Coffin of Amenemipet

Amenemipet was a distinguished priest of Amun during Egypt’s Third Intermediate Period, roughly between 950 and 900 B.C. (Late 21st–early 22nd Dynasty) who steps from the painted panels of his own coffin as a figure of refined piety and quiet authority, likely serving at the cult centre of Deir el-Bahari where he acted as a guardian of Amun’s rites and treasures.

His wealth, though measured more in cultic prestige than in princely acres, was sufficient to commission a coffin that functions simultaneously as tomb, chapel, and holy text: its lacquer-bright surfaces unfurl Books of the Dead spells, Osirian laments, and a full funerary drama in miniature.

By the Third Intermediate Period, the coffin had become a complete microcosm: serving as tomb, temple, and text in one. It held the sacred scenes, the divine utterances, and the resurrection spells necessary to transform the deceased into an Osiris, and to carry him (or her) safely into the fields of eternity. By the 21st Dynasty, especially in Thebes, elaborate private tombs were increasingly rare, due in part to economic hardship, political decentralisation, and priestly control over burial grounds. Many individuals (particularly those associated with the Temple of Amun) were buried in group tombs, cachettes, or communal chambers, where for many, the coffin became the main object of personal identity and spiritual preparation.

Books of the Dead were still produced, and some of the most elaborate examples date from this period, lavishly illustrated, richly annotated, and full of complex theology, especially for the wealthy elite and high priests of Amun. These books continued to be written on papyrus, often in cursive hieroglyphs or hieratic script, and would still span many metres.

Now housed at the British Museum, the coffin of Amenemipet was discovered in the Theban necropolis; probably one of the communal priestly cachettes at Deir el-Bahari. Its artistry and extensive texts proclaim a man whose life revolved around ceremony, learning and devotion; its very wood still whispers the titles, invocations and tender laments that were meant to carry “the Osiris Amenemipet, true of voice” safely into eternity.

Eternal Offerings

In this scene, a woman is knelt, stretching out both arms in invocation. She wears no divine crown, only a plain head-band, marking her as a mortal officiant, most likely a female relative of Amenemipet acting as funerary priestess. In front of her Anubis, black as bitumen, the jackal-god of embalming is reclined upon his shrine, with a hes-jar between his paws, as he receives the offering the lady’s words and gestures summon.

Between the woman and Anubis lie single-word offering tags; “loaf”, “beer-jar”, “lettuce”, “water-bowl”, and “lotus”, each naming what her recitation conjures: “bread (t)”, “beer (ḥnkt)”, “water (mw)”, all good and pure things. With palms outstretched, she “transfers” these essentials to Anubis, who in turn will pass them onward to the deceased.

No personal name survives in the remaining paint, but her role and position make it almost certain she is Amenemipet’s closest female relative; customarily a wife or eldest daughter, functioning as a priestess (ḥm.t-nṯr). Her presence and offerings, eternally etched into the walls of the coffin, were to keep Amenemipet eternally nourished and eternally alive beyond death.

In this scene, a woman wearing a perfume cone (possibly a relative of Amenemipet) is seen offering tribute before the uraeus who delivers life through an ankh.

The unnamed woman stands before the Four Sons of Horus; guardians of the internal organs, essential to resurrection:

Imsety, the human-headed; protector of the liver; guarded by Isis. Duamutef, the jackal-headed; protector of the stomach; guarded by Neith. Hapi, the baboon-headed; protector of the lungs; guarded by Nephthys. Qebehsenuef, the falcon-headed; protector of the intestines; guarded by Selket.

The hieroglyphic text invokes Horus to grant offerings and protection to these deities, and through them, to the deceased himself.

“May the Great One (uraeus) grant life and dominion to the Osiris Amenemipet.”

Osiride Amenemipet

In Ancient Egyptian theology, Osiris served as the archetype for all the dead. Any individual who had passed into the afterlife could be referred to as “the Osiris [Name],” not as a claim to personal godhood, but as a way of aligning their fate with that of Osiris, death, resurrection, and eternal life.

This formulaic usage became widespread, and phrases such as “the Osiris [Name], true of voice” (“Wsir [Name], mꜣꜥ-ḫrw”) appear regularly in funerary texts and inscriptions. While in earlier periods such divine regalia and imagery were restricted to kings, the rise of personal piety in the New Kingdom, alongside the expanding democratisation of the afterlife, allowed these once-royal motifs to be adopted by high-ranking individuals, especially those involved in the temple cult, like Amenemipet. His depiction as Osiris was not a challenge to theology but a fulfilment of it, affirming that through the proper rites and rituals, any justified soul might follow the god’s path to eternity.

The symbolic identification, therefore, was vivid and purposeful. The deceased might be shown wrapped like Osiris, holding the crook and flail, wearing the white shroud and the tall atef crown, not as a means of usurping royal or divine authority, but as a visual declaration of their participation in the myth of Osiris. He had died, been mourned, embalmed, judged, and restored; and so too would every properly buried Egyptian hope to be.

In this scene, we witness the deceased resurrected in his Osiride form. Amenemipet, shown enthroned as Osiris, in exactly the same way New-Kingdom and Third-Intermediate-Period coffins regularly present their owner. The crook and flail, the bandaged body and the tall ʽatef-crown are the divine regalia; the flesh, however, is the normal red-brown of a living man, not the green or black of the god, and the face is unmistakably the portrait already painted on the lid of this very coffin.

Behind him (far left) stands Nephthys, recognisable from the basket-and-house hieroglyph (Nebet-Het: “Lady of the Mansion”) that sits upon her head. Her protective arm lightly touches the back of the throne.

Opposite, a man in a leopard-skin robe, most likely a sem-priest extends a libation cup and recites the offering prayer. In front of him rises a piled offering-table of bread, fowl, fruit and bouquets, the provisions that will sustain the dead in the Duat. Based upon Ancient Egyptian funerary rites (especially those relating to the Opening of the Mouth and presentation of offerings) the sem-priest was ideally the eldest son of the deceased. This was part of filial duty and a spiritual obligation, echoing the myth of Horus performing rituals for his father Osiris. While we can’t say with absolute certainty without a named inscription, based upon tradition, it is likely that the sem-priest is a close male relative, most likely a son of Amenemipet.

To the right inscriptions with the standard ḥtp-dỉ-nswt offering formula accompany the scene, “A royal offering-token that the king gives, and that Osiris gives, of bread, beer, oxen, fowl, alabaster and linen…” All of this confirms that the enthroned figure is indeed the deceased Amenemipet, now absorbed into Osiris and awaiting the daily offerings his family will recite.

Funerary Procession (“Transport of the Deceased”: sꜣḥ ḫnty š nṯr )

In this scene depicted upon the coffin walls of Amenemipet, we see female mourners in lamentation. At the far right of the scene, a richly laden offering table is visible, heaped with tribute of bread, beer, meat, fruit, and garlands. Just beside it, priests and offering-bearers make their ritual presentations. But the emotional heart of the image lies in the central group of female mourners, each posed in an expressive gesture of grief, hands raised to their heads, hair loose, or arms outstretched, one even knelt upon the ground. These women are likely a combination of professional mourning priestesses and relatives of the deceased.

In an extraordinary detail, a dramatic moment of sacred lament, one woman in the centre of the procession is drawn face-on with hands outstretched, somewhat similarly to the ka hieroglyph. In art of the Third Intermediate Period, especially on Theban coffins, we occasionally find this technique used to highlight key figures; most often deities or individuals in intense ritual states.

This ritualistic lament depicted within tombs and papyri from throughout the Dynastic age was part of Osirian temple festivals and funerary ceremonies. The presence of feminine female mourners evokes the symbolism of the sister-goddesses Isis and Nephthys, who mourned their brother (and lover for Isis) Osiris and helped restore him to life. The lament was meant to awaken the dead, to stir their soul (Ba) to consciousness, and to guide them safely to rebirth.

“Come to your house, O Osiris! Come to your house, for your enemies are not!”
“I am your sister Isis, I have come to see you and to weep for you.”
“I call to you, I weep for you… I stir your heart to life again.”

“We weep for you, O Osiris, and we summon your ba to your body.”
“Come to your house, come in peace!”

These words appear in several versions of the Lamentations preserved on papyri, temple walls (notably at Abydos), and even inscribed in tombs and coffins from the New Kingdom onwards. This lament was not just performance, but ritual speech imbued with magical power. The belief was that through weeping, calling, and speaking sacred words, the sisters could re-member Osiris, reassemble his body, reawaken his spirit, and bring him to new life. These laments were thus recreated in funerals of ordinary Egyptians who identified with Osiris.

In this scene, before the female mourners, we see the “transport of the deceased” (sꜣḥ ḫnty š nṯr), known to us today as a funeral procession, transporting the deceased to their final resting place.

On the left, the mummified body of Amenemipet lies within a finely decorated shrine on a wheeled bier, surmounted by Amenemipet’s spirit in Ba-Bird form with wings outstretched, representing the soul watching over its own body, “he is made perfect under the wings of his ba,”.

Pulling the coffin along are the funerary cortege; men who were usually members of the priesthood and male family members (especially sons). They are dressed in translucent pleated linens, collars, shoulder length cropped wigs, perfume cones, and are adorned with heart (ib) amulets. In Ancient Egyptian belief, the heart (ib) was the seat of morality and emotion, essential at the judgment. By wearing this, they symbolically lend their moral essence to the journey, ensuring the deceased has the spiritual support necessary to pass into the afterlife.

Lining the procession, columns alternate brief blessings and affirmations such as poetic refrains reinforcing the journey to eternity and echoing standard texts from Coffin Texts and Book of the Dead traditions:

“He who is pure and in peace forever,“

Summary:

Coffin of the preist Amenemipet

Third Intermediate Period, 21st-22nd Dynasty, c. 950-900 B.C.

From Deir el-Bahari. Now at the British Museum. EA22941