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Burial customs from late Middle Kingdom to Second Intermediate Period (about 1850 - 1550 BC)
for the early Middle Kingdom click here

At the end of the Twelfth Dynasty burial customs again changed dramatically. Many previously typical burial goods disappear, while others come into use.

Notably, coffin texts and wooden models disappear.

There are now two main types of burials:

1. Court-type burials: these are burials of the highest officials and members of the court

2. Other burials, also with new features, but no standard set of burial goods

the court type

The dead person is treated as Osiris; who was the ruler of the underworld. A set of royal insignia is placed next to the dead body

Anthropomorphic coffins become common
Four canopic jars are common; they are sometimes placed in a box
parts of the coffin are often covered with gold
jewellery is common in burials at all periods, but it is especially fine in the Middle Kingdom
miniature pottery vessels
new burial goods appear in other tombs
shabtis
magical wands
small faience or limestone figures
religious texts were written on various objects: a few coffins, papyri, and pottery vessels
faience figures of desert-edge or river creatures such as the hippopotamus

 

a disturbed tomb; some faience figures might have a magical function
a disturbed tomb; religious texts were found written on jars
a disturbed court type burial, with royal insignia (mace head, flagellum),
the 'tomb of the two brothers'; burial ensemble with anthropo-morphic
and box coffins
burial with golden pendants in the shape of fish, a popular amulet in elite burials
examples of burials from different places; the main burial goods are pottery, jewellery and stone vessels

 


 

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