The wooden coffin comes from a small necropolis east of the pyramid of Niuserre in ancient Busiris (Abusir, Egypt). This area was investigated from 1902 to 1904 by Ludwig Borchardt, the discoverer of Nefertiti. In the process, 31 Greek burials from the 4th century BC were discovered. Via the German Oriental Society (DOG), the coffin came to the then Kestner Museum in 1904.
The Greek tombs contained, among other things, wooden coffins in both anthropoid and chest form, to which the one in the August Kestner Museum also belongs. Of the total of nine chest-shaped coffins, two remained in Cairo after the excavations were completed. Six came to Germany and were distributed to museums in Berlin as well as Leipzig, Bonn, Heidelberg and Hanover. The whereabouts of another coffin are unknown. The coffin in Hanover, along with the one in the Akademisches Kunstmuseum in Bonn, is the only completely preserved specimen from the DOG excavations.
The coffin in Hanover was discovered within the brick walling of a mastaba. As a certain curiosity, the legs were sawn off and buried next to the coffin. The coffin itself still contained the male corpse wrapped in bandages at the time of discovery. He was resting with his head on a pillow filled with wood shavings. Wrapped in the pads were poppy pods (probably holding them in his right hand). Outside the coffin, the excavators secured a pair of leather shoes. The remains of a leather bag and fragments of red, yellow and brown felt bandages were also found under the coffin. Unfortunately, nothing has been preserved of any by-products. It can be assumed that they probably never reached Hanover. (AVS)
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