Days at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo: The Sarcophagus from Arabia

On the occasion of the renewed war between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia, as well as Cairo's decision to send military troops to Saudi Arabia if requested — a controversial decision in itself — and the attempts to put diplomacy ahead of war, there is nothing better than sharing an amazing piece I came across at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo (EMC).

I visited the Egyptian Museum of Cairo in Tahrir Square in July 2023, after reading an announcement on the museum's official Facebook page that this artefact had been selected as its Piece of the Month.

It was a huge surprise to discover this piece at the museum in the first place, let alone in Egypt.

Warning: This was one of my worst artefact-photography experiences at the EMC. Aside from the reflective glass covering it, the sarcophagus was placed right at the entrance, facing the sun when I visited.

The artifact is a wooden sarcophagus belonging to an ancient Yemeni merchant who died in ancient Egypt.

More specifically, it is a wooden sarcophagus, without its lid, belonging to a Minaean merchant from the Kingdom of Ma'in.

Ma'in was an ancient South Arabian kingdom located in what is now Yemen. It was situated along a strip of desert called Ṣayhad by medieval Arab geographers, which is now known as Ramlat al-Sab'atayn.

The city of Ma'in is first mentioned in historical records in the eighth century BC, before it developed into a kingdom.

Unlike other ancient Yemeni and South Arabian kingdoms, Ma'in was particularly focused on trade, especially the spice and incense trade.

Its commercial activity reached its peak during the Ptolemaic period, when it maintained trade relations with ancient Egypt and Greece.

The Minaean merchant buried in this sarcophagus belonged to the Zayran tribe.

His name was Zayd'il Al-Ma'ini, and he died and was buried in Egypt's Saqqara necropolis during the Ptolemaic era.

Zayd'il was a merchant dealing in incense and aromatic substances, probably imported for use in Egyptian temples.

We know all this thanks to the inscription on the sarcophagus, Zayd'il's epitaph:

“Sarcophagus belonging to Zayd'il, son of Zayd, of the Zayran clan, that of Wabb, he who imported myrrh and varieties of calamus for the temples of the gods of Egypt in the days of Ptolemy, son of Ptolemy; 2 Zayd'il became ill and died in the month Hathor, and they sent linen from all the temples of the gods of Egypt as their mat, a byssus garment as his funeral shroud, and they raised him, that is his ba, to the mn {= precinct ?} of the temple of the god Osirapis, in the month of Koiak, in the 22nd year of Ptolemy the King. And Zayd'il has entrusted his lmn {= mummy?} and his sarcophagus to Osirapis and to the gods [who are] with him in his sanctuary.”

The sarcophagus bears an inscription on one side, consisting of three horizontal lines carved in sunk relief using an ancient South Arabian script known as Musnad.

The sarcophagus dates to the Ptolemaic period, as the phrase "Ptolemy, son of Ptolemy" appears in its inscription.

Although the specific Ptolemaic king under whose reign the sarcophagus was made has not been conclusively identified, scholars believe it dates to the reign of Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285–246 BC). His reign is associated with the expansion of trade routes connecting Egypt with the Arabian Peninsula, particularly Ma'in.

However, those trade routes already existed long before the Ptolemaic era, centuries, if not millennia, before Ma'in rose to prominence.

Contrary to the popular belief that Queen Hatshepsut of the 18th Dynasty was the first Egyptian ruler to send an expedition to the Land of Punt, in modern-day Somalia, to obtain incense during the New Kingdom, the earliest recorded ancient Egyptian expedition to Punt was organised by Pharaoh Sahure of the Fifth Dynasty during the Old Kingdom.

In fact, gold from Punt is recorded in ancient Egyptian sources as early as the reign of Pharaoh Khufu of the Fourth Dynasty.

Personally, I believe that if relations between ancient Egypt and the Land of Punt were already that old, then ancient Egypt must also have had relations with ancient Yemen during the same period.

Egypt reached its maximum territorial expansion in the Levant during the 19th Dynasty. King Ramses III left a cartouche bearing his name in Al-Tayma, in northwestern modern-day Saudi Arabia, indicating the Egyptian presence and influence in the region.

This archaeological discovery provides evidence of a direct trade route linking the Nile Valley with the heart of the Arabian Peninsula as early as the 12th century BC, facilitating the exchange of incense, gold and silver.

Back to the sarcophagus.

It was made of sycamore wood.

In ancient Egypt, the tree known as the sycamore was the sycamore fig (Ficus sycomorus), which is native to northeastern Africa and parts of the Middle East. It is still commonly known in Egypt as El-Gamiz.

It was among the most widely available native woods used by ancient Egyptian carpenters and artisans, from prehistoric times onwards. It was mainly used to make coffins and sarcophagi, as well as furniture and boats.

Interestingly, the sarcophagus appears to have been made, at least at the bottom, from a single piece of wood carved by artisans.

I believe the circular growth rings visible on its bottom reveal the age of the tree from which the wood was taken.

Zayd'il was apparently a wealthy and important trader who supplied incense to ancient Egyptian temples.

According to the inscription, when Zayd'il fell ill and died during the Egyptian month of Hathor, linen was sent from all the temples of Egypt to serve as his funeral shroud.

The inscription specifically mentions a byssus garment, which was used to prepare him for traditional Egyptian mummification.

He was subsequently buried near the sacred precinct of the Serapeum, the temple of Osirapis, during the month of Koiak, one month after his death.

Zayd'il must have been a very important figure to have received such honours, including linen from what the inscription describes as all the temples of Egypt, traditional Egyptian mummification and burial at Saqqara, near a sacred precinct.

All this would have helped secure his journey into the afterlife according to Egyptian funerary beliefs.

One thing worth noticing is that the shape of the wooden sarcophagus looks distinctly foreign compared with the colourful sarcophagi we usually associate with ancient Egypt.

Despite being mummified and receiving an ancient Egyptian burial, Zayd'il was laid to rest in a sarcophagus made according to South Arabian Minaean traditions.

The Musnad inscriptions were executed so skilfully that some archaeologists believe they may have been carved by a native Minaean.

Logically, a merchant of his standing would not have travelled alone, and he would most likely have had assistants accompanying him.

We do not know whether Zayd'il believed in Serapis or other ancient Egyptian deities. In South Arabia, however, Wadd was the national god of Ma'in, although there is no mention of him in the inscription.

The sarcophagus was discovered in 1900 during excavations led by the prominent French Egyptologist Georges Daressy.

Daressy was working for the Egyptian Antiquities Service when he uncovered the artifact.

Unfortunately, the tomb had been looted, and the mummy of the late Zayd'il was destroyed in the process.

Yet the wooden sarcophagus survived to tell a remarkable story about ancient relations between Egypt and Yemen, as well as the commercial and trade networks connecting the two regions.

Most importantly, it tells us something about how ancient Egypt and the ancient Egyptians welcomed foreigners rather than rejecting them.

There was apparently considerable respect for foreign rituals and customs, to the extent that this man was buried in a sarcophagus reflecting his own cultural traditions.

In a way, Zayd'il's name is still remembered more than two millennia after his death.

Since many of the Egyptian Museum's most famous exhibits have moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum, the EMC has started exhibiting some remarkably rare and unique pieces that were previously overshadowed by more famous artifacts or hidden away in its basement.

After seeing this sarcophagus, I cannot help wondering how many other hidden gems are still waiting to be discovered at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo.

The sarcophagus is currently on display on the second floor of the EMC.