Corn mummy

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Egyptian grain mummy (5th century BC), Paneum (Asten / Upper Austria)

A grain mummy is a linen-wrapped figure made of earth and grains from ancient Egypt . The origins go back to the Middle Kingdom .

description

The figures are usually wrapped in linen bandages and provided with a face mask made of wax. Most corn mummies are between 35 and 50 cm long. Often they were in small, falcon-headed wooden coffins. Around 50 corn mummies have been preserved, often found in simple pits, only rarely in graves. Some smaller figures were found in statues of the god Ptah - Sokar - Osiris from the Ptolemaic and Roman times .

A corn mummy was used to create a figure of the god Osiris in the shape of a mummy, in which the corn seeds were germinated. The sprouting of the grain symbolized the fertile powers of Osiris, who was revived after death, through which he brought about the renewal of vegetation and the resurrection of the dead. Many coffin texts compare the resurrection of the deceased with the sprouting of barley from the body of Osiris (equated with Neper ).

It is probably more of an ancestral rite and less of a god cult.

exhibition

Some corn mummies can be viewed in the Paneum in Asten in Upper Austria, another is in the Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum Hildesheim (see Kornosiris (PM 4550) ).

Web links

Commons : Corn Mummies  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d aegyptologie.com: Kornosiris / Kornmumie
  2. ^ Harco Willems: Gardens in Theban tombs. In: Sibylle Meyer (ed.): Egypt - Temple of the Whole World / Egypt - Temple of the entire world. Studies in Honor of Jan Assmann (= Numen Book Series. Studies in the History of Religions. Volume 97). Brill, Leiden 2003, ISBN 90-04-13240-6 , pp. 421-440, here p. 423.
  3. ↑ kemetismus.de: Festival of the Dead in Egyptian