Coffin lid of Irethoreru

Coffin lid of Irethoreru

Ancient Egyptian, 25th dynasty (760 – 656 BC)

Wood, gesso, paint

To celebrate re-opening and our new Egyptian Room displays, we have chosen the coffin lid of Irethoreru for our March Object of the Month. Having made its way from Egypt to Kent where it found itself in the collection of Denys Eyre Bower between the 1920s and the 1950s, the coffin lid recently completed its last journey to the Egyptian Room. It has been installed in a bespoke display case and reunited with the rest of the Egyptian collection. The 3,000-year-old coffin lid is unique in the castle’s collection and gives us a fascinating insight into ancient Egyptian beliefs about life after death. Its new location ensures that it will be accessible for all visitors and will be preserved for the future.

The relocation of the coffin lid by Seido Art Services and Stephen Umpleby

The coffin lid is made from wood and is decorated with a face, a striped wig, an elaborate beaded collar, and a column of hieroglyphs. The relatively simple decoration indicates that it would have been the middle coffin of three nested coffins. The inner coffin contained the body and would probably have been made from cartonnage - layers of cloth or papyrus covered in plaster. The cartonnage inner coffin would have been heavily decorated with painted scenes and hieroglyphic inscriptions.

Fragment from a cartonnage coffin with scene of man worshipping, Late Period, 664 - 332 BC, Chiddingstone Castle collection, object number 01.0586

The inscription on the coffin lid is the standard ‘offering formula’, which describes offerings for the soul of the deceased person. It has been translated by Dr John Taylor:

An offering which the King gives to Osiris, foremost of the Westerners, great god, lord of Abydos, so that he may give bread and beer, oxen and fowl, pure things, alabaster and linen, for the soul of the Osiris Irethoreru.

Adding ‘Osiris’ in front of the name of a deceased person indicated that, like the god of the afterlife, they lived on after death. The name ‘Irethoreru’ was painted on the footplate of the coffin lid, and is now no longer visible. The hieroglyphs are faded and covered by centuries of dust and dirt. Luckily, the name was revealed once more by a team from University College London’s Advanced Imaging Consultants lead by Dr Kathryn Piquette and Cerys Jones. Knowing that the ‘Egyptian blue’ mineral pigment emits infrared light, they used an infrared filter to be able to photograph the hieroglyphs of the name. They also revealed that there are two seated figures, which may be goddesses, crouching on either side of the column of hieroglyphs.

The column of hieroglyphs and footplate of the coffin lid

Image of the foot illuminated in red light, captured by the camera with an external infrared filter in front of the lens. The hieroglyphs can be seen because they emit infrared light, which passes through the filter. From report by Cerys Jones.

The name revealed by the imaging project, Irethoreru, was a relatively common one for men in the Late Period (664 – 332 BC) to the Ptolemaic Period (332 – 30 BC). There are examples of objects which mention the name Irethoreru in other museums, but the Castle’s coffin lid does not have any further identifying information on it, such as the man’s occupation or names of his family members. We have therefore not been able to discover more about Irethoreru, but it is possible that there may be objects which belonged to him in other museums somewhere in the world. The name translates as ‘the eye of Horus is against them’ – ‘them’ refers to Irethoreru’s enemies. He was given this name in the hope that the god Horus would protect him from harm.

Collar terminal in the form of Horus wearing a sun-disc headdress, faience, Late Period, 26th dynasty (664 - 525 BC), Chiddingstone Castle collection, object number 01.0627

When we re-open on the 12th of March for our 2026 season, the coffin lid of Irethoreru will be a key feature of the Egyptian Room displays. We have refreshed the room with new interpretation, themes, and objects which have been either in storage or on loan for many years. Other highlights include 5,000-year-old pottery; an array of tiny amulets that people wore in daily life or buried in tombs for protection; and a beautifully carved stone statue of a woman wearing a curly wig from the New Kingdom (ca. 1550 – 1086 BC).

The project to redisplay the coffin lid was made possible by grants and donations from the William and Edith Oldham Charitable Trust, Museum Development South East, and the Warren Meadows Trust.

This object is just one of the many objects that form part of Denys Eyre Bower’s five impressive collections which include Ancient Egyptian, Japanese, Buddhist, Stuart and Jacobite, and Books. For more information on these objects, review our Object of the Month series, visit the Historic House and Collections or contact our Curator, Naomi Collick by email or by calling 01892 870347.