Nakhti’s carefully prepared coffin

Find the pair of eyes on the side of the wooden coffin. They give this rectangular box an unexpectedly watchful presence. The coffin belonged to Nakhti, an Egyptian administrative official whose title was “director of sealed things”. He lived around four thousand years ago, during the early Twelfth Dynasty. Look at how much attention went into the surface. Painted decoration and inlaid details made the coffin a carefully prepared setting for the deceased. Its interior also carries images of objects and a false door, a doorway represented in the decoration. You may need to study different views to make out those details; the whole arrangement cannot be taken in from a single face of the box. Written offering formulas and funerary texts accompanied these images. Together, the objects, pictures and words express the wish to provide for Nakhti after death. Try looking again with that in mind. Each decorated surface adds something to the preparation: protection, provisions or a written wish for the person who was placed inside.