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Eternal Gaze: Third Intermediate Period Non-Royal Female Egyptian Coffins

Moore, Cathie A

Abstract Details

2014, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, Art/Art History.
Ancient Egypt has long fascinated the world with its art and architecture. People are most intrigued by the pyramids, tomb paintings, and mummies. The works that are usually studied came from the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. Other than Egyptologists, most people are unaware of the time periods that fell between these great kingdoms. Early scholars named them the Intermediate Periods; they were times of de-unification between Upper and Lower Egypt, a politically chaotic state. They were thought of as times that did not produce great artworks, so until the last few decades these periods were not often studied. This thesis uses three case studies to recreate the journey of a coffin belonging to three separate Third Intermediate Period non-royal women. The first case study covers the mummification process, the commissioning and decoration of a coffin set and the process involved in readying the coffin set for the funeral procession. The second case study analyzes the journey of the visible outer coffin during the funeral procession from the embalmment house to the tomb. The third case study continues the journey a Third Intermediate Period coffin set would experience by examining what happens with the coffin set as it lay in the tomb. Through the lens of Gaze Theory and Object Agency Theory this thesis examines Third Intermediate Period non-royal female Egyptian coffins and explored their social origin of interchangeability (between object and subject). The Agency of these coffins supported and made possible social interactions and relationships. The Gaze of the coffins presented in this thesis was one of desire, a non-sexualized desire. It demanded complex relationships; trust that it would protect and carry the deceased into the afterlife, assurance that in could be the double of the deceased, belief that it was a conduit between the dead and the living. These coffins helped to structure the ancient Egyptian’s perceptions; constraining or releasing ideas and emotions in ways that drew together the social, cosmic, and emotional links to the living and the dead in an ever changing relationship between past and present.
Stephanie Langin-Hooper, PhD. (Advisor)
Rebecca Skinner Green, PhD. (Committee Member)
93 p.

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Citations

  • Moore, C. A. (2014). Eternal Gaze: Third Intermediate Period Non-Royal Female Egyptian Coffins [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1401301633

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Moore, Cathie. Eternal Gaze: Third Intermediate Period Non-Royal Female Egyptian Coffins. 2014. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1401301633.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Moore, Cathie. "Eternal Gaze: Third Intermediate Period Non-Royal Female Egyptian Coffins." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1401301633

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)