Inner Coffin of Kha

Kha probably died in the third decade of the reign of Amenhotep III, a long and prosperous reign in which the court workshops at Thebes worked with great refinement. His innermost coffin belongs to that moment. There is no black resin on it anywhere. Gold leaf covers the entire surface, laid over a fine layer of plaster in which the figures and inscriptions were first modelled in low relief. The eyes and eyebrows are inlaid, with blue glass for the brows and for the painted lines around the eyes, set in metal sockets.

The Egyptologist Arielle Kozloff has called Kha's coffins superb examples of the craftsmanship of that reign, and their style suggests that they came from a royal workshop. The coffin rested on a layer of natron, the salt used in embalming, inside the middle coffin. The red-dyed flax ropes that had been used to lower it into place were still tied around it at the neck and the ankles.