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The coffin represents Khnumhotep wrapped in white linen wrappings with gold skin, evoking the Egyptian belief that the skin of the gods was made of gold. By depicting him this way, the coffin magically transformed Khnumhotep to help him reach the afterlife. Khnumhotep was an estate overseer who lived around 1940-1760 BC. His is one of the earliest coffins in our collection, dating to the Middle Kingdom (c.2055-1795 BC). Up until this period, coffins had typically been rectangular in shape. But the coffin of Khnumhotep is an innovative new form, which was shaped to look like the deceased person. A painted collar begins at the upper-arm level and is painted in red and green on a cream ground. It has a dominant triangular pattern ending in a row of alternate yellow and red rosettes and then a row of drop-pendants in green and cream. The hands emerge from the collar and painted yellow. A broad collar with hawk-headed ends covers much of the upper torso, with different types of decoration placed on top. There is a pair of crossed arms with heavily ornamented bracelets on each. The hands are painted yellow with red, green and blue stars.

Under Roman rule, funerary customs in Egypt changed even more rapidly and began to incorporate influences from Classical art. This unique double-coffin was used to bury two young half-brothers. The interior of coffins often depicted an image of the sky-goddess Nut, who was thought to protect the deceased. This coffin has two images of the goddess, one for each child. In Egypt, it was only following the introduction of Christianity that the process of mummification finally began to die out. Four bands of text run across the lid and along the edges of the toes to the edge of the lid, while a further pair of bands run vertically from the toes along the top of the feet.The mummified bodies of these boys were prepared with the utmost care and elaborately wrapped, indicating high status in their society. It is not known why the boys died so young, but we know from papyrus left with the mummified bodies that they had the same father but different mothers. The boys' death highlights a sad aspect of the ancient world where young children were very likely to die. Tragedies, such as disease devastating a whole family, were all too frequent. This mummy mask shows the deceased wearing a wig and collar. The mask has a blue strip with yellow discs running from just beneath the rear parts of the eyes to the chin, covering parts of the cheeks. The face elsewhere and the very small high-set ears are gilded. The majority of the wig is blue with a white band with green and red discs along the brow. Underneath the feet is a figure of the goddess Nephthys kneeling on a gold-sign. An ankh (symbolising life) hangs from each outstretched arm, with the sky-sign above her and symbols of the 'west' on either side. During the Ptolemaic period (323-30 BC), following conquest by Alexander the Great, Egypt was ruled by one of Alexander's generals, Ptolemy I Soter, and his successors, until the death of Cleopatra VII and the Roman conquest. During this period, the use of mummy masks became increasingly common. A mummy mask served as protection but could also act as a substitute for the mummified head should it be damaged or lost.

Coffins such as this did not provide a realistic portrait of the dead person, but rather they projected an idealised image of what they wished to look like for eternity. The plaited false beard Irthorru wears was associated with the god Osiris, who was the first person to be mummified and reborn into the afterlife. This beard, along with other symbols of rebirth such as the sun and scarab beetle, would have been intended to help Irthorru’s resurrection after death. The wig on the base is a solid green and is decorated on the underside with a standing winged goddess, with a red sun-disc on her head and a feather in each hand. This coffin lid was donated to the museum along with the coffin base of the priest Iufenamun and dates to the same period, but it belonged to a priestess of Amun called Tjentwerethequa, thought perhaps to have been Iufenamun’s grandmother.