Coffin of Senbi (c. 1918–1859 BCE): Art, History and Details

Coffin of Senbi (c. 1918–1859 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The most common type of coffin during the Middle Kingdom took the shape of a rectangular box with lid. The mummy inside was placed on his left side, facing east, his head behind the two magical eyes. These—in the shape of human eyes, to which have been added the markings of a falcon's head—were supposed to enable him to behold the rising sun, reborn daily. The long horizontal inscriptions are prayers to Anubis (god of embalming) and Osiris (god of the dead) for offerings of food and drink and other items necessary for survival in the afterlife. The short vertical inscriptions place him under the protection of the gods of earth, sky, air, and moisture, as well as various funerary deities.

Object facts

• Title: Coffin of Senbi
• Date: c. 1918–1859 BCE
• Culture: Egypt, Meir, Middle Kingdom, mid-Dynasty 12, reign of Amenemhat II to Sesostris III
• Type: Funerary Equipment
• Technique: gessoed and painted cedar
• Dimensions: Overall: 70 x 55 cm (27 9/16 x 21 5/8 in.)
• Collection: Egypt - Middle Kingdom
• Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Accession number: 1914.716.a

Collection credit

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust

Further reading listed by the museum

• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991.
• Berman, Lawrence M., and Kenneth J. Bohač. Catalogue of Egyptian Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.