This painted wooden coffin was made in Middle Kingdom Egypt, around 1850-1750 BCE, for a man named Khnumnakht. The Metropolitan Museum of Art records that it comes from Meir in Middle Egypt. Its sides are covered in neat columns of hieroglyphs, bands of green and red, and a painted door.
The most arresting feature is the pair of large eyes above the door. They are placed on the side of the coffin where the head of the mummy lay, so that the dead man could look out. The eyes face east, toward the sunrise, the place of rebirth. The door below them is usually understood as a way for the spirit to move between the coffin and the world of the living.
At one end a goddess stands with her arms raised, painted in white against a field of ochre. The Met notes this figure as a rare feature for coffins of this date. The painters worked to strict conventions, and each hieroglyph is drawn in its prescribed form, which is why the signs read so cleanly even after nearly four thousand years. The spells they spell out were meant to protect Khnumnakht on his journey.
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