An 2400 year old Egyptian coffin with strange and amateurish decorations, shedding light on a tumultuous period in Egyptian history when the Persian Empire was in control of the region and Persian kings deported trained Egyptian artists and used them for building projects in Persia [750×1000]

In 525 B.C., Persian King Cambyses marched into Memphis, the Egyptian capital, inaugurating a period of Persian rule that would last for more than a century. Many of the best artists in Egypt were taken by the Persians back to Persepolis and Susa as POWs and war booty — you can see their work in those places. There seems to have been a dearth of masters for some time, so that fewer and fewer artists got proper training.

There are several odd features on the sarcophagus that reflect the lack of knowledge the ancient artist had. For instance, the deceased is depicted lying on a funerary bed, and the bed has a human-headed bird called a Ba. Flying over the deceased is a winged snake wearing a crown associated with the goddess Hathor. The collar wrapped around the top of the coffin contains two creatures that look almost fishlike. The artist was likely trying to draw falcons, a symbol of the god Horus, but drew them very poorly. A Mehen snake, a protective deity in Egypt, is also poorly drawn and actually stops at one point and starts in another, something strange for a protective deity. [More from the article](https://www.livescience.com/49059-ancient-egyptian-coffin-odd-art.html#)