Coffin Fragment
1973.1.638
Information
Right hand from an anthropoid (human-shaped) coffin with extended fingers The front is naturalistically formed with an applied layer of plaster which is painted a glossy red. The back surface is a flat plane and shows a dowel hole cut into the palm. Hands on anthropoid coffins were carved separately and would have been pegged in place on the coffin during the manufacture process. This construction technique is characteristic of coffins made in the late New Kingdom and the Third Intermediate Period and Late Period (about 1100 BC – 715 BC).
CONDITION NOTE (1998): Dry wood with some splitting, loss of surface decoration, cracked decoration, surface dirt.