MAG'S COFFINS ONCE HELD MUMMY OF ANCIENT EGYPTIAN OFFICIAL

"Among the most significant acquisitions in the Memorial Art Gallery's long history."That's how director Grant Holcomb characterizes an extremely rare, highly decorated pair of Egyptian coffins from the 4th century bce. Acquired by the Gallery in 2000, the coffins will be the focal point of Protected for Eternity when it opens October 8 in MAG's Dorothy McBride Gill Discovery Center.

According to hieroglyphs on the coffins, their owner was an official of Asyut, a city 200 miles south of Cairo and 100 miles northwest of the fabled Valley of the Kings.
Pa-debehu-Aset ("the one who is the request of Isis") lived during the early Ptolemaic era, a turbulent period that began with the death of Alexander the Great and ended with the reign of Cleopatra. The Pyramids of Giza were already 2,000 years old, but Egypt was still a world power and a major center for art and trade. (View time line.)

ON THE TRAIL OF THE MUMMY

Pa-debehu-Aset's mummy has long since disappeared, possibly the victim of tomb robbers. But visitors to the Gallery will have the opportunity to see another Egyptian mummy.

This mummy—on long-term loan from the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA—was recently the subject of an unusual gathering. In June, area forensic experts gathered at MAG, where they examined CT scans and X-rays from Salem. They found no signs of trauma to explain the premature death of an otherwise healthy young man. But they did find numerous fractures, most thought to be post-mortem. The mummy's gilded face mask and decorated chest and leg coverings indicate that he lived during the Roman era (30 bce-350 ad), some 300 years after Pa-debehu-Aset.

As for Pa-debehu-Aset, his mummy may have vanished, but tantalizing traces remain. Remnants of the original linen wrappings still adhere to the inner coffin, and there are signs that his mummy was stouter than expected and that the artisans had to gouge out the cavity to accommodate it.

"MASTERFUL WORK"

How rare are the Gallery's coffins? So rare that only two similar pairs of nesting coffins from this period of Egyptian history are known to exist-in London's venerable British Museum and the National Museum of Denmark.

Made of wood, they are painted with hieroglyphs and colorful images of gods and goddesses in both human and animal form. The inner coffin, called anthropoid because of its human shape, also has eyes of shell and stone, inlaid glass eyelines and chinlines, and a face of gold leaf.

"Overall, this is a unique coffin ensemble which has vignettes of masterful work," writes consulting curator Joyce L. Haynes of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "It would be a remarkable addition to any museum's collection." Haynes, who speaks at the Gallery October 23, was one of four experts in the field who originally confirmed the superb workmanship and exceptional condition of the objects. She has remained affiliated with MAG as consulting curator for Protected for Eternity.

Differences in style make it clear that several artists worked together assembly-line fashion, says Haynes, with one or two master craftsmen at the helm. As a result, there are numerous ancient errors that she calls "wonderful glimpses of the artist at work."

HOW THE COFFINS CAME TO MAG

The Gallery purchased the coffins only after establishing that their provenance met current international standards. The source was a New York City gallery that had acquired them from the estate of a Swiss psychiatrist.

The purchase price—one of the highest ever paid by the Gallery for an acquisition—was not made public, in accordance with standard museum practice. Funding came from MAG's first and still most significant art acquisitions fund, the Marion Stratton Gould Fund, established in 1938.

While the coffins were in excellent condition for their age, they needed some treatment before coming to MAG. Mimi Leveque, a conservator specializing in ancient Egyptian artifacts, spent four months readying the coffins for the museum environment.

"A lot of the paint and ground was lifting and needed to be stabilized," says Leveque. In addition, there were structural problems such as cracking along the boards that needed repair. "What's really remarkable is how little they've been altered over the years."