Roman Period coffin
- Gallery: Room 62
- Culture: Roman Period
- Date: 100-120 (circa)
- Object type: coffin
- Materials: wood; gold
- Museum number: EA6705
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
Before you is the base-board and cover of a Roman Period coffin belonging to Soter, son of Cornelius Pollius and Archon of Thebes. The coffin is made of wood and richly decorated with polychrome paint and gold. On the base board, you can see a full-length figure of the sky goddess Nut, shown with eight long tresses and wearing a floral collar and necklace. Next to her head are depictions of Isis and Nephthys in mourning, and a vertical band of hieroglyphs in the center includes an invocation to the goddess.
The vaulted cover has another image of Nut holding her hands toward heaven, surrounded by the zodiac signs and the hours of day and night. Funerary deities and architectural motifs decorate the exterior. A painted gilded wooden hawk crowned with a solar disc was once placed on the lid. This artwork dates to around 100–120 CE and reflects Egyptian funerary art during the Roman era.
See it in person
Roman Period coffin is on display in Room 62 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and take a photo of it to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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