The Iconography of the rishi Coffins and the Legacy of the Late Middle Kingdom

This article attempts a philological, archaeological, and social analysis of the emergence of the rishicoffin style in the material culture of the Second Intermediate Period. The first section is devoted to the structural analysis of rishi-coffins; the anthropoid shape of the coffin is already apparent in burials of the late Middle Kingdom, while the feathers seem to represent a profound break with the previous tradition. In the second part, the current theories concerning the meaning and the origin of the feather feature are summarized. The last section focuses on the recurring links between the funerary culture expressed through the rectangular coffins of the mid- to late 12th dynasty and the set of ideas embodied in the rishi-model. The apparent sudden rise of innovation expressed by the rishi-coffin is thus considerably reduced. An alternative interpretation is proposed for the origin of the feather pattern, which reveals a possible link between Coffin Text Spell 335, concerning the rebirth of Osiris through the union of the bas of Re and of Osiris himself, and the feather decoration applied to anthropoid coffins.