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The sarcophagus of Nakhtankh
General Information

Painted wood sarcophagus. The body was laid on its left side, facing towards the east, in order to be able to look out through the eyes on the eastern side towards the newly rejuvenated sun at sunrise. Hence the inscriptions run from the head at the northern end towards the feet at the southern end. This represents the typical arrangement of a Middle Kingdom rectangular coffin. On the eastern side (the side with the eyes looking out towards the sunrise), the main inscription is an offering formula to Osiris. On the western side is an offering formula to Anubis. At the corners, the inscriptions invoke the four sons of Horus, protective deities for the body of the deceased (with the classic Middle Kingdom arrangement of Imseti and Duamutef on the east side and Hapy and Qebehsenuef on the west). The central columns invoke deities closely linked to Osiris: Shu and Geb on the east side and their female consorts Tefnet and Nut on the west.

Number 35285
Storing Place The British Museum - London - United Kingdom
Material Wood
Type Coffin
Type of Script Hieroglyphic
Discovery Place Meir - El Qusiya- Asyut Governate - Egypt
Founder Nakhtankh
Height 212 cm
Historical Period The Middle Kingdom
General Comments

Meir is the necropolis of El Qusiya, the capital of the fourteenth Nome of Upper Egypt. The two exterior sides of the coffin had been discussed here, omitting the inscriptions on the head and foot ends. The date period: The Middle Kingdom.

Inscriptions on the Monument
The western side: The principal inscription on the western side of the coffin is an offering formula to Anubis. Whereas the Osiris offering formula concerns the offerings to sustain the ka of the deceased, the Anubis offering formula concerns the burial itself.
Transliteration
( If the Hieroglyphic,Demotic or Hieratic text is not appearing clear, install this file )

Htp-di-nsw Asir nb Ddw xnty-imntw nTr aA nb AbDw di=f xt nb(t) nfrt wabt xA m t Hnqt kA Apd Ss mnxt anxt nTr im n kA n imAx(y) nxt -anx mAa-xrw


Translation

An offering which the king gives to Osiris, lord of Djedu, Khentyimentu, great god, lord of Abydos, so that he may give everything good and pure: a thousand of bread and beer, ox and fowl, alabaster and linen, on which a god lives, for the ka of the revered one, Nakhtankh, the justified.

Scientific Publishing

M. Collier, B. Manley, How to read Egyptian Hieroglyphs, (London, 1998), 62

The Digital Library of Inscriptions and Calligraphies, Bibliotheca Alexandrina ©