Origin: Egypt
Circa: 1080 BC to 720 BC
Dimensions: 27.4" (69.6cm) high x 8.75" (22.2cm) wide x 1.25" (3.2cm) depth
Collection: Egyptian
Style: Third Intermediate Period
Medium: wood
These two brightly painted panels each contain a train of three deities, two of which are well preserved in each panel. Each of these deities is identically attired in a tightly-fitting raiment decorated with a red-X. That X-shaped design imitates “suspenders,” which are habitually found on the lids of coffins of the period. This motif replicates the leather “mummy suspenders” which were routinely included as part of the burial equipment of the time. Additionally, these deities hold bolts of linen cloth, either naturally white or dyed red, in their hands, and these allude to the mummy bandages with which the mummy placed within this sarcophagus was wrapped. Their headdresses are all uniformly painted blue, perhaps in imitation of lapis lazuli.
The deities are depicted standing up a tri- colored, rectangular ornament which represents a serekh, originally depicting the crenellated façade of a palace, but which, with the passing of time, came to represent symbolically any sacred precinct, such as the tomb in which the deceased was interred.

Antiquities
Ancient Egyptian