy’s dependents, people who In 2008, a further decorated coffin, Coffin 2, might have lived in small houses adjacent to his Main appeared in square I51 (obj. 38819; Kemp 2008, 35–41, City estate. Furthermore, recent excavations at the larg- fig. 10; Fig. 15). Small parts of the coffin case sur- est of the northern cemeteries, located in a wadi between vived, but the most notable element was the face from North Tombs 2 and 3, suggest this burial ground might the lid. The coffin is for a female, named in inscriptions have been for a labour force, whose place of residence as Maya. Its decoration is of the ‘new type’, showing is not yet clear (Stevens et al. 2015; 2017; Stevens and ritual scenes (Bettum 2015). Disarticulated bone was Dabbs forthcoming). A strict correlation between the again found, being that of a female aged 40–49 years north and south residential zones and cemeteries cannot (Ind. 69A). An intact bowl containing botanical remains be maintained, but we can probably assume nonetheless was found insitu on the grave floor at the head end of that a large number of the people buried at the South the coffin. Tombs Cemetery were from the Main City. 154 A. STEVENS

Fig. 16: Distribution map of wooden coffins at the Wadi End Site.

The Main City, to judge from the excavation and obviously, the royal family, and perhaps also very study of its houses (Tietze 1985; Crocker 1985; Shaw poor or outcast members of society who may not have 2004, 16–18), was home to a population that varied attained a proper burial. It offers a fruitful basis from considerably in socio-economic status and occupation. which to pursue social analysis (see also Stevens The study of the human remains from the South 2017). Tombs Cemetery in turn reveals individuals who died at various ages, from infants to older adults, Coffin use at Amarna while morphological analysis of cranio-facial features shows high levels of diversity, suggesting a popula- Evidence from the South Tombs Cemetery indicates tion that originated from across Egypt and – at an that wooden coffins were either rarely sought after or indeterminate level of generational remove – beyond – more likely – rarely attainable at Amarna. They rep- its borders (Gretchen Dabbs, pers. comm.). So at resent only around 10% of the burial containers exca- the South Tombs Cemetery (including the rock-cut vated at the South Tombs Cemetery, and decorated tombs) we probably have a mixed and broadly repre- examples around just 5%.6 This is an important dataset sentative sample of the Amarna population other than, that confirms that coffins were rare commodities in

6 These figures are obtained by dividing the number of coffins by the number of graves. They may be refined slightly as post- excavation analysis continues. BEYOND ICONOGRAPHY: THE AMARNA COFFINS IN SOCIAL CONTEXT 155

New Kingdom Egypt, assuming they were no more or many coffins surviving only as small fragments, we less attainable at Amarna than at contemporaneous cannot be sure that similarly decorated examples were sites.7 not once located further down the wadi. More signifi- The wooden coffins are not confined to any one part cant, perhaps, is the close proximity of one of the of the South Tombs Cemetery but spread across it, with ‘jackal coffins’ (Coffin 5) at the Lower Site to those of a concentration of both decorated and plain examples examples with ‘godless’ decoration, suggesting that across the south-western excavation squares of the these were potentially interred not far apart in time, and Lower Site and probably the southern squares of the perhaps even used by people who were in some way Upper Site, although here their identification is based associates. on more fragmentary evidence (see Figs 8 and 14). Despite the robbery of the site, there is still informa- Graves with coffins fit smoothly into their setting, tion to be gleaned on the identity of those interred in mostly conforming to the same orientation as surround- the coffins through a combination of skeletal analysis, ing burials, and surely belonging to the same general the inscriptions on the coffins, or simply the size of the process of infilling that populated the cemetery as a grave in which coffin fragments were found. This is whole. It is difficult to know how exactly this pro- presented in Table 1, where a couple of patterns are gressed, although it was presumably a fairly organic clear: namely, the association of decorated coffins with process, to judge from the mixed nature of the inter- adults, both female and male (although age is often ments and the lack of a gridded or similarly structured deduced solely on the basis of grave size); and the layout to the graves. Local topography may have been large number of infants buried in plain wooden coffins. one of the influences on how graves were oriented. In the latter we might see a heightened desire to protect Those on flat ground often follow the line of the wadi the young and vulnerable, if not through ritually itself – the dominant directional prompt in the land- charged iconography, then at least through a more sub- scape – but those on the sloping sides of the wadi tend stantial container than a burial mat. It is not clear, due to run across the gradient, often with the head of the to poor preservation, whether all of these infant coffins deceased on the higher ground, mimicking perhaps the were purpose-made or might have been reused boxes. way a person would lie on uneven land. It seems likely Coffin 8, the partially decorated child coffin at the that the colonisation of the ground was driven espe- Wadi Mouth Site (see Figs 6 and 7), offers an interest- cially by family-level agency; it was potentially rife ing case, the child being too big for the coffin and a with social tension, including that connected to secur- hole having been cut through the foot-board to accom- ing family plots. If there were mechanisms in place to modate the feet. It presumably represents the expedient regulate the use of space, they can only be guessed at. procurement of a burial container, perhaps from a cof- It is tempting to see the cemetery beginning at the fin-maker’s non-commissioned stock. No attempt was mouth of the wadi and the graves spreading down its made to finish the decoration of the coffin, or even it length over time, although there is little scope to test seems to inscribe a name; its incomplete decoration this idea. If it is correct, however, the fragmentary cof- may have had little ritual value. fin at the Wadi End Site (see Fig. 16) would lie exactly One of the underlying research questions for the at the far limit of the burial ground and may thus have cemetery is whether it can contribute to our under- been interred close in time to the abandonment of standing of the socio-economic make-up of the Amarna Amarna, providing one temporal marker – unfortu- population, as a complement to previous work on the nately, almost entirely destroyed. It may be notewor- topic based on house sizes and fittings (Tietze 1985; thy, too, that the two coffins that have so far been iden- 2010, 98–117; Crocker 1985; Kemp 1989, 298, 300). tified with images of traditional divinities (Coffins 5 The cemetery data is not immediately promising and 6) occur at the Lower Site (see Fig. 8), reasonably because of the effects of robbery, but also because of close to the beginning of the wadi, although with so the sense of uniformity across the graves. The site

7 The situation is even more extreme at the cemetery between all was encountered amongst the eighty-five graves excavated in North Tombs 2 and 3, where no evidence of wooden coffins at 2015 (Stevens et al. 2015). 156 A. STEVENS

Table 1: Breakdown of coffin ownership according to age and sex. Note that one of the undecorated coffins seems to have contained two infants (Inds 140 and 165). Young Probable Young Young Early adult Adult Adult adult (on Infant Late child adult adult Coffin type child (indet. female male the basis (0–2.9) (7–14.9) female male (3–6.9) sex) (25–50+) (25–50+) of grave (15–24.9) (15–24.9) (15–24.9) size) Decorated wooden coffin 0 1? 1 1 ––2 + 2? 2 + 1? 10 Undecorated wooden coffin 12 – 3 ––2211

does, nonetheless, reinforce the idea that there was a this perception necessarily uniform across the life– large divide between the upper elite and the rest of the death–afterlife transition? population, given that it contains only a small number The Setne text is a reminder of the central role of the of rock-cut tombs and a much larger number of simple funeral in marking this transition, and of the socially pit graves. Across the latter, there is little further sign charged occasion this constituted. Status, closeness to of socio-economic difference, and it has been sug- court culture and religious affiliation – of the deceased gested that diversity for the non-elite may not have and/or those who took on responsibility for the funeral been strongly expressed in mortuary data (Kemp et al. – would have been amongst the aspects on display. The 2013, 74–5). ritual power that decorated coffins embodied, relative The main exceptions, of course, are the wooden cof- to simple matting coffins, must have imbued the deco- fins, which must be viewable, to some extent, as ‘status rated forms automatically with value – and public markers’ (Cooney 2007). The Roman Period Tale of responses to the parading of ‘traditional’ or ‘new’ cof- Setne (II) (Papyrus British Museum EA 10822 verso; fin types are fascinating to consider in this respect. Lichtheim 1980, 139), with a Ramesside prince as its The quality of workmanship and materials must like- hero, illustrates this nicely, in contrasting the funerals wise have been open to some degree of scrutiny. In of a rich and poor man. The relevant passage is incom- these respects, the Amarna coffins appear to be broadly plete, but the meaning is clear: comparable to non-elite coffins from other New King- dom sites (Bettum 2015). Local woods are predomi- Setne heard the sound of wailing ---. He looked [down nant, especially sycamore fig, and a typical New King- from the window] of his house [and saw the coffin of a dom palette of pigments is attested: red and yellow rich man] being carried out to the cemetery with [very ochre, carbon black, Egyptian blue, calcite (white) and loud] wailing ---, and great were the honors ---. [In another orpiment.8 Flakes of gold leaf found loose near coffin moment] as he was looking down, he saw [the body of a poor man being carried out of Memphis] wrapped (only) fragments in the mud-brick chamber at the Upper Site in a mat --- without anyone walking [behind him]. (see Fig. 5) could suggest the use of more precious decorative elements in at least this one case. Based on Situating the Amarna coffins in their socio-economic the artistic style and legibility of the text, the prelimi- context, however, is not straightforward. It seems nary study of Coffins 3 and 4 from the Lower Site sug- forced to separate out those individuals buried in dif- gested that they were the products of ‘village’ crafts- ferent coffin types as coming from distinct social strata, men, who worked to a standard coffin template but and while house-size data provide a lynchpin of sorts, were not trained as artists (Kemp 2010, 21). Greater a more nuanced approach needs at least to be pursued: artistic skill might be seen, perhaps, in the execution of what did coffin ownership mean in terms of how these the jackal figure on Coffin 5 (see Fig. 12) and the carv- people were perceived within the community, and was ing of the mask of Coffin 2 (see Fig. 15; Bettum 2015).

8 The identification of wood and pigment types is the work of Rainer Gerisch (Free University, Berlin) and Corina Rogge (Houston Museum of Art) respectively. BEYOND ICONOGRAPHY: THE AMARNA COFFINS IN SOCIAL CONTEXT 157

In any case, there is perhaps enough variation in the perhaps originated from a mud-brick superstructure at quality of decoration to suggest that this was executed one or both of the graves with decorated coffins here. in somewhat varied environments, although reposition- It might be no coincidence, too, that the Lower Site, ing the coffins into their manufacturing contexts is not with the largest number of wooden coffins proportion- an easy task. We are looking for industries that are par- ate to graves excavated, also has the most stelae (eight ticularly ephemeral in the archaeological record – of fifteen definite examples), and one of the two small woodworking and painting – and beyond identifying pyramidia. Although all were from disturbed contexts, suitable tools or pigments, we are unlikely to get far in three of the stelae were excavated near graves contain- finding direct evidence of spaces in which coffins were ing decorated coffins. made at Amarna. It seems worth noting, nonetheless, The stelae from the cemetery are of very variable that one concentration of artistic skill occurred at the quality. The simplest is little more than a roughly Workmen’s Village, most evident in the vibrant paint- smoothed piece of limestone with a triangular design ings that decorated the chapels adjacent to the walled that is now weathered, but seems never to have been settlement (Weatherhead and Kemp 2007). Might it be carefully incised (obj. 39425 from the Lower Site; see that, like their Ramesside counterparts at Deir el- Fig. 4a). But even such simple monuments may have Medina (Cooney 2007), the artisans of the Amarna stood out at the site, assuming their rarity is not a result Workmen’s Village were sometimes engaged to take of post-depositional processes. The best-preserved of on private commissions of coffins? There is no record the stelae is a remarkable example in which a seated of decorated coffins being found amongst the graves of man and woman are shown in an intimate style remi- the workmen themselves, which might have provided niscent of imagery of the king and queen (obj. 39938 support for this idea, but very few graves have been from the Lower Site; Kemp 2010, 16–17; see Fig. 4b), cleared here (Peet and Woolley 1923, 94; Stevens and it is difficult not to suppose that status – real or 2012b, 442; Stevens and Rose forthcoming).9 sought after – was inherent in the mimicking of court Once interred at the South Tombs Cemetery, the cof- style. fins were rendered invisible, and any role as visual sta- But to what extent were statements of ‘otherness’ as tus markers was nullified. There are hints, however, inscribed in the burial landscape, or conveyed through that a sense of otherness was maintained at some of the parading of a decorated coffin during a funeral, these burials through the use of superstructures some- reflections of position during life? Emotions connected what more elaborate than average. The mud-brick with bereavement may have prompted family members chamber at the Upper Site – with its possible gold-leaf to acquire items beyond their normal means, while for coffin – is the most likely example (see Fig. 5). Might some individuals attaining a coffin may have been a we imagine a small pyramid and attached offering product of personal investment over the course of a place, the latter in the grave-free area of ground to the lifetime – a pinnacle of achievement. Some people bur- north-east of the chamber (see Fig. 14)? In this one ied in coffins might indeed have had elevated status, burial it is almost possible to see signs of the adjacent but in a restricted social context – as the head of a graves lining up orthogonally around it as though it household for example – rather than in a broader com- was a monument, or represented a person, of some munity setting. Individuals buried in coffins may have presence – although because it lies on the edge of an attained in life such benefits as a larger or better fitted- excavation area, the full picture of its setting is out house, but need not always have done so. It is lacking. worth asking whether some of the patterning seen at At the Lower Site, loose fragments of mud brick the South Tombs Cemetery could reflect such mecha- found along the junction of squares U102 and U103 nisms of attaining coffins: the association of decorated

9 One grave did contain a plain wooden coffin at least. It occurred Cemetery, the ‘chair leg’ unparalleled here. Burial architecture as part of a tomb assemblage that included a wooden object at the Workmen’s Village, and to some extent the Stone Village, identified as a chair leg, a set of eight vessels, some apparently is also more elaborate, both sites lying on a plateau of desert containing food offerings, and a hieratic ostracon. This would marl and soft rock that allowed the cutting of shaft-and-chamber be considered a rich assemblage if found at the South Tombs tombs (Stevens 2012b, 442). 158 A. STEVENS coffins especially with adults, for example, and the one coffin with traditional imagery (Coffin 5) to others fact that decorated coffins do not always occur in clus- in the new ‘godless’ style (Coffins 3 and 4) at the ters, but sometimes in isolation from other examples Lower Site might suggest that both decorative types (see Figs 6, 8, 14 and 16; allowance needs to be made were in circulation close in time, and perhaps used by for areas of unexcavated ground). When groupings of people who were associated. coffins do occur, such as at the Lower Site and prob- The general lack of evidence for subsidiary burials ably the Upper Site, it raises the question whether fam- at the rock-cut South Tombs raises the possibility that ily circumstances were enough to sustain the repeated some of the burials containing decorated coffins within investment in decorated coffins, and whether these the wadi itself are those of family members of the own- were groups of people who were perceived as different ers of these tombs. At the same time, consideration of in life. One important question is where the families of the social dynamics of coffin ownership cautions officials who owned rock-cut tombs were buried. Very against assumptions that there were always straightfor- few of the twenty-seven numbered South Tombs show ward associations between coffin use and social-eco- evidence of burial shafts, either inside or in the cliffs nomic status. adjacent, to suggest they were used to accommodate 10 interments (Davies 1906, 9, 21, 25; 1908, 8, 12), yet Acknowledgements these families must have suffered deaths during the occupation of Akhetaten. Some may have been buried The Amarna cemetery excavations are made possi- in family tombs beyond Amarna, but the possibility ble through the support of the Ministry of Antiquities, exists that some of the individuals interred in coffins with special thanks owing to the staff of the Minia and at the South Tombs Cemetery are also from these Mallawi offices. The conservation and study of the cof- households. fins has been generously funded by USAID, via the American Research Center in Egypt’s Antiquities Conclusions Endowment Fund, the Thriplow Trust, the Aurelius Trust, the Egypt Exploration Society and private donors Amarna provides a rare opportunity to situate cem- through the Amarna Trust. The support of the Fitzwil- eteries and burial assemblages within their broader liam Museum is also acknowledged. For access to urban context, while the cemeteries of Amarna in turn archive records and photographs of the coffin exca- provide the chance to approach this extensively studied vated in the Main City, I wish to thank the Deutsche settlement not from the perspective of houses and Orient-Gesellschaft. The excavation and study of the households, but that of individual lives. In a burial Amarna cemeteries is very much a team effort, made landscape characterised by uniformity and the wide- possible by a dedicated group of excavators, bioarchae- spread use of burial mats to wrap the deceased, the ologists, conservators and other specialists. Lucy Skin- decorated wooden coffins stand out. Their widespread ner and Julie Dawson need to be singled out for thanks distribution across the cemetery suggests that graves for their dedication to the long-term coffin conserva- here were not strongly segregated according to socio- tion project that unexpectedly developed from the economic status, although clusters of somewhat better- excavations, while Megan Paqua’s help in organising off burials, perhaps grouped according to kinship ties, and analysing the cemetery data during a study season can also be found. The reasonably close proximity of in 2014 was invaluable in the preparation of this paper.

10 Large quantities of pottery and burial materials, including inter- the South Tombs is a group of wooden funerary models (Petrie ments wrapped in matting and in coffins, were removed from Museum UC 1982–2001, 24313–15; Petrie 1937, 12–13), some the South Tombs in the late 19th century, but not published probably later than the New Kingdom, but including pieces of (Davies 1906, 10–11; 1908, 13–14, n. 5). These are assumed to model boats that find general parallel within New Kingdom set- have been secondary, and indeed the pottery at least dates to tlement and funerary contexts, although not exclusively (Stevens Dynasties 25 and 30 (French 1986). The possibility that New 2006, 115–16). There is also a number of shabtis thought to be Kingdom burial materials were amongst these, however, cannot from Amarna that potentially come from the elite tombs (Martin be entirely ruled out. Amongst items found by Flinders Petrie at 1986). BEYOND ICONOGRAPHY: THE AMARNA COFFINS IN SOCIAL CONTEXT 159

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