Image: 30 x 26 in. (76.2 x 66 cm)]]>
This upper part of a coffin lid is typical of cemeteries in and around the Faiyum in Egypt. Coffins are typified by the deceased wearing a flat-topped wig with broad stripes, a long beard, and a white coffin body decorated only with a collar.

The coffin face was purchased by Georges Ricard for the Senusret Collection on 31 March 1973 in Marseille, France at the Ventes aux enchères publiques en l’Hotel des ventes du Prado, lot number 193.]]> Senusret Collection: Usage and Reproduction Rights]]> Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, no. 1995.94 ]]> 45.7 cm High x 31 cm x 12 cm]]>
The lower part of the lid has two columns of inscription. The text is Utterance 368 of the Pyramid Texts, reading: “words spoken by Osiris…. Your (mother) Nut (spreads herself) over you in her name….For you are the greatest of her children. Geb is gracious to you….He has given you your head….He has caused Thoth to reassemble you. . . "


Corn-mummies embody the forces of rebirth under the control of the god Osiris. The process of assembling grain and earth in the form of Osiris symbolizes the cosmic cycle of death and rebirth and its preservation.

The object was once part of the collection of Viscountess Elizabeth Dow Dalton from the early 20th century and was purchased by Georges Ricard for the Senusret Collection on 24 July 1974 from Roger F. Galliano, a member of the Conciliation Commission at Central Customs in Paris, certified expert of the Chamber of Auctioneers of France and Judicial Officer of Geneva.

[See additional images below]]]> Senusret Collection: Usage and Reproduction Rights]]> Centrone, Maria 2009. Egyptian Corn-mummies: A class of religious artefacts catalogued and systematically analysed (Saarbrücken: VDM), pp. 70-73, pl. XXXVII.

Parallels and References:
Cairo, Grand Egyptian Museum, 32685. Originally from Ashmunein.
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 2001.547.1-2

Berlin, Ägyptisches Museum, Inv. No. 6/66

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 58.98 A-D
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 58.106 A-C

London, British Museum, EA 41552]]> Mummy: grain, sand, clay and/or soil, resin, linen bandages; 11.9 cm High x 40 cm x 6 cm
Mask: wax, gold; 4.8 cm High x 17.4 cm x 7.7 cm]]>