Corn Mummies A Unique Example in the Grand Egyptian Museum Venice. I.

Attia

Corn (Grain, Osiris) mummies are spurious (false) mummies, considered as a class
of religious artifacts consisting of a three-dimensional human like artifact made
from a mixture of grains or seeds, mud, sand, or clay all wrapped in linen bandages
or a linen shroud forming a Mummy shape and kept in a wooden box
(sarcophagus), thus the process of their manufacture were executed during the
Khoiak festival.
Information about (Khoiak festival) ritual comes from several sources such as the
two Ptolemaic roof chapels of the Temple of Hathor at Dendera, and in the Osiris
chapel of the Temple of Isis at Philae where the texts and inscriptions explains the
rituals and preparation made for the festival.
In conclusion corn (Grain) mummies had a ritual function and they were an
important part of the annual Khioak festival, and were also made to ensure the
mortality in the afterlife and regeneration of nature.
Corn (Grain, Osiris) Mummies
Egyptian artifacts, especially human and animal mummies, are not only popular
elements of interest but also gets more focused study by artists, scholars, and
physicians.
Because of the shape and size of these coffins, they are wrongly identified as falcon
mummies, or infant mummies, as they have a length of about to 50 cm, and
sometimes furnished with a scepter and a crown reminiscent of the depictions of
Osiris, hence it is generally assumed that they represent Osiris.
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Corn Mummies A Unique Example in the Grand Egyptian Museum Venice. I. Attia

Corn (Grain, Osiris) mummies are not real mummies but false mummies (spurious
mummies) and are considered as a class of religious artifacts consisting of a specific
type of a three-dimensional human like artifact made from a mixture of grains or
seeds, mud, sand, or clay all wrapped in linen bandages or a shroud (Mummy
shape) and kept in a wooden box (sarcophagus), thus the process of their
manufacture were during the Khoiak (the fourth month of the inundation season)
festival.
The connection between Osiris and fertility, especially the growth of grains, dates
back to the Middle Kingdom where some Coffin Texts spells refers to the
resurrection in the context of sprouting grain. The specimens to survive (about a
hundred of them) date from the first millennium BC, thus they were found in pits
rather than in tombs and were therefore apparently part of the Osirian mysteries
and not funerary equipment.

Mummy stuffing Mummy stuffing under microscope

In the late Third Intermediate Period (the second half of the eighth century B.C.)
corn mummies, Osiris mummies or grain Osiris figurine, flourished, thus such
figures were placed in a coffin having the shape of a hawks head.

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Corn Mummies A Unique Example in the Grand Egyptian Museum Venice. I. Attia

A falcon-headed coffin for a corn mummy from the Michael C. Carlos Museum

The previously mentioned three terms describes a specific type of a three-

dimensional humanlike artifact made from a mixture of grains or seeds, mud, sand,
or clay all wrapped in linen bandages or a shroud, oils, resins, wax, and gum was
applied to the bandages or shroud to simulate a genuine mummy, then kept in a
wooden box (sarcophagus) and offered during an annual rituals honoring Osiris this
means that Egyptian Corn (Grain, Osiris) mummies are a class of religious artefacts
where the recipes and stuffing materials varied both regionally and over time as
well as there was significant variation in size, composition and moulds used to make
them.

Osiris with 28 stalks of wheat growing out of his coffin

The figures were moistened with water in a special ritual to germinate the grain
ensuring the renewal of nature and resurrection in the afterlife (i.e.) it was
considered as 'amulets of life' that shared with Osiris the same destiny of dying and
coming to life again, assuring the resurrection from death and renewal of universe
order of the cycle of death and life.

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Corn Mummies A Unique Example in the Grand Egyptian Museum Venice. I. Attia

Elements such as faces, hands, the divine beard, or royal insignia which was
modeled in beeswax and sometimes painted or gilded as well as the Atef- or Hedjet-
crown found inside the sarcofagus indicates that these figures are representations of
Osiris, god of vegetation and ruler of the underworld.
Inscriptions or vignettes with representations of deities were found on some
examples of the wooden boxes. The mummy figures were sometimes accompanied
by small figurines of the four Sons of Horus, or small balls bearing inscription of
their names or the names of other protective deities and or some Scarabs and cobra
serpents made of wax as well as wax faces of these gods were placed inside the
coffins.

New York Metropolitan Museum of Art Grand Egyptian Museum

Coffin and corn mummy with Osiris mask

Representations of and references to corn mummies were found on coffins of

genuine mummies
and the process of their manufacture were during the Khoiak festival taking place
from day 12 to day 30 - (Egyptian month which is the fourth month of inundation,

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Corn Mummies A Unique Example in the Grand Egyptian Museum Venice. I. Attia

mid-September to mid-October) -followed by their subsequent burial, is described

and depicted on temple walls thus the most extensive and important information
about that ritual comes from the two Ptolemaic roof chapels of the Temple of
Hathor at Dendera, and in the Osiris chapel on the roof of the Temple of Isis at
Philae.

Osiris room at Dendera, Ma'at flanks Osiris mummy

Different texts supply information, thus the inscription at the Temple of Isis at
Philae explains that the preparations made for the mentioned festival starts between
the twelfth and twentieth of the month of Khoiak before the festival began, and the
preparations include making the figures and the corn mummies which represent the
gods Sokar and Khenty-imentyu, which are the two forms of the God Osiris.
Priests then buried the mummies so they could resurrect them later during the
festival celebrations.

The open court in the naos of the temple of Isis at Philae

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Corn Mummies A Unique Example in the Grand Egyptian Museum Venice. I. Attia

Khoiak festival is a significant and important festival among the best attested
ancient Egypt festivals as it revolves around the god Osiris myth who was the
offspring of an intrigue between the God of earth Seb (Keb or Geb ) and the sky-
goddess Nut and was murdered by his brother Seth, and revived by his wife (also his
sister), and after having their son Horus, Osiris withdrew ruling the underworld
and Isis protected Horus until he was old then he fought a battle against his uncle
Seth in which he won the throne getting revenge of his father.

God of earth Geb

Sky-Goddess Nut

The death and revival of Osiris myth is celebrated through the annual rebirth of
crops and grains. In the ceremony, seeds and grains were buried in earth, shaped in
moulds forming Osiris figures then sown in earth and watered until the seeds
germinates, and then this successful grain germination was buried, the timing of the

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Corn Mummies A Unique Example in the Grand Egyptian Museum Venice. I. Attia

festival in the official year took place it in the fourth month of flood, just as the
waters receded to expose silt-covered fields fresh for sowing.

Osiris God of the underworld

The Khoiak festival possessed the name (ka upon ka or sustenance upon
sustenance), and the festival survived and continued during the Coptic era as the
name of the fourth month of the season of flood is known in Coptic language as
Khoiak in is still used in agriculture season and well known among farmers up to
date.
In the Middle Kingdom (about 2025-1700 BC) the production of grain mummies, its
burials, earth packets and sowing beds increased and was mentioned in several
funerary literature texts such as Coffin Text 269 (formula to become barley in
which the deceased becomes the life that comes from Osiris), also Coffin Text 330
(formula to become Nepri personification of grain) as well as in pyramid complex of
Senusret II at Lahun area, also the burial of king Tutankhamun included a bed of
seeded earth in the form of the god Osiris in profile which is an early royal example
of the later local temple Osiris beds, this is also seen in the Theban Tomb-chapel of
Nefer hotep, dating to 1300 BC, where it is recorded that the Flood Season month 4,
day 18 'day of watering the grain and spreading the bed for the Osiris Nefer hotep
from this day until day 25 ( total 8 days), followed by a formula for empowering the
funerary bier, a ritual of burial known from the Coffin Texts of the early Middle
Kingdom (about 2025-1700 BC).

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Corn Mummies A Unique Example in the Grand Egyptian Museum Venice. I. Attia

Other sources of information concerning Grain Osiris mummies and Khoiak festival
are found in - the inscriptions in a roof chapel on the temple of Hathor at Denderah,
dating to the early Roman Period, about AD 100 (as previously mentioned)
- The Osiris chapel of the Temple of Isis at Philae.
-The Osiris Khoiak chambers recently uncovered in the Karnak temple.

A seen from Karnak temple

- The King Ramesses III cult temple at Medinet Habu, about 1150 BC.

King Ramesses III cult temple at Medinet Habu

- An inscribed granite trough for the seeded earth, dated from Dynasty 22 (about
850 BC) at Koptos.
- The record of myth and religious events and materials on a late Ptolemaic Period
papyrus (Papyrus Jumilhac).

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Corn Mummies A Unique Example in the Grand Egyptian Museum Venice. I. Attia

- A funerary papyrus in Louvre (N 3176 columns V-VI) giving the rites for Osiris at
Karnak temple, on days 18 to 26, with the procession of Osiris on day 26.
In conclusion corn (grain) mummies are a specific type of false mummies considered
as a class of religious artifacts that symbolizes the Egyptian optimism about life
after death, having a ritual function as they were an important part of the annual
Khioak festival and they were made to ensure the mortality in the afterlife and
regeneration of nature.

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Corn Mummies A Unique Example in the Grand Egyptian Museum Venice. I. Attia

References
- Goyon & Cardin 2007
-Maria Centrone (Corn Mummies, Amulets of Life in Through a Glass Darkly:
Magic, Dreams and Prophecy in Ancient Egypt, edited by Kasia Szpakowska.
- Khalil, Hassan M.1976 Preliminary Studies on the Sanusret Collection.
Manuscript, Muse lEgypte et le Monde Antique,
- G. Gaballa / K. Kitchen.
- Moustafa Gadalla, Egyptian Mystics.
-The Festivals of Osiris and Sokar in the Month of Khoiak: The Evidence from
Nineteenth Dynasty Royal Monuments at Abydos by Katherine J. Eaton
- S. Cauville, Dendera. Les chapelles osiriennes, I-III, Cairo (1997) passim.
-Louis Boctor Mikhail, Dramatic Aspects of the Osirian Khoiak Festival (Uppsala,
Sweden: Institute of Egyptology, Uppsala University, 1983).
- E. Chassinat, Le mystre dOsiris au mois de Khoiak (Cairo: LInstitut franais
darchologie orientale, 19661968).
-Egyptian Myth and Legend, by Donald Mackenzie, [1907], CHAPTER II The
Tragedy of Osiris
- Ian Shaw & Paul Nicholson, Dictionary of Egypt, British Museum Press.
- Elizabeth A. McCabe, An Examination of the Isis Cult with Preliminary
Exploration Into New Testament Studies, University Press of America.
- Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt_, by John H. Taylor.
- Sir James George Frazer (18541941). The Golden Borugh. 1922.

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