Coffin Fragment

Left fist from an anthropoid (human-shaped) coffin. The front is naturalistically formed but the back surface is a flat plane. Front is prepared with plaster and painted yellow with a hieratic annotation in black – a short and damaged text mentioning a date which would suggest reuse of the coffin (information provided by Dr Daniel Soliman, 20.03.2020). 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). Label with serrated edge adhered to surface with printed number 985 which is how Robert de Rustafjaell collection items were labelled. Most probably purchased at Sotheby's, London, 19-21 December 1906 lot 411D "A large number of Masks, Hands, and other parts of wooden Mummy cases; mostly painted in colour". CONDITION NOTE (1998): Incomplete, dry, surface loss, splitting, label adhered to surface, surface dirt