EGYPTIAN
ARCHAEOLOGY
sides of the face, have black stains and depicting a bird grains, and so would (vulture?) covering appear to have served the head of the as offering containers mask: a rare example for incense and food. of this design in Meanwhile, at the the Memphite area. entrance of the shaft, The mask is of the which was capped by type known as an a small tafl mound, at ‘extended mask’, least 11 pottery vessels reaching to the (including small cups, torso. a small ring-footed Other complete cup, a jar with a spout, Middle Kingdom a flat-based beaker, coffins were found a globular jar and in Shaft 65, located a beer bottle) were close to Senu’s retrieved. Almost all The coffin of Senu (1.82m x 0.57m x 1.05m) tomb. This shaft, of the vessels seem also filled with tafl, is c.4m deep and at the bottom of to have contained liquids. The evidence thus suggests the shaft are two chambers, both containing coffins. that, after making their offerings to the deceased, filling The coffin in the south chamber belongs to a ‘Ka-priest’ and sealing the shaft, the relatives of the deceased, or named Sebekhat and the one in the north chamber to participants in the funerary ritual, drank around the tomb Senetites, a ‘Mistress of the House’. and then discarded their containers in situ. The archaeological context of this shaft is remarkable The coffin of Sebekhat is of the box type with a vaulted in that it has enabled us to reconstruct fully the funerary lid, while that of Senetites is also a box type but with ritual. In both chambers, 23 miniature plates were a per-nu shaped lid. These two coffins closely resemble distributed on the floor, mainly concentrated in front of each other in colour and textual design; they are entirely the eye-panels on the east side of the coffins. These plates painted in orange, with yellow bands and blue texts.
The coffin of Sebekhat as found, with fragments of offering vessels on the floor of the chamber
The mask of Senu after conservation
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