Coffin of Ta-mit (Lid)

Artist Unidentified

Period Late Period (Ancient Egyptian, 664–332 BCE)

Dynasty Dynasty 26 (Saite) (Ancient Egyptian, 664–525 BCE)

Place of Originpossibly from Luxor, Egypt

Dateabout 600-550 BCE

DimensionsCoffin Top: 13 1/4 × 20 7/8 × 72 1/16 in. (33.7 × 53 × 183 cm)

Mediumsycamore wood, mud, paint, and beeswax

ClassificationMummies and Mummy Cases

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1906.1A

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 02, Classic

DescriptionCoffin lid.

Label TextOriginally containing the mummy of the woman Ta-mit, this coffin ensured her successful transition to the afterlife. Her green face refers to the god Osiris, who oversaw the annual cycle of the death and rebirth of vegetation, and the rebirth of human beings. The coffin’s front shows the sky goddess Nut (NOOT)— also depicted on the coffin’s interior—who protectively spreads her wings around Ta-mit. Just below, a host of gods and goddesses watch Ta-mit’s heart being weighed against the feather of truth. (Derived from the Book of the Dead, the scene is also depicted in the Scroll of Tamesia, located in a case to your right.) Just below the weighing of the heart, Ta-mit’s mummy reclines on a funerary couch. Rising from her body is a human-headed bird—her ba—one of the immortal forms of the soul. Beneath her are four canopic jars, containers that protect her internal organs, which closely resemble the real ones displayed at the coffin’s feet.Published ReferencesCatalogue of a Collection of Egyptian Antiquities, 1906, pp. 11-12, no. 1.

McMaster, Julie A., The Enduring Legacy: A Pictorial History of the Toledo Museum of Art, Superior Printing, Warren, OH, 2001, repr. (col.) p. 14.

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art Map & Guide, London, Scala, 2005, p. 6, repr. (col.)

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2009, p. 6, repr. (col.)

Peck, William H., Sandra E. Knudsen and Paula Reich, Egypt in Toledo: The Ancient Egyptian Collection at the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Toledo Museum of Art, 2011, p. 82-83, repr. (col.) p. 11, 82, (det.) p 83.

Fortenberry, Diane ed., Souvenirs and New Ideas: Travel and Collecting in Egypt and the Near East, Oxford, UK, Oxbow Books, 2013, p. 28, repr. fig. 3.6, p. 30.