The Songs of the War

This cartonnage provides a Who’s Who of Egyptian gods, both funerary and non-funerary. They include Osiris, lord of the afterlife; Anubis, the jackal-headed god, conducting the dead to the next world; and the Four Sons of Horus, who protected specific mummified organs of the body. Among the sky gods are Khepri, the winged beetle; Sokar, in his boat; and the hawk-headed form of Horus with outstretched wings. Thoth, the god of intellectual activity, takes the form of an ibis bird.

This mummy’s name, Gautseshenu, means “bouquet of lotuses.” The Egyptian word seshen (“lotus”) is the origin of the name Susan.