Coffin for young girl from Akhmim

Wooden lid and base of a coffin for a young girl from Akhmim, Sohag, Egypt, c. 50 B.C.- 50 A.D.

This coffin dates from the period of Greco-Roman rule and can be seen by the garment the young girl is seen depicted wearing. However, despite this she maintains her Egyptian religious belief, by being mummified and buried within a coffin decorated with deities from the Ancient Egyptian pantheon, alongside spells to help the deceased upon her way through the Afterlife.

The figure of the girl is seen wearing a pink and green tunic, with her long black hair in ringlets, decorated with a mantle. Snake bracelets adorn each wrist, and she holds sprigs of laurel in her left hand. Besides the front her feet on the extended footboard, the Egyptian Ankh symbol for life can be seen.

Akhmim was known in Ancient Egypt as Ipu, Apu or Khent-min. It was the capital of the ninth nome of Upper Egypt. Referred to by the ancient Greeks as Khemmis or Chemmis (Ancient Greek: Χέμμις) and Panopolis (Ancient Greek: Πανὸς πόλις and Πανόπολις), it is located on the east bank of the Nile, four miles (6.4 km) to the northeast of Sohag.