An ancient Egyptian coffin has been returned to Swansea after a painstaking 26-year project to bring it back to life. The artefact, believed to date back to around 650 BC, is now at Swansea University’s award-winning Egypt Centre once again after thousands of hours of conservation work at Cardiff University.
The coffin, originally made for a man called Ankhpakhered in the city of Thebes, was transported back under the watchful eye of the museum’s curator Dr Ken Griffin. He mentioned that the coffin had to be painstakingly cleaned, reconstructed, and consolidated to prevent further deterioration. Griffin added, “We are thrilled to have it back again. It was gifted to us by Aberystwyth University in 1997, but details about its history are sketchy. It actually ended up being used as a storage box at one time, with other Egyptian objects placed in it for safekeeping.”
Now that the coffin has been repaired, brightly coloured depictions of Egyptian gods and hieroglyphs bearing messages for the afterlife can be clearly seen, allowing Egyptologists to gain a better understanding of its history. Markings on the coffin lid show that it was later used for another occupant, a man called Djedher, but when it arrived in the UK at the turn of the century, it actually contained a different mummy, a female.
The coffin is currently in storage, but plans are in place to put it on display in the House of Death gallery at the Egypt Centre. Among those to carefully unpack it on arrival was museum manager Wendy Goodridge, who had originally brought the coffin to Cardiff’s School of History, Archaeology, and Religion. She expressed her satisfaction, saying, “We weren’t sure what they would be able to do with it as it was in such a poor state. To see it now, so wonderfully restored after so much hard work, is beyond the wildest dreams we had back then. It has definitely been worth waiting for.”
During its time in Cardiff, the coffin has been worked on by conservation experts and generations of students. Cardiff University’s Phil Parkes explained that the wooden coffin was covered in textile and then had a thin layer of decorated plaster over the top. Parkes continued, “Much of that textile had become detached over time and was just hanging loose. The students have brought it back to a condition where the entire coffin is now stable and can go on display.”
Dr Griffin further added, “It is fantastic that it has played such a unique role in so many students’ learning – we know of at least 50 who have used it as part of their research. Besides being such an interesting piece of history, it has played a part in shaping the skills of our future experts.”
The return of this ancient Egyptian coffin marks a significant milestone in archaeology and preservation efforts in Swansea, shedding light on a piece of history dating back thousands of years.