Monday, July 23, 2012

Anthropoid coffins from Deir el-Balah

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The 13th century BC anthropoid coffins again, this time close up!

Last month I blogged about the ones standing in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

These two here are at the Eretz Israel Museum in Tel Aviv.

Please click on the photo below to get a reminder of their history.


A post for Taphophile Tragics and Our World Tuesday.
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20 comments:

  1. You do such fascinating work. I've never seen coffins such as these. Thank you for educating us!
    V

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  2. Very special "things". Would like to see them in real..

    Hope you have a happy week:-)

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  3. Virginia, yep, doing archaeology is fun, even if I've never found anything as spectacular as these coffins.

    Spiderdama, next visit you can see them.

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  4. These coffins are almost statues, so large and impressive! I am wondering what accounted for more than one in the coffin. Those with similar jobs? Somehow the idea of being family related doesn't seem to work. Yet you say there is jewellery in there? Puzzling and fascinating!

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  5. Fascinating post!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

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  6. Amazing ! Thank you very much for your effort and this adventure ! Please have a wonderful Tuesday.

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  7. Really interesting post. The mummies look fascinating. I must try and find out a little more about their history.

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  8. I notice the coffins are on a bed of sand...no doubt they feel right at home there!

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  9. Beautiful! Such a fascinating post.

    Beneath Thy Feet

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  10. Excellent find! 13th c BC, Fantastic to think of the Egyptian influence in the land.

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  11. Fun60 shalom. They look like mummy cases, yes. But the bodies inside were not embalmed, not mummies.

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  12. Very special coffins. Thanks for sharing.

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  13. Fantastic! They are absolutely beautiful.

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  14. Thanks for adding the info on the photo.

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  15. It i always difficult for me to think that these ancient things once contained real dead bodies...

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  16. Every time I see mummies I think of Jon and how much he didn't like the basement floor of the Field Museum because of all the mummies it held.

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  17. Clay: the coffins are made from clay. I thought they may have been carved from tree trunks, but no. What astounds me, with either wood or clay, is that they are still intact after all this time. They must have been in a very dry area.

    See those crossed hands: they look like feet when I look at the thumb.

    I am glad that they could house more than one person, as I was thinking them to be a race of large people.

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  18. Absolutely fascinating, Dina! It sends shivers down my spine to think that we can connect with humans from so long ago because of their ability and effort to record their presence for future generations. I wonder down the road where are generation will stand on the scale of discovery.

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  19. quite a coffin... !
    but now i forgot. were they put underground, or...?

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  20. Shalom friends. They were found buried under a lot of sand (the Gaza Strip being next to the Mediterranean ).

    Julie, the clay was fired in a kiln, so just like pots and potsherds, it stays strong for thousands of years.

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