In the Egyptian Museum at Cairo, exhibit No. 1270, is a magnificent anthropoid sarcophagus from the time of Psammetichus the Second. The inscription on this sarcophagus confirms the statement that the embalming process lasted seventy days and is a testimony of the honesty of the undertaker in that he did not shorten the time for the extra profit involved. It is to the reverence for their dead that was manifested by all in Egypt that we owe our present wealth of archeological material. The most voluminous evidences for the accuracy of the Bible come to us from burial sources. Very often the coverings of the corpse were inscribed with verbose descriptions of the life, morals, and piety of the dead individual. A further source of material is found on the cartonnage. When the body had been encased in bandages a type of coffin was made that is called mummiform or, more commonly, anthropoid. (See Frontispiece.) This first covering was made of some plastic material, which was moulded to the form of the individual to be buried. In the earlier days this cartonnage was made of strips of linen cloth pasted together and covered with a type of shellac. While still plastic, this material was moulded to the contour of the head and shoulders of the occupant until it took on a rough resemblance to the individual. This may have been the origin of the death-mask custom which continues in some regions even to the present time. In later times this first covering was gilded, and, in the case of the very rich, might be decorated also with eyes of obsidian or lapis lazuli. In later periods, the cartonnage was made of outmoded papyri. These were dampened and moulded into a mulch like the method of using papier-mache in our generation. In so doing, however, the writing was not demolished. Some of the greatest discoveries of antiquity have come to us when a cartonnage made of papyrus has been carefully separated into its original sheets and the writing thereof recovered. When the mummy was enclosed in its cartonnage, a wooden coffin was then prepared, which quite frequently was also anthropoid in shape. (See Plate 11.) Not only did it maintain the form of the human body, but very often it had also a painted portrait of the dead person to identify the deceased. This wooden coffin was painted and inscribed on the inside and the outside with a record and history of the individual, to which were added scenes and texts from the Book of the Dead. (See Plate 12.) This second coffin was not always made of wood, however. In the case of Tut-ankh-amen, the coffin was of solid gold, and constituted a tremendous treasure in itself. This was possible only to a monarch or a noble of enormous wealth.