Rishi coffins and the bright destiny of the "hopeful monsters"

The collapse of a centralised state can lead to new social, political, and economic networks, giving rise to the formation of rival polities on the periphery of what had been a centralised state. However, rarely collapse involves the complete disappearance of the previous tradition, system and ideologies3. The history of rishi coffins4, as archaeological markers for the passage from the late Middle Kingdom to the New Kingdom (1800-1550 BC), might reveal how the phase of collapse occurred during the Second Intermediate Period can be reconsidered as a dynamic process of slow transformation in which past strategies, previous institutions, and earlier cultural values maintain their continuity.