Recycling for Death: Coffin Reuse in Ancient Egypt and the Theban Royal Caches
REVIEW BY CAMPBELL PRICE
Much-anticipated from the prolific pen of Kara Cooney, the undisputed queen of coffin (re)commodification, this enormous tome is not for the faint-hearted. Introductory chapters gather, reformulate, and re-emphasise arguments Cooney has put forward in a number of other studies, and applies them to the extraordinary dataset of the royal coffins from royal 'mummy caches', principally DB (Deir el-Bahri) 320, but also drawing on evidence from others.
Existing studies detail the historical and iconographic interpretation of these coffins. Cooney instead sets out the socio-economic background, paying close attention to telling details of adaptation. Particularly fascinating is the extent to which she is able to draw on texts from Deir el-Medina – written by the workers who built (and ultimately robbed) the royal tombs.
The main part of the volume (pp.119-433) is composed of two photo essays, which provide the most-detailed and -informative commentary ever published on the craftsmanship of individual coffins found in DB320. Most images are high resolution, but depart from standard catalogue 'glamour shots' to show more indicative details of construction, (re)decoration, and reuse. The lids (and especially the faces) of some of these coffins will be familiar from more populist studies, and some readers may recognise details from the high-quality replicas made for the 1969 Egyptian film Al-Mumiya or The Night of Counting the Years. However, many details have never been published before and offer significant value for further study.
Cooney is honest where observations are subjective or inconclusive, but overall provides a robust challenge to the standard narrative – that the priestly elite of the earlier Third Intermediate Period were simply collecting and reburying their royal forebears to be pious. The reality is much more complex, involving several moves, restorations, and recommodifications, as the author documents in minute detail. The extensive bibliography alone is useful resource for coffin nerds. The result is an insight that goes beyond coffins as pretty artworks, and delves instead into the entanglements between economic viability, materiality, piety, and active competition among wealthy consumers unable to rely on access to the precious raw materials their predecessors enjoyed. Equally, though, these already-ancient coffins were not anciently viewed as museum pieces; they were already imbued with the inherent power of divine ancestors. By re-employing them, later priestly leaders could actively enhance their chances of posthumous deification.
This deep dive into funerary materiality will be especially interesting background for those fortunate to be able to visit the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation (NMEC), where many of these coffins and their mummified occupants are displayed. Cooney's book is likely to be a standard reference work for some time to come, and is definitely worth the investment. A follow-up volume on coffins for non-royal occupants is eagerly anticipated.
Recycling for Death: Coffin Reuse in Ancient Egypt and the Theban Royal Caches by Kara Cooney AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN CAIRO PRESS, 2024 ISBN 978-1-6490-3128-0 HARDBACK, £100
-- Sent from my Linux system.
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