Skip Navigation

Ibis Jar Coffin

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

Ceramic jars were common, inexpensive coffins for animal mummies. There were two types of lids. In the first, a lid for an ordinary jar could be fashioned from mud and straw. In the second, an opening could be made in the jar while the clay was still wet; both the jar and its cover could then be fired together.
MEDIUM Clay, plaster
DATES 30 B.C.E.–100 C.E.
PERIOD Early Roman Period
DIMENSIONS Jar: 8 × 7 × 17 in. (20.3 × 17.8 × 43.2 cm) Lid: 3 × 6 × 9 in. (7.6 × 15.2 × 22.9 cm)  (show scale)
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CREDIT LINE Gift of the Egypt Exploration Fund
CAPTION Ibis Jar Coffin, 30 B.C.E.–100 C.E. Clay, plaster, Jar: 8 × 7 × 17 in. (20.3 × 17.8 × 43.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 14.656a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.14.656a-b_view1.jpg)
IMAGE overall, CUR.14.656a-b_view1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2010