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Black granite
face from the sarcophagus of Ramesses VI
, 20th Dynasty from Thebes, around 1150
BC.
This fragment is then upper part of the lid of the royal sarcophagus from the tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
The kings of the New Kingdom (about 1550-1070 BC) were buried in
magnificent stone sarcophagi. In some cases they were given more than one:
Merenptah (1279-1213 BC) had four. A number of the earlier examples have
survived intact, but many of the later ones are broken.
Substantial parts of the lower areas of Ramesses VI's sarcophagus still
lie in the burial chamber of his tomb, in the valley of the Kings
Ramesses VI's tomb seems to have been robbed not long after he was
buried. Reports survive, dating at the latest to the reign of Ramesses IX
(1126-1108 BC), of the interrogation of five robbers. According to the
reports, they took four days to break into the tomb. It is not clear whether
it was the robbers who actually broke the sarcophagus - it would have needed
considerable force, and it would not have been strictly necessary to the
robbery. However, streaks of oil on the sarcophagus might indicate that the
damage happened before such oils had time to set, perhaps not long after the
burial.
This fragment gives one of the few known sculptural representations of
Egyptian kings after those of Ramesses III (1184-1153 BC). It is extremely
well-carved, showing the king with the 'divine' beard given to the dead,
following the ancient Egyptian convention.
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- Sarcophagus (plural:
sarcophagi)
- A stone coffin or outer coffin case. The
word comes from the Greek meaning 'flesh eating' and was first used
in cultures other than Egyptian for coffins made of a very acidic
stone; over time the flesh of the dead body contained in the
sarcophagus was dissolved by the acid. Egyptian sarcophagi are not
made of this type of stone so this did not happen in Egyptian
examples.
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