Recycling for Death

"Kara Cooney is the expert on coffin reuse, and in this book she brilliantly synthesizes fifteen years of research. After giving a detailed introduction into the social and religious reasons behind why coffins were reused, how they were acquired, and what was done to them, she focuses on the coffins used to house the New Kingdom royal mummies and the High Priests of Amun. Known since the last years of the nineteenth century, they have, until now, generally been ignored by modern scholars, quietly gathering dust, waiting for Kara, the one person who could do them justice. The result is a superb book, an absolute gem for specialists and students alike, abundantly illustrated in full color throughout, by an excellent scholar at the height of her powers."—David Aston, The Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna

"Kara Cooney’s long-awaited book on coffins explains how and why these objects, crucial for the protection, rebirth, and resurrection of the deceased were used and then often recycled and reused for both kings and commoners. The detailed discussions, lavishly illustrated, make for fascinating reading, providing an insight into the economic, social, religious, and cultural life of the ancient Egyptians. A must-have for anyone interested in ancient Egypt."—Salima Ikram, The American University in Cairo

"Kara Cooney has produced a beautifully illustrated exploration of the way that the Egyptians of the eleventh and tenth centuries BC stripped, redecorated, repurposed, and otherwise transmogrified coffins belonging to, or to be reused for, royal and high-priestly individuals. She shows how the minute examination of long-known artefacts can transform our understanding of how they were used and abused over time, for reasons that nevertheless retain aspects of obscurity."—Aidan Dodson, University of Bristol

"While digging in the attic of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Kara Cooney found a number of coffins that she discovered had been reused for later internments. This book presents for the first time an in-depth study of these Twenty-first and Twenty-second Dynasty coffins, providing us with critical insight into the phenomena of coffin reuse in ancient Egypt and an invaluable exploration of the religious, social, and economic life of one of the least understood periods of Egyptian history."—Zahi Hawass

“In this book, Kara Cooney presents a dynamic integration of historical and archaeological sources for the power structures of the Twenty-first Dynasty in Thebes, embedding the study of the individual objects found in the Royal Cache into a complex network of material, political, and religious exchanges. By doing so, she opens this field of discussion to new sociological models, as the very fingerprint of each coffin found in the Royal Cache unfolds before our eyes.”—Rogério Sousa, University of Lisbon

"Kara Cooney analyzes the physical evidence of the coffins from the Royal Caches to identify the motivations and changing agendas of those who appropriated and reused them. Based on unprecedented levels of access to the objects, her observations reveal for the first time the surprising complexity of the coffins’ histories and illuminate their possible roles in rituals of legitimation by members of the ruling elite in an age of political uncertainty."—John Taylor, The British Museum

"Kara Cooney’s research, the fruits of which are beautifully presented in Recycling for Death, has revolutionized the approach to funerary culture in modern Egyptological studies: the coffin, which is the most important item of funerary equipment, one that holds within it the miracle of regeneration, becomes a new tool for understanding the mechanisms governing Egyptian society, ideologically and sociologically, politically and economically, and not least, technologically."—Alessia Amenta, Vatican Coffin Project