This is the largest of three coffins found inside the sarcophagus of King Tutankhamun.  The excavator Howard Carter wrote that after lifting off the heavy stone sarcophagus lid and peeling back two layers of linen wrappings, ‘a gasp of wonderment escaped our lips, so gorgeous was the sight that met our eyes’. The box and lid of the coffin are made from wood covered in plaster, linen and thin gold foil, while the king’s face, ears, neck and hands are covered in much thicker sheet-gold hammered into shape. The coffin is anthropoid (human-shaped) and shows the king as a mummified figure with crossed hands.