Mummy board of Djedmutesankh

The priestess Djedmutesankh was buried with a number of other members of her wealthy extended family in a tomb in on the West Bank at Thebes. Her exalted position is reflected by her titles, which include First Great Chief of the Musical Troupe of Amun." This indicates that she was likely a daughter or wife of a High Priest of Amun. Her burial assemblage includes a set of nested coffins; an Osiris shroud; leather braces; amulets; wax viscera figures; two funerary papyri: an Osiris figure; and two wooden boxes full of shabti figures.

The decoration of this mummy board is similar in color and style to that of the inner and outer coffins in which it was nested. The space is divided into small vignettes on either side of a central inscription that provides a long list of Djedmutesankh's titles. It is the god Osiris, ruler of the dead, who is represented in the majority of these vignettes, and this is the theme echoed on the inside of the board, the side which faced the mummy itself. Painted dramatically in vibrant colors against an off-white is a large figure of Osiris, ruler of the Netherworld, wrapped in an elaborate mummiform garment, wearing the tall white crown of Upper Egypt flanked by the ostrich plumes that represented truth and justice, and holding the crook and flail of kingship.

Credit: Rogers Fund, 1925