In Lot V were included three outer coffins, four inner coffins and four mummy-covers forming four burial assemblages. In this Catalogue, the order of presentation of the burial assemblages will follow the numbers recorded by Georges Daressy, which have the advantage of indicating the position of each coffin set within the tomb. In each object the layout of the iconography and the inscriptions are described separately. The iconography is presented according to the following topography:1
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Headboard: On the lid, this area includes the head and the wig, while on the case, it is composed of a tripartite panel;
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Upper section: On the lid this section is delimited by the contour of the forearms or the floral collar. On the case this section is bounded by the contour of the arms;
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Central panel: This tableau only figures on the lid and it is composed by a variable number of registers;
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Lower section: On the lid, the lower section displays two or three longitudinal partitions. On the case, the lower section extends from the elbows to the footboard;
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Footboard: The lid is normally arranged in three partitions. On the case, this area is seldom decorated.
The interior of the case also reveals an architectonic layout suggesting the interior decoration of a shrine:
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Headboard: Decorated as the ‘ceiling’ of the ‘shrine’;
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Sides: The decoration involves several registers suggesting the side-walls of a shrine;
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Floorboard: Large iconographic composition arranged in several registers. This section is decorated as the rear wall of a shrine;
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Footboard: Normally undecorated, it is seen as the ground of the shrine. It seldom features cryptographic compositions.
References to this topography take into account the anthropomorphic shape of the coffin set. As such, references to left/right are mentioned according to the perspective of the deceased. When describing vignettes, we consider them as autonomous pictorial units, and references to left and right take into account the perspective of the viewer.
In our text, the avian manifestation of the deceased is described as human. When explicit identification of deities is found, these are described as human-shaped deities, regardless of their actual animal manifestation.
The textual description of each object is complemented with visual documentation. Critical references of these objects are further developed in Part 2 of this volume.
Figure 6
Plan of the Tomb of the Priests. The coffin sets kept in the Egyptian Museum of Florence are circled.
This view was developed from the concept of architectonization formulated by René Van Walsem. See Van Walsem 1997. See also Sousa 2017a and Sousa 2017b.