Infant mortality was high in ancient Egypt, and probably affected the families of the wealthy no less than those of the poor. During the pharaonic period relatively few children seem to have been buried with the full paraphernalia of mummification and elaborate coffins, probably because of the great expense this would have involved. In this instance, however, the child of a wealthy couple was sent into the afterlife with a finely carved wooden coffin. In its shape and proportions this small coffin resembles the full-size anthropoid sarcophagi of the Late Period and Ptolemaic Period. These were usually made of stone, and the present coffin is exceptional in that it's made of wood.

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