Plans under way to move Ancient Egyptian coffin lid

The coffin lid was made for a man called Irethoreru, who lived circa 760 - 656BC

Experts in Kent are to undertake a painstaking operation to relocate an Ancient Egyptian coffin lid to its new home.

The 3,000-year-old artefact currently resides in the Great Hall at Chiddingstone Castle in Edenbridge, and the plan is to move it down several flights of stairs in order to be with similar relics in another part of the building.

There it will be placed into a bespoke, museum-grade display case to make it more accessible to visitors.

Curator Naomi Collick said its new home would also "help preserve it for decades to come".

The operation to move the coffin lid will take place on 27 November, in plenty of time for when the castle, now closed for winter, reopens to the public in March.

Studies of the coffin lid in 2017 revealed its origins, with analysis of its badly faded hieroglyphs identifying the name of the person for whom it was made.

The middle of a set of three nested wooden coffins, it belonged to a man called Irethoreru, who lived during Egypt's 25th dynasty (circa 760 – 656BC).

It will now be placed in the castle's designated Egyptian Room to sit alongside the rest of the historic collection from that period.

The Egyptian Room at Chiddingstone Castle, which will be the coffin lid's new home

Ms Collick said the move has been made possible with grants and donations from the William and Edith Oldham Charitable Trust, Museum Development South East and the Warren Meadows Trust.

But she added the task would be far from an easy day's work.

"The castle's previous owner Denys Eyre Bower would have brought it here sometime between the 1950s and 1970s," she said.

"It's made of sections of wood, connected by wooden dowels, and covered with plaster and paint.

"It's not in bad shape for something of that age, but we are going to have to mount it on some type of carrying frame or stretcher in order to move it.

"We'll then pad it out with a protective material and use a couple of professional art handlers to help navigate it along the narrow corridors and down the stairs.

"It's going to be tricky, but it needs to happen as its current glass case isn't really fit for purpose anymore."