The Sarcophagus of Ankhnesneferibre

Our next stop is a perfect excuse to talk about hieroglyphics (after having seen the Rosetta stone).

This is the black siltstone sarcophagus of Ankhnesneferibre - a princess and priestess of the 26th Dynasty, daughter of Pharaoh Psamtik II. Hieroglyphs cover every surface - prayers and invocations to the gods.

Ankhnesneferibre held the title of God's Wife of Amun from around 600 to 520 BC - serving through the reigns of 4 pharaohs, making her one of the most enduring political figures of her era. By the later period of Ancient Egypt, the priestesses held power equal to a pharaoh, effectively ruling Upper Egypt from Thebes. They managed vast estates tied to the temple of Amun, controlling land, agriculture, and large workforces of farmers, weavers, scribes and administrators.

The role was also a political instrument - passed not through birth but through adoption, with each incumbent choosing her successor, allowing pharaohs to project royal control deep into the powerful priesthood. Ankhnesneferibre was the last person ever to hold the title - as the office was abolished when the Persian emperor Cambyses II conquered Egypt in 525 BC. This sarcophagus is effectively the closing chapter of one of ancient Egypt's most powerful institutions.

To read hieroglyphics, you first start by reading top to bottom. You then need to find which way the signs face - if the figures face right, you read right to left, if they face left, you read left to right.

There are then 3 types of hieroglyphs, often used within the same word. The first are logograms - pictures that simply represent the thing they show. A sun disk means sun. A seated man means man.

The second are phonograms - which represent sounds. An owl stands for m. A foot stands for b. There are around 24 - close enough to an alphabet, although the Egyptians would never have thought of it that way.

The third are determinatives - symbols placed at the end of a word which describe what category the word belongs to. A walking man indicates that the word is about movement. A papyrus that it is about abstract ideas or writing. They are not pronounced - but used to understand the context.

The texts on this sarcophagus are drawn from the ancient Pyramid Texts - some of the oldest religious writing in human history, originally carved inside royal pyramids around 2400 BC. Their purpose was to reanimate the body after death, guide the soul's ascent to the heavens and protect the deceased. They include resurrection spells, hymns to the gods, protective incantations against demons and serpents - and some of extraordinary poetry. One spell instructs the dead to rise : 'Gather your limbs, shake the earth from your flesh. Take your bread that rots not, your beer that sours not'. Another describes the soul's flight : 'He that flieth, flieth. He rusheth at the sky as a heron. He hath kissed the sky as a hawk'.

Fun fact : some logograms or determinatives can be quite amusing to dicepher. A falling man with blood streaming from his head, for example, means to die or an enemy. A man on two giraffes : the town of Cusae!