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Burial customs: fragments of a Greek style coffin

Several wooden half-columns in the Petrie Museum belong most likely to a coffin in Greek style. The coffin might have been found already quite decayed, with only the better preserved parts collected by the excavators. In this case it means that the columns - made in harder wood - were still in quite good conditions when found, while the main wooden planks of the coffin (maybe of thinner wood ?) were not in such a good condition. There are no further information on the coffin available.

click on the image for a larger picture

The reconstruction is hypothetical. There are two types of columns: ten bigger ones, shown darker on the model, and three smaller columns. The smaller columns might come from a different object, although this seems unlikely because they are so similar in style. They might come from the short end where perhaps a different type of column arrangement was attached.

coffin

compare:

Grimm 1974: pl. 122, 2


 

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