The Coffin of Bakenmut

Crafted from sycamore fig wood, a timber long associated in Ancient Egypt with rebirth and divine protection, this coffin was carefully gessoed and painted, allowing its richly symbolic decoration to gleam with colour and meaning. Measuring 208 × 68 cm, its surface becomes a canvas for theology, memory, and hope for eternal renewal.

The coffin was discovered in Thebes, within the priestly burial landscape of the Third Intermediate Period, and reflects the refined funerary traditions of Egypt’s temple elite. Today, it is preserved in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, where it continues to bear witness to the beliefs, artistry, and devotional world of Ancient Egypt.

Bakenmut

Bakenmut was a priestly man of Thebes, living during the late 21st to early 22nd Dynasty (c. 10th–9th century B.C.), a period when religious authority rested largely in the hands of the Amun priesthood. His name, meaning “Servant of Mut,” places him firmly within the sacred sphere of the Theban triad (Amun, Mut, and Khonsu) whose temples dominated the city’s spiritual and political life.

Bakenmut was buried in the Theban necropolis, and his richly decorated anthropoid coffin reflects both his elite status and the complex theology of the age, drawing upon revered kings of earlier dynasties to secure protection and legitimacy in the afterlife. Today, his coffin is preserved in the Cleveland Museum of Art, where it offers a rare and eloquent glimpse into the devotional world of Egypt’s temple elite.

Deified Kings

At the inner base of Bakenmut’s coffin, a striking figure greets the viewer: Thutmose III, not as a living king, but as a deified ancestor. Though he had died some five centuries earlier, his presence here is no accident. By the Third Intermediate Period, Thutmose III had become the exemplar of ideal kingship; the great servant of Amun, the restorer of temples, the conqueror whose legacy still echoed through Thebes.

Shown in mummiform and enveloped in a shimmering, feathered mantle that unfurls into falcon wings, the king is no longer merely historical. He has crossed fully into the divine realm, transformed into a protective, timeless being. The wings are not decorative: they proclaim regeneration, solar renewal, and eternal protection; powers essential to the deceased’s safe passage into the afterlife.

That such a figure appears on the coffin of a priestly man like Bakenmut speaks volumes. This is not ancestry, but theological alignment. By placing Thutmose III at this liminal point, the coffin declares continuity: the priest stands within an unbroken chain of devotion to Amun, guarded by the memory of Egypt’s greatest sacred king. Here, history becomes theology and memory itself becomes a form of protection.

Beneath the figure of Thutmose III appear two mirrored images of Amenhotep I, placed back-to-back in a deliberate and meaningful arrangement. Unlike Thutmose III, whose divinisation was gradual and symbolic, Amenhotep I was formally deified, becoming one of the most beloved sacred kings of Ancient Egypt.

Amenhotep I held a unique place in the religious imagination of Thebes. As patron of Deir el-Medina, protector of artisans and tomb-workers, and guarantor of proper burial and craftsmanship, his cult endured for centuries after his death. By the Third Intermediate Period, he was no longer remembered merely as a historical ruler, but as an active, listening god; invoked for protection, guidance, and justice.

The doubled, mirrored presentation of Amenhotep I amplifies his role as guardian in all directions, watching over the coffin’s interior from both sides. Here, repetition is not decoration but emphasis: a visual incantation ensuring perpetual protection. Together with the presence of Thutmose III above, the arrangement forms a powerful theological axis; one king embodying perfected kingship and devotion to Amun, the other serving as the eternal protector of those who laboured, built, and prayed in his name.

In this quiet dialogue between two deified rulers, history becomes ritual, and memory itself is transformed into a shield for eternity.