Maatkare Coffin

A detail of the lid of the coffin of Maatkare, Divine Votaress and God’s Wife. She was a priestess of the god Amun, sworn to celibacy and devoted exclusively to his service. The coffin is made of wood, which is stuccoed, painted, gilded and varnished to produce such an exquisite piece. It is now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Egypt. Photo: Official Catalogue-The Egyptian Museum Cairo; by Mohamed Saleh and Hourig Sourouzian; Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz, Germany; 1987.

Maatkare was probably the daughter of the High Priest Painedjem I, who was the king of Upper Egypt from circa 1070 to 1032 BCE during the 21st Dynasty at the time of the Third Intermediate Period. This was a period of Egyptian decline, political instability, and foreign conquest and rule.

“This proliferation of images and symbols [on the coffin] compensates in abridged form for the extensive funerary program once represented on the walls of tombs, now reduced merely to uninscribed collective burial caches. The coffin scenes likewise replaced the repertoire of funerary equipment, which was no longer included in the burial.” ― Official Catalogue-The Egyptian Museum Cairo.

A deformed mummiform package was found beside Maatkare’s mummy inside the coffin. For a long time, it was believed that this was her stillborn baby and that Maatkare died in childbirth. But modern analysis revealed that it is the mummy of a pet monkey, thus laying to rest any doubt as to the Divine Votaress’ celibacy.