Outer Coffin of Kha

At the end of the 18th Dynasty an Egyptian of standing was buried in three coffins, one inside another, and the outermost was built as a shrine. This is Kha's. It is made of sycamore wood, with a vaulted lid like the old shrines of northern Egypt, and its base is shaped like the sledge on which a coffin was dragged to the tomb during the funeral. At three metres long it could not go down the tomb stairs in one piece. It came in as five parts and a lid, and was put together in the burial chamber, guided by marks on the edges.

Nobles and kings of the time had cases of this kind covered with gilded figures and texts. Kha's is plain black. Schiaparelli, who found it, called the coating bitumen, and analysis has since shown that it is mostly resin from Pistacia trees. The museum links the black to Osiris, ruler of the afterlife, and to his power of renewal. When the tomb was opened, a linen sheet about 15 metres long still lay over it.