On this coffin panel you can see the solar disc with the arms of its rays. The beetle is the scarab god Khepri who recreates the sun each dawn. On each side is the ankh, the Egyptian sign for life. Third Intermediate Period, Early 22nd Dynasty (945 - 800 BC).

Painted wooden coffin panel. The motif of the sun disc embracing the scarab is from the final hour of the Amduat (Liptay 2011, 56-57). This represents the morning version of the scarab welcomed by the sun. As Liptay explains, by the 21st Dynasty both solar and nocturnal aspects of rebirth were combined. The deceased travells through the Duat to be reborn in the morning. On either side is the hieroglyph of hieroglyph for life. The two figures are solar divine beings, the one on the left with feather being West, the one on the right, East. Both are sitting on per signs and are being offered loafs of bread. Between them is a sign of a hill over which are the rays of the rising sun (Gardiner sign N28). 22nd Dynasty. Purchased by Wellcome at auction in 1924 from the Hood collection. For information on earlier representions of arms projecting from the sun disc see Sugi, A. 2003. The Iconographical Representation of the Sun God in New Kingdom Egypt' In Hawass, Z. and Brock, LP, 'Egyptology at the Dawn of the Twenty-first Century' Vol 2 p514-521. Sugi suggests the arms are protective and offer life. c.25cm high. Earlier representations do not include the scarab.

Collection

Egypt Centre, University of Swansea

Inventory Number

3543598

Title

On this coffin panel you can see the solar disc with the arms of its rays. The beetle is the scarab god Khepri who recreates the sun each dawn. On each side is the ankh, the Egyptian sign for life. Third Intermediate Period, Early 22nd Dynasty (945 - 800 BC).

Object Type

Image

Measurements

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