The coffin dates back to the Late Bronze Age, and contained the personal belongings of a wealthy Canaanite believed to be an Egyptian army official, according to the IAA.
The cylindrical clay coffin featured a lid in the shape of a person, and was surrounded by a variety of pottery, including food storage vessels, tableware and animal bones. The items were used as offerings to the gods, as well as sustenance for the dead in the afterlife, according to ancient Egyptian tradition.
An adult skeleton was inside the coffin, buried with a bronze dagger, a bronze bowl, and other trinkets. The graves of two men and two women who may have been family members were found nearby.
“Since the vessels interred with the individual were produced locally, we assume the deceased was an official of Canaanite origin who was engaged in the service of the Egyptian government,” researchers said.
A rare gold Egyptian scarab seal on a ring was found next to the skeleton. The seal bore the name of Pharaoh Seti I, who ruled Egypt in the 13th century BCE.
Seti I was the father of Ramses II, believed by some scholars to be the pharaoh depicted in the Passover story of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt.
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