Nebnetcheru

Introduction
On the second floor of the Penn museum, there rests an elaborate, human-shaped artifact from the Third Intermediate Period (1085-730 BC). The relic is a wooden coffin with intricate, painted designs on the exterior. Even an untrained eye could infer that the coffin was crafted with the care and attention only afforded to an individual of great repute. An individual that was held in such high regard that the mask of his coffin was painted gold, as one might paint the face of a god. This coffin once housed the body of a mummified man, and that man’s name is Nebnetcheru.
In this paper, I am going to explore the role of coffins in Egyptian funerary culture by examining how and why this one spectacular coffin was made. By digging into

While the markings and symbols that adorn the case suggest a person of great import, the identity of the mummy within the coffin likely would remain a mystery were it not for an offering prayer that runs down the center of the lid: “A gift that the king gives and Osiris, Foremost of the Westerners, Lord of Eternity, Ruler of the Living, that he may give an invocation offering to the Osiris, the god’s father of Amun, the priest who enters into Karnak Temple, Nebnetcheru, true of voice.” [this translation accompanies the artifact in the gallery at the Penn Museum] The prayer identifies the mummy encased as a priest of Karnak Temple. While this appears to be a good start to learning about the life of the man and the role he played in Egyptian history, ancient accounts of the priest are lacking at best, and discrepant at worst. In some historical texts, he is credited as being the son of “Nesieramon” (Ritner 2009:63), while in others, he is the son of “Hori” (Ritner 2009:378). Another conflict arises when trying to pin down the length of his priesthood. While most historians agree that it is difficult to place the exact time period that Nebnetcheru would have lived, with many citing Dynasty Twenty-One or Dynasty Twenty-Two (Quick 2004:107), others have more definitively cited Dynasty Twenty-Two (Teeter 2012:95). The only thing that all historians seem to agree on

Prior to King Tutankhamun’s reign in the New Kingdom, there were several different ways to become a priest. The earliest priests were anointed by the King himself. After a time, selection committees (including priests and other high ranking officials) began choosing the next crop of priests. After King Tutankhamun, however, most priesthood titles were inherited by birth (Doxey 2001:para. 1-2). The Third Intermediate Period follows Tut’s New Kingdom, so we can assume that Nebnetcheru’s high birth played a role in landing him his priesthood. As a priest, it was an individual’s role to bridge communication between the gods and the Egyptians. But they also performed many other tasks, including participation in funerary ceremony. There were mortuary priests who were often present at the burial site and were thought to “provide[ ] for the immortal life force of the deceased person” (Doxey 2001:para. 15) as well as lector priests, who read aloud coffin texts (Doxey 2001:para.