A History Of The World In A 100 Objects: No. 1

A History Of The World In A 100 Objects
Number 1
Mummy Of Hornedjitef
Wooden mummy case, from Thebes (near Luxor), Egypt
About 240 BC

The 1st object is the wooden burial casket of the priest Hornedjitef who was high priest at the Temple of Amun at Karnak during the reign of Ptolemy III. It includes the bound remains & burial paraphenalia of Hornedjitef.
The casket itself is wooden, with detailed artistry on the lid & is made of high quality materials. Egyptian burial cases help to indicate a person's relevant importance in the social structure of ancient Egypt, the more fancy, well crafted & expensively created a burial box the more important the person was.
Being more than 2000 yrs old the mummified body of Hornedjitef, buried with various amulets & symbols used to ease an individuals passage into an afterlife, is quite fragile & has never been unwrapped form it's bandages.
But modern hospital scanners indicate that Hornedjitef was embalmed in the traditional way, his organs were removed, he was cleaned up & they were replaced back in the body, Hornedjitef was then pickled & bound with the accompanying burial paraphenalia placed according to custom. The scan also revealed that Hornedjitef had a bad back & that he ate well but was likely to be vegetarian.
The relevance of the burial casket & mummy helps show us the rank, status & social structure of ancient Egypt. It shows us that Egyptians were spiritual people and advanced as artisans & creatively able to express the meanings they placed on life, death & their thoughts of a life after death.
The ornate details of the burial casket, the workmanship of the crafting of the object & the care placed in the bindings, embalming & placement of the burial objects show an appreciation of aesthetics & how the ancient Egyptians placed a relative value on spiritual matters & the environment they existed in.