Coffins, Cartonnage, and Sarcophagi

Abstract

Beginning with the first complex civilization in Egypt in the mid fourth millennium BCE to the last days of paganism in the third and fourth centuries CE, ancient people crafted decorated coffins, cartonnages, and sarcophagi. Body containers served a variety of religious purposes for the deceased, but we should not forget that coffins were also meant to perform social functions as the focus of public funerary rituals. The ancient Egyptians crafted their body containers to nest inside one another to make a set that could fit into a tomb in a spatially efficient way. Wealthy Egyptians tried to include as many pieces in their coffin set as possible. During the Roman period, the ancient Egyptians used a wide variety of body containers. The most distinctive and innovative are the cartonnage masks and body covers, many of which have fussy plaster detailing, gilding, and inlay on the headdress lappets and chest.

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