The outer coffin of Ahanakht, assembled, in an early photograph from the Museum Archives

One of the big projects the new Artifact Lab space is allowing us to work on is the Inner Outer Coffin of Ahanakht (E 16218A-P).  This artifact, currently in at least 15 pieces, has a long inscription in Hieratic script on the interior surfaces that Dr. David Silverman and his graduate student Leah Humphrey are working on transcribing and translating.

The scholars know that the coffin was made for an Egyptian named Ahanakht because his name is in the inscription.

Dr. Jennifer Wegner, Associate Curator in the Egyptian Section, showed me Ahanakht’s name as it would appear on the coffin inscription.

We know the coffin had been reassembled at one time but since was taken apart, probably to make it easier to store.  But that made it hard to access, since many of the boards are very large (the largest boards are 8.5 feet long), very heavy and awkward to move and space in storage is limited.  In the Artifact Lab, we had shelving custom built to accommodate the coffin boards so we could treat them and the Egyptologists could finally read their inscriptions.

The custom built steel shelving to house the large, heavy coffin boards in the Artifact Lab

Because the coffin is in many pieces which shouldn’t need a lot of conservation, it’s a perfect project for the staff conservators who will only be spending occasional stints in the Artifact Lab (unlike Molly Gleeson, the project conservator) so last Sunday I began work on one of the smallest of the coffin boards.  It’s been interesting.  I’ll fill in the details in my next post.

posted by Lynn Grant