Coffin of Horaawesheb
Some time around the year 900 BC, an incense-burner named Horaawesheb, was honored for his loyalty to an Egyptian god. After his death, he was mummified and put into an elaborate decorated coffin, which was the custom of the time. In the twenty-second Egyptian dynasty, mummification had been performed for the deceased for thousands of years as a religious ritual for the upper-class. Horaawesheb's coffin however, is like no other; many mysteries still remain concerning the context of the coffin, as well as what is known to be inside found inside.
Originally from the Valley of the Kings at Thebes (present day Luxor) in northern Egypt, the coffin does not show its age. Like many other archeological finds in the area, including the world famous tomb of Tutankhamen, Horaawesheb's coffin was undiscovered by grave robbers. Even the city itself has been given the nickname "Valley of the Golden Mummies," referring to the many excavations waiting to be discovered. The Valley of the Kings, a necropolis or "city of the dead," was located on the west side of the Nile because life was believed to follow the same path as the sun. To Egyptian thinking, positioning the cemetery in the direction that the sun sets is keeping with religious beliefs. Numerous discoveries have occurred near the ancient city of Thebes; it is known to be a major necropolis of Egypt. Thebes itself served many purposes throughout time, reaching the height of its glory in the eighteenth dynasty, only to lose strength once Egypt's power was later centralized in southern Egypt.
Horaawesheb's coffin is made of two pieces of wood standing two meters tall each. It was once held together using dowels that secured notches, which fit and made the two pieces a solid unit. Egyptian coffins were made in two shapes; earlier rectangular shaped coffins were replaced by silhouette shaped coffins. Horaawesheb's coffin is a silhouette of his own figure; its round swelling shape resembles that of the mummified body inside. The entire coffin shows Horaawesheb as being embalmed with the exception of the head and the hands which are skin tone causing them to stand out. The walls inside have subtle carved decoration on a black surface.
The coffin is decorated with hieroglyphics as well as colorful images on the outside surface. The sides are painted using two horizontal registers. In the top register, hieroglyphics span from head to base. In the lower register, figures and creatures are shown, all facing the head of the coffin. The lower register is not tall enough to show figures standing up straight at the scale that they are painted, so the artist portrays most figures sitting, some figures kneeling, and some at a smaller scale. On the coffin's left side, people are represented holding reptiles. On the right side, they hold reptiles and spear shaped objects. A jackal headed male figure, known as the god Anubis, guardian of the necropolis, is shown on both sides, holding a snake. The lid of the coffin is decorated with nine birds with their wings spread, these could be related to the god Maat, whose feather is used in the weighing of the heart in the afterlife. Egyptian gods Horus, Thoth, Osiris and others can be seen on the lid's four large registers.
The wide-open eyes of the coffin were originally both inlaid with white colored stones as the sclera in high-contrast standing out from the dark red face as well as the black pupils. Today, only the right eye remains; however, the current owner of the coffin believes that it is not the original eye and was placed on the coffin to emphasize its original look. Looking straight forward, the bright whiteness on both sides of the pupil brings attention to the face. Simply painting the eyes white and black would not give the same reflective, lifelike effect. The face is round and emotionless. Hair is represented with great volume but minimal texture; it is shown with light vertical lines defining the braids without depth. Its round surface appears to stretch across Horaawesheb's forehead and then behind his ears on its way to the middle of his chest.
Inside the coffin an embalmed corpse can be found still in its original linen wrapping; however, it has been proven that it is not even the body of Horaawesheb. By appearance, the body is too small; the top of the mummy's head does not even reach to the neck of Horaawesheb's coffin. It would have been odd for a coffin to be designed to be too large for its recipient; moreover, ceremonial coffins were made individually. Although the history of Egypt was not ruled solely by kings, and queens of Egypt were commonly portrayed with the body of a man, the embalmed body is not that of Horaawesheb. Recent examination of the mummified body, using x-ray, has revealed that the corpse was actually that of a young woman.
Ancient Egyptians had complex beliefs about life after death. It was believed that both the pharaoh and people working under the pharaoh were working for a good next life. After the death of the pharaoh, it was believed his next life would be that of the God Osiris. Osiris was the king of the dead, aside from many other things; hence, a pharaoh of the living becomes the king of the dead. Horaawesheb, an incense-burner at the temple of the god Khonsu, worshipped the moon-god, Khonsu (also pronounced Khons). Khonsu's name can be translated into "the one who travels across," referring to the path that the moon takes across the sky (Morenz 21). Egyptian mythology identifies Khonsu to have helped another god, Thoth, keep a sense of time. Khonsu also became known as the god of healing when a statue portraying him healed the sister-in-law of King Ramesses the second, of an evil spirit (Watterson 147).
Horaawesheb was the burner of incense, which was used in Egypt as an offering to the gods. Its usage spanned from honoring eternal deities to purifying the mummified body of the recently deceased (Ikram and Dodson 106). Horaawesheb's death can be ironically compared with his life; in his life, Horaawesheb used incense in his everyday life, and after his death, incense was used to honor him during his "opening of the mouth ceremony."
Horaawesheb's wooden coffin and Tutankhamen's gold coffin show the social differences between the two. Tutankhamen, a pharaoh during the New Kingdom, was sealed in a coffin made of half a ton of gold; however, Horaawesheb was sealed in a more common material, wood. Both could afford to have a coffin built in their honor, but both had different goals for the afterlife, which is reflected on their coffins. Tutankhamen is depicted holding a crook and a flail because his death was his becoming Osiris. However, Horaawesheb was only hoping to become the companion of Osiris, and holds nothing.
The Egyptians' obsession with the afterlife is apparent in what we know about their everyday lives. Their unselfish loyalty to their religion is shown on their most personal of objects. Their actions of their lives before mummification were based on their perceptions of the fate they will face in the next life. These strong beliefs and willingness to support the transition from one life to another is a clear interpretation that could quite possibly withstand the sands of time.
Works Cited:
Ikram, and Aidan Dodson. The Mummy in Ancient Egypt. London: Thames and Hudgon, 1998
Morenz, Siegfried. Egyption Religion. New York: Cornell University, 1960.
Watterson, Barbara. The Gods of Ancient Egypt. New York: Facts On File, 1984.
