Focus on Sha-Amun-en-su and explore the Sarcophagus.
The Sha-Amun-en-su sarcophagus was composed of box and lid, both carved in polychrome stuccoed wood. It was 1,58 meters high and was made around 750 BC. Throughout its nearly three millennia of history, since it had been sealed with the mummified body of the singer and her votive amulets, the sarcophagus had never been opened. It was a highly representative example of Egyptian funerary art from the 8th and 9th centuries BC, characterized by the profusion of references to Heliopolitan theology.The top of the sarcophagus cover was decorated with a female face, which sought to represent the natural color of the skin, topped with a blue headdress, decorated with yellow vulture wings and yellow and red ribbons. Shades of dark green, red and yellow stood out against a white background. At the breast height, there was the figure of the goddess Nut and a representation of a ram-headed bird with wings outstretched over the lid, symbolizing protection. The bird's claws and tail were flanked by two uraeus serpents, one with the crown of Upper Egypt and one with the crown of Lower Egypt The four Sons of Horus were represented in two pairs, one pair in front of each snake.On the right side were Imset with a human head and Hapy with a baboon's head, and on the left side Duamutef with a jackal's head and Qebehsenuf with a hawk's head. In the region of the legs were represented the amulets of the god Osiris, flanked by divinities. The two halves of the sarcophagus were separated by the sign Ankh, the symbol of life, which was repeated in two other ribbons. Finally, there was a representation of the singer's Ba - Ba was understood at the same time as a spiritual component of human beings, gods and animals, as a metaphysical principle related to the individuality of being and as a dynamic element that separates from the body after death, approaching, in this sense, the Western concept of soul.At the back and outside of the sarcophagus was a representation of the great Djed pillar, a sign of stability associated with Osiris, the Egyptian god of the afterlife, who ruled the underworld and the dead. In different parts of the coffin, there were bands with hieroglyphic inscriptions, analyzed and studied by different Egyptologists, such as Kenneth Kitchen and Alberto Childe. Kitchen was the first to identify the mummy, deciphering two bands of distinct hieroglyphs that associated her name to her occupation. The first band bore the inscription "An offering that the king makes [to] Osiris, Chief of the West, great God, Lord of Abydos - made for [?] The Singer of the Shrine [of Ammon], Sha-Amun-en-su ". In the second line of hieroglyphs was read: "An offering that the king makes [to] Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, Lord of the [shrine] Shetayet - made for [?] The Singer of the Shrine of Ammon, Sha-Amun-en-su".
Heliopolitan Hapy Sarcophagus Ba right Kenneth Kitchen sarcophagus Ankh Nut Amun Lower Egypt Upper Egypt stucco Imset Qebehsenuf Osiris mummified polychrome Duamutef uraeus Djed Egyptian left Sons of Horus hieroglyphic inscriptions