Loading

Coffin of Cleopatra

100/120

British Museum

British Museum
London, United Kingdom

Polychrome painted wooden base-board and vaulted cover of the coffin of Cleopatra, daughter of Candace, who died at the age of eleven years, decorated and inscribed: the base-board is rectangular and decorated with with a full-length representation of Nut with stylised tree behind, Nut's shoulders are flanked by representations of Isis and Nephthys in mourning, each with a standing female attendant or funerary deity, who holds a crown aloft, couchant jackals, seated upon shrines, are shown on either side of Nut's feet, a large deposit of black resin, with scraps of linen adhering, marks the outline of the mummy, now displayed elsewhere; the lid is vaulted with four corner posts and gable sections decorated in a pseudo-architectural style, the interior is also decorated with a representation of Nut, surrounded by the twelve signs of the zodiac arranged clockwise with, on the left side, the twelve hours of the day and, on the right the twelve hours of the night, the exterior is decorated with registers of polychrome painted funerary deities and other decorative motifs.

Show lessRead more
  • Title: Coffin of Cleopatra
  • Date Created: 100/120
  • Physical Dimensions: Length: 183.00cm; Width: 66.00cm
  • External Link: British Museum collection online
  • Technique: painted
  • Subject: attendant; ancient egyptian deity
  • Registration number: .6706
  • Place: Found/Acquired Sheikh Abd el-Qurna
  • Period/culture: Roman Period
  • Material: wood
  • Copyright: Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum
  • Acquisition: Purchased from Salt, Henry. Purchased through Sotheby's
British Museum

Get the app

Explore museums and play with Art Transfer, Pocket Galleries, Art Selfie, and more

Interested in Science?

Get updates with your personalized Culture Weekly

You are all set!

Your first Culture Weekly will arrive this week.

Home
Discover
Play
Nearby
Favorites