|More than 2,300 years ago, a noblewoman named Meret-it-es, from
Middle Egypt, began her journey to the afterlife. Her body was
prepared in the customary way for a person of her stature at the
time, and placed in an elaborately decorated coffin that would
assist her in this voyage. Various objects were placed alongside
her coffin, to be used during and after her passage to the next
life. The coffin itself—consisting of an inner anthropomorphic-
shaped container for the body and an outer rectangular
sarcophagus—was painted with representatives of deities meant to
ensure her resurrection, along with intricate hieroglyphs and
texts of ancient funerary spells. The coffin set, along with the
other fragile objects, are part of the funerary assemblage of
Meret-it-es, acquired by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in
Kansas City, Missouri, and displayed in the new Egyptian
galleries, part of the museum’s extensive expansion initiative.
Despite having brand-new space, setting up a museum exhibit is
an art form in itself—t