Inner Cartonnage of Gautsheshenu in the Brooklyn Museum, August 2007

Inner Cartonnage of Gautsheshenu
Linen mixed with plaster
Third Intermediate Period- Late Period , probably late Dynasty XXV- early Dynasty XXVI, circa 700-650 BC
From Thebes

Accession # 34.1223

Osirius, lord of the underworld, appears seated on a throne at both sides of the chest of this cartonnage. At the right he presides over the judgment of the soul of the woman Gautsheshenu. Anubis, the jackal-headed conductor of the dead, is also at the right, carefully weighing Gauthsheshenu's heart. Beneath the great winged scarab are the "Four Sons of Horus," minor gods who protected specific mummified organs of the body.

Many other, nonfunerary deities and their insignias appear. Indeed, the illustrations provide a Who's Who of Egyptian gods. A prominent solar motif consists of Khepri, the winged beetle, whose form represents the sun in the morning. In the center of the cartonnage is a vignette of the solar boat of the god Sokar situated in the sanctuary of his temple. Yet another form of the sun god, Horus the Behdetite, flanks the legs with outstretched wings. Thoth, the god of intellectual activity, stalks the lower right side in the form of an ibis, and a ram-headed god appears on both lower sides.

The name Gautsheshenu means "bouquet of lotuses." The Egyptian word shesen ("lotus") is the origin of the women's names Susan and Suzanne.

Text from the Brooklyn Museum label.