Painted for Eternity

The project seeks to investigate the painted figurative decoration of the Middle Kingdom box shaped coffins from an art historical perspective. The cemetery at Beni Hassan an important necropolis in Middle Egypt with the largest set of coffins deriving from archaeological excavations and covering a time span from the 11th Dynasty up to the reign of Senwosret III or slightly later has been chosen for the present case study. The main focus of the research will be an art historical analysis of the decorative elements painted on the coffins ornamental frames, ornamental hieroglyphs, representations of wDA.t-eyes, architectural elements including the false door and the palace façade, offering table with associated piles of offerings, and object frieze. The study will involve an in-depth analysis of their iconography including the colouring, the layout, the elaboration of potential stylistic traits and artistic developments as well as the identification of workshops or artists. Special attention will be given to the so called object friezes, their selection, positioning and arrangement. Subsequently, the coffin decoration will be compared with the paintings in the Beni Hassan tombs of high-ranking officials as well as with coffins from other Middle Kingdom cemeteries. The art historical evaluation of Middle Kingdom coffins has not been attempted so far, because proper publication of most of them is still overdue in the Egyptological research. Thus, an essential research step of the project will be the proper photographic documentation of all decorated coffins from the necropolis kept in various museums. The analysis will make use of the MEKETREpository, an extensive database of Middle Kingdom tombs of officials, especially those at Beni Hassan, which provides an invaluable source of information on the Middle Kingdom art, and which resulted from the MEKETRE Project and from the project From Object to Icon, both of which were directed by the applicant Prof. Dr. Peter- Christian Jnosi (FWF, P21571G21 and P25958G21). Part of the present project shall cover its extension by adding detailed records of the Beni Hassan coffins, and an update to meet the FAIR Data principles and guarantee its future usability. In order to deal with the Egyptological questions posed, the following, excellently qualified postdoctoral scholars will tackle the projects specific topics: Lubica Hudkov and Uta Siffert. Their training and expertise in art history and archaeology enable them to deal with the various aspects of the project at the highest international level of research. It is also envisaged to engage a student assistant to share the tasks of research as well as an IT technician to accomplish the update of the MEKETREpository.

The scope of the project "Painted for Eternity" was the study of the painted decoration of the typical wooden box coffins of the Middle Kingdom from an art historical perspective. The cemetery at Beni Hassan - an important necropolis in Middle Egypt with the largest set of coffins which derive from archaeological excavations and cover the entire Middle Kingdom - has been chosen for the present case study. The cemetery was excavated by John Garstang in 1902/03 and 1903/04 and due to the division of finds common at the time the finds were distributed to museums around the world. A detailed examination of the archive materials in the Garstang Museum of Archaeology and in the Archives of the University of Liverpool (excavation photographs and correspondence) made it possible to locate more than 100 coffins and coffin fragments in more than 30 museums worldwide, all of which were professionally documented and examined. The focus of the research was an art historical analysis of the decorative schemes and of the painted decorative elements such as the ornamental frames, ornamental hieroglyphs, representations of the wedjat-eyes, elaborate facade, offering table with the associated piles of offerings, and the object friezes. The ornamental texts as well as the iconography of the decorative elements, including their preliminary drawings and colouring, were comprehensively studied. The so-called object friezes received particular attention. The research led to the identification of a local tradition, and important phenomena such as a widespread use of templates for texts and images have been observed. The handling of the name of the coffin owners provided evidence that coffins were often prefabricated and reused. The comparison of the coffin decoration with the decoration of the rock-cut tombs of the high officials from Beni Hassan as well as with the Middle Kingdom coffins from other necropolises led to a better chronological classification. A monographic treatment of the individual coffins and coffins fragments as well as an overall analysis of the corpus were prepared by Lubica Hudkov and Uta Siffert. The graphic documentation of the coffins was created by Constanze Seuchter as a student assistant. She is currently preparing her master thesis on the palaeography of the ornamental hieroglyphs. In addition, the MEKETREpository, an extensive database of reliefs and paintings from the tombs of high officials of the Middle Kingdom, especially those from Beni Hassan, was revised in order to ensure its future usability. The database, which represents the result of the "MEKETRE project" and the "From Object to Icon" project, both of which were run by the applicant Peter-Christian Jnosi (P21571-G21 and P25958-G21), was relaunched by Kirill Stytsenko using modern technologies, provided with new functions and expanded to include the documentation of coffins and coffin fragments.