This is the lid from a coffin which was made to hold the mummy of a hawk or falcon, the sacred animal of the sky god Horus.In the later periods of Egyptian history many people paid homage to the gods they worshipped by offering mummified specimens of their sacred animal to their temple. Richer members of society could afford to have elaborate coffins made in which the animal mummies were presented to the priests. The practice of offering animal mummies was very popular as shown by the temple of the god Thoth at Saqqara, the subterranean tunnels of which contain over 3 million ibis mummies.