“Royal Sarcophagi of the New Kingdom in Ancient Egypt”

The marvelous sarcophagi of the New Kingdom pharaohs are the focus of this lecture. To understand their form and decoration, we take a look at the coffins from the Middle Kingdom and the Second Intermediate Period. Their inscriptions and designs are the sources out of which the designs of the royal sarcophagi are developed. The new combination of traditional texts with new elements in the layout of royal NK sarcophagi took place in the time of Queen Hatshepsut at the beginning of the 18th Dynasty.  There are even hints at the person who may have been responsible for this newly integrated concept of decoration. 

In the second part of the lecture we follow the tradition of the NK royal sarcophagus layout into later times. Sarcophagus F of Thutmosis III. was considered to be the “high point of the series (…) for sheer rationalism in design” according to W.C. Hayes. This estimation seems to have been the same in ancient times as this sarcophagus has got Kushite, Saite and Sebennyte (30^th Dynasty) descendants. It will be shown that the pattern of the Thutmosis III sarcophagus was copied and handed down for centuries until the end of indigenous rule in Egypt. 

Dr. Martin von Falck studied Egyptology, Coptology and Classical Archaeology and completed his doctorate at the University of Münster. He has been working in Hamburg for the Edfu-Temple project of the Academy of Science in Göttingen since October 2005; and as lecturer in Egyptology at different Universities (Münster, Hamburg, Munich) since 2002. Since 1992 he has worked as curator of the Egyptian collection at the Gustav-Lübcke-Museum in Hamm.  He curated several exhibition projects including “Pharaoh is always Winning – War and Peace in Ancient Egypt” (2004), “Myth Tutankhamun – Discovery and Fascination” (2003/04), and “Egypt: Treasures from the Desert Sand – Christian Art and Culture of the Christians from the Nile” (1996).