The most beautiful coffins of the Twenty-first Dynasty.

Like many of the most beautiful coffins of the Twenty-first Dynasty, this one has belonged to a high official from Thebes, Pashedkhonsu, the high priest of Amun at Karnak. With the wealth and power of a de facto royal court centred at the great temple, the priests of Karnak had access to the finest goods for their own burials.

Pashedkhonsu is shown wearing the divine beard that associates him with Osiris, the god of the dead. His chest is covered with a representation of an elaborate floral collar, through which his clenched fists emerge. Scarabs and sacred images decorate the rest of the lid in designs modelled in plaster to give them a three-dimensional quality as if they were actual jewels. The shimmering, yellow varnish mimicked the sheen of gold, giving the entire piece the appearance of the most sumptuous of sepulchres.

The sides of the coffin are elaborately decorated and show Pashedkhonsu seated and standing in front of piles of food offerings and various gods. Outside the head end of the coffin is a much-worn depiction of a djed-pillar and on the proper right is a representation of the goddess Hathor standing in a solar boat, being worshipped by a flock of ba-birds. This is followed by Pashedkhonsu standing before a heaped offering table and facing the three enthroned gods.

The other side is painted in a similar way, but with varying details. A ram-headed solar deity stands in the boat, and Pashedkhonsu is positioned before a slightly different mound of offerings in front of three enthroned gods with still more variant arrangements.

The interior of the coffin has been somewhat damaged but still retains images of a goddess with the sun disk and cow horns at the bottom standing above a Djed-pillar. The sides are also imperfectly preserved but are decorated with depictions of mummiform gods standing before sketchily drawn offering tables, as is standard for the period. The interior of the head end is adorned with a frontal depiction of a ba-bird flanked by parallel offering inscriptions.