Coffin of Nekht-ankh (Acc. 4739)

This coffin is from the 12th Dynasty Tomb of the Two Brothers in Rifeh, Middle Egypt. It was donated in 1907 to the Manchester Museum by the British School of Archaeology in Egypt.

It is the wooden inner coffin of a man named Nekht-ankh, and is 161cm in length. This coffin was designed to lie inside the rectangular outer coffin (acc. 4724).

The inner coffin takes the shape of a wrapped mummy, wearing a divine tripartite wig and a large beaded collar, which helped protect the deceased. The body of the coffin is painted red and patterned in imitation of a blue-green beaded net, another protective design. The face of the coffin is painted black, a reference to the god of the dead Osiris. The eyes of the coffin are made of stone and inlaid, held by bronze rims; the short straight beard is another semi-divine feature of this coffin.

Osiris was often shown with green or black skin because he was an agricultural god as well--black refers to the rich silt deposited on fields by the Nile flood, and green reflects the growth of new crops.

Upon the unwrapping of the mummies (a decision made by Dr. Margaret Murray and Flinders Petrie, in order to further the discipline of archaeological research), the mummy of Nekht-Ankh was better preserved than that of Khnum-nakht. Although the body had fallen to pieces before unwrapping, the bones were intact and in position. Even some hair remained, and the embalmers had wrapped the nails of the fingers and toes with thread to prevent their loss during the process of mummification. He is considered to be aged about sixty at time of death.

Unlike Khnum-nakht, Nekht-Ankh had a set of canopic jars and only two jars in the set had contents. These were identified as the liver with the gall bladder attached, and lung tissue to which adhered part of the wall of the heart.

Examination revealed that Nekht-Ankh had suffered from pleurisy, and also from sand pneumoconiosis which may have been responsible for his death.

The inscriptions on the coffins states that Khnum-Nakht was a 'Great Waab-priest' of the local god Khnum and both his father and grandfather bore the title of local mayor - although nether is named. The inscriptions referring to Nekht-Ankh are rather different. He is referred as the son of an unnamed local major but his paternal grandfather is not mentioned. However, the men were sons of the same woman. Aa-Khnumu.

The slight variation in the inscriptions, taken in conjunction with the men's marked anatomical differences, may indicate that their mother had two husbands, and that the father of Khnum-Nakht possessed Nubian ancestry. During much of Egypt's history, there was a certain mingling of the peoples of Nubia with those of Egypt at all levels of society. However, it is accepted nowadays that a child may well inherit a marked similarity to one of his parents while having no resemblance at all to the other. This could well be the case with the two brothers, and one had the usual appearance of an Egyptian while the other had inherited the characteristic Nubian features.

Another possibility, and equally likely explanation of this difference in appearance, is that Nekht-Ankh was adopted into the family at a very early age, and having been a member of it for so many years, had become accepted as the son of Aa-Khnumu.

Excavation at Rifeh

Petrie, with the British School of Archaeology, was excavating in Egypt in the Giza and Asyut to Sohag region. At the very end of 1906 they surveyed the area around the village of Rifeh and finally completed their activities on 02-April-1907.