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Eagle Coffin
Artist / Origin: Workshop of Kane Quaye, Teshe, Ghana
Region: Africa
Date: 1991
Period: 1900 CE – 2010 CE
Material: Painted wood
Medium: Sculpture
Dimensions: H: 51 in. (129.5 cm.), W: 52 ½ in. (133.3 cm.), L: 106 in. (269.2 cm.)
Location: The Newark Museum, Newark, NJ
Credit: Courtesy of The Newark Museum
Coffin of Henettawy
Artist / Origin: Unknown Artist, Deir el-Bahri, western Thebes, Egypt
Region: Africa
Date: Third Intermediate Period, 21st Dynasty, ca. 1040 BCE–992 BCE
Period: 3000 BCE – 500 BCE
Material: Gessoed and painted wood
Medium: Other
Dimensions: H: 79 7/8 in. (203 cm.)
Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit: Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund
The way a society or community treats the bodies of its dead reveals a great deal about its hopes and fears, values and beliefs. Coffins, in particular, can tell us a lot about not only the cultures that produce them, but also the individuals who are placed in them. They might, for instance, offer clues regarding the religious beliefs, class status, or worldview of the deceased. During the Third Intermediate Period in Egypt, those who could afford to do so were mummified and placed in elaborate human-shaped coffins decorated with references to material wealth, protective symbols, and inscriptions. In modern-day Ghana, it is considered a family obligation to send the deceased off in style. Among the Ga people, this sometimes means commissioning a figurative coffin in the form of an animal, foodstuff, or prestige item.