CC0 · no rights reserved
Side Panel from the Coffin of Amenemope
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Look closely at both sides of this panel. It is a part of a coffin made for a priest named Amenemope (say: ah-men-em-oh-pee). The inside of the coffin shows a priest in the world of the living, preparing Amenemope and his wife, Taditkhonsu (say: tah-deet-khon-soo), for their journeys through the underworld. The priest uses tools to open the mummies’ mouths so that they can eat and speak in the afterlife. The outside of the coffin shows scenes of Amenemope in the underworld, using the senses restored to him by the ritual. What do you think these images tell us about how Egyptian people envisioned life after death?
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineSide Panel from the Coffin of Amenemope, c. 976–889 BCE. Egypt, Thebes, Third Intermediate (1069–715 BCE), Dynasties 21–22. Gessoed and painted sycamore fig ; overall: 60.4 x 41 x 6 cm (23 3/4 x 16 1/8 x 2 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Charles W. Harkness Endowment Fund, 1921.1029
