On display in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, is a beautifully decorated coffin set dating to c. 1000 BC, comprising a mummy board, inner coffin and outer coffin complete with lids and boxes. It belonged to a high-ranking official from Karnak known as Nespawershefyt (‘He who belongs to the Great One of the Ram’s Head’) or Nesamun (‘He who belongs to Amun’).

Holding over 40 titles, his final roles included ‘supervisor of craftsmen’s workshops’ and ‘supervisor of scribes in the house of Amun’. With access to the finest artisans of his time, it's no surprise his coffin is of exceptional quality. Richly and densely decorated with religious scenes and spells from the Book of the Dead, it invokes the protection of the gods and provides guidance for his journey to the afterlife.

Nespawershefyt’s coffin set was one of the first Egyptian objects acquired by the Fitzwilliam Museum, donated in 1822 by Barnard Hanbury and George Waddington. The former Trinity College students obtained the coffins during their travels, though little is known about their time in Egypt beyond a documented journey from Wadi Halfa to Meroe. It is another example of how the colonial antiquities trade removed artefacts from their original contexts, leaving gaps in our understanding of their histories, use, and meaning.

Nephthys and the Four Sons of Horus

Across the top of the scene stretches a blue, arched form of the hieroglyph pt, representing the sky, a common motif that evokes the cosmic order (maat) and the protective dome of heaven. Beneath it sits the funerary goddess Nephthys, associated with mourning, protection, and the afterlife. She often appears in tombs and coffins as a guardian of the dead, working in tandem with her sister Isis to watch over the body and soul.

To ancient Egyptians, her name was nbt-ḥwt, meaning “Mistress of the House.” She wears this title as a crown: the hieroglyphic sign for a basket atop a stylised ground plan of a house. Such visual punning was common in ancient Egyptian art, where deities could be identified by the hieroglyphs they wore, blending language and image. Nephthys was revered not only for her role in mourning Osiris but also as a liminal figure, standing between life and death, embodying both the sorrow of loss and the promise of rebirth and regeneration.

Nephthys is shown kneeling upon the hieroglyph nb representing gold with her arms raised is a posture of protection. Above her, a winged serpent wearing an ankh around its neck emerges from the Eye of Horus symbol. These have raised arms honouring the hieroglyph of Nephthys’s name on her head in a motif rich in symbols of protection, divinity, and eternal life.

Flanking the goddess are the Four Sons of Horus, deities who guarded the canopic jars used to preserve the internal organs during mummification. Each god is depicted in mummiform, symbolising their bond with the preserved body of the deceased. Imseti, protector of the liver, has a human head and is often linked to Isis; Duamutef, guardian of the stomach, has a jackal’s head and is protected by Neith; Qebehsenuef, who watches over the intestines, bears a hawk’s head and is associated with Selqet; and Hapi, defender of the lungs, is shown with a baboon’s head, under the protection of Nephthys herself.