Thread by @PeterBrandEgypt

1/ Today a double post for my Tutankhamun 100 day countdown. I had to miss yesterday. First off, the 3 large funerary beds shaped like animal gods. ****. #Egypt #Archaeology #Tutankhamun #history #Archaeology #Tutankhamen #Toutankhamon #Tutancâmon #Tutanchamun #توتعنخآمون

2/ The three tall "funerary beds" also called "funerary couches." They were made for the afterlife, not life. They are very tall, & would have been impractical for daily use #ancient #Tutankamón #ツタンカーメン #图坦卡蒙 #圖坦卡蒙 #Τουταγχαμών #тутанхамон #투탕카

3/ Most Egyptian beds were quite short like several from Tutankhamun's tomb we covered earlier in the countdown such as this fine example covered with heavy sheet gold. #Mythology #Art #Gold #Egypt #Archaeology #AncientArt #History #Jewelry #Ancient #AncientEgypt #Egypt #Egypte

4/ By contrast, Tutankhamun's 3 animal-shaped funerary couches were more fragile & covered with thin gold leaf over delicate plaster.

5/ Egyptian tomb art often shows the deceased's mummy resting on a lion-shaped funerary bed like this one from the tomb of Senedjem at Deir el-Bahari with Anubis attending to the deceased.

6/ One of Tutakhamun's funerary couches was lion shaped. 2 lion images made up the bed frame, with the platform between & resting on a black wooden base frame. The lions represent the goddess Mehet, an aspect of Isis who protected her husband Osiris, lord of the Underworld

7/ The marvelous piece has elegant lion's heads with inlaid eyes & blue glass eye markings & noses

8/ Another view of a lion head

9/ A second couch resembles a cow goddess with the solar disk between her horns. Its gilded body has trefoil spots of dark blue glass imitating lapis lazuli. It represents the goddess Mehet-Weret, "the Great Flood," an aspect of the goddess Hathor associated with the afterlife

10/ Close up views of one of the cow's heads

11/ Another view of the cow's heads

12/ the nearer cow is covered with reddish gold.

13/ The 3rd couch depicted the goddess Ammut, whose body was a composite of hippopotamus, lion & crocodile. Some of the gilding has discolored to black on the legs

14/ The hippo heads wear a wig & their toungues & teeth are ivory

15/ Another view of the head with peg like teeth & short tusks of a female hippo

16/ Another ritual funerary bed was placed in Tutankhamun's quartzite sarcophagus & supported his heavy set of coffins. It has much shorter legs to fit inside the sarcophagus. After supporting the weight of the coffins for 3400 years it is bowed.