The inner cases were extravagantly rich, the hands and faces being red, rose-coloured, or gilded; the jewellery painted, or sometimes imitated by means of small morsels of enamel encrusted in the wood-work; the surfaces frequently covered with many-coloured scenes and legends, and the whole heightened by means of the yellow varnish already mentioned.

The lavish ornamentation of this period is in striking contrast with the sobriety of earlier times; but in order to grasp the reason of this change, one must go to Thebes, and visit the actual sepulchres of the dead.
The kings and private persons of the great conquering dynasties[70] devoted their energies, and all the means at their disposal, to the excavation of catacombs.

The walls of those catacombs were covered with sculptures and paintings.

The sarcophagus was cut in one enormous block of granite or alabaster, and admirably wrought.

It was therefore of little moment if the wooden coffin in which the mummy reposed were very simply decorated.