Existing comment:
Child's Coffin
Ptolemaic Period, ca 305-30 BC
This very rare wooden anthropoid (human-shaped) coffin for a child is one of only seven known to exist in museum collections worldwide. Unless they were from a wealthy family, children did not receive this type of elaborate coffin but instead would be bundled in linen wrappings or palm-frond mats and placed in a deep depression in the sand, placed in a communal tomb, or simply floated down the Nile River in a carved box. Many adults would save money their whole lifetime to have a finely crafted coffin such as this. |