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This exceptionally fine and unusually large
anthropoid, or an-formed, sarcophagus, repre- sents the deceased enveloped
in a yellow-colored enveloped in a yellow-colored shroud which
conceals the arms and forms the broad expanse of the chest which is decorated
with a wesech, or broad collar. Consisting of alternating bands of stylized
floral petals and one strand each of carefully designed lotus blossoms and
papyrus umbels, this characteristic piece of jewelry is provided with a
"clasp" in the form of a falcon head, surmounted by a sun disk on
each shoulder. Although decorative from a modern vantage, the wesech collar
symbolized resurrection in two very different ways. On one level, the
floral elements implied rebirth analogous with the annual renewal of the
Nile's vegetation and farmer's crops. These renewals were linked with the
god, Osiris, Lord of the Underworld.
On a second level, the two falcon-headed clasps represented the two
mythological horizons from which the sun rose at dawn and into which it set
at dusk. The red disks on the head of each falcon reinforce this solar
metaphor and suggest that the deceased, like the sun god Re himself, would
be reborn on the morrow after his death.
Each side of the body of this sarcophagus is decorated with four
figures in two rows. On the right hand side are kneeling jackal and
human-headed figures holding ostrich feathers. These represent two of the
four sons of Horus, Duamutef, the jackal-deity who protected the lungs and
Imsety, the human headed deity who protected the liver. Both of these
images have also been ingeniously incorporated into the lid of a canopic
jar above the head of Duamutef. The remaining two sons appear on the other
side in these same forms. Kneeling is the baboon-headed Hapi who protects
the spleen & lungs; behind him is his brother, the falcon-headed
Qedhsenuef, who guards the intestines; both have been incorporated into the
lid of the canopic jar above them.
The janiform lids of these canopic jars
require special comment, because such a feature is exceedingly rare in the
iconography of ancient Egyptian art. Seldom is such an image depicted on
anthropoid sarcophagi and only on the rarest of occasions do actual
examples survive. The ostrich feathers which each of the seated sons of Horus
holds symbolize the fact that the deceased has successfully answered all of
the questions put to him by the so-called "Assessors of the
Hereafter," and that his heart was not heavier than the feather of
truth in the Judgment Hall. As a result, the deceased has been deemed
"true of voice," and is therefore entitled to enter into the
Afterlife.
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