Mummy mask

Mummy mask


The mask was intended to cover the mummy until just under the chest. It wears a long wig; the face is gilded, and the eyes are inlaid with stone and glass. A kind of stylized beard is indicated under the chin, the plaited straps are painted onto the jaws. On top of the wig, a winged scarab is painted. A fillet is tied around the wig, with a gilded sun disk on the forehead, from which golden lotus flower pendants hang down. The shoulder parts are decorated in symmetry: in the upper register, a falcon crowned with a sun disk and holding a feather, protecting between its wings an upright mummy; in the lower register, three uraei crowned with sun disks. The registers are separated by decorated bands. At the bottom of the chest piece runs a broad band with rosettes.
The lappets of the wig are also decorated, each in two registers. Left lappet, upper register: Anubis in a long kilt stands with outstretched arms beside an empty bier in the shape of a falcon-headed lion wearing the white crown, the scene is flanked by two facing mummiform figures; lower register: three mummiform figures, one with a human head, one with a falcon's head and one with a feather as a head. Right lappet, upper register: same scene as upper left, but with only one mummiform figure on the right and a lion's head on the bier; lower register: mirror image of the lower left.
The space on the chest between the lappets is occupied by rosettes and other decorative elements.
On the left side of the wig, a falcon-headed mummiform figure holding a feather is seated; on the right side, the figure has a human head. On the back of the wig, fragments of three standing mummiform figures are visible: two with human heads and the middle one with a falcon head.
All mummiform figures wear broad collars, some wear gowns with bead nets. The strands of hair on top of the wig are represented stylized as a bead net.
The execution gives the impression of negligence in some aspects.

Present location ALLARD PIERSON MUSEUM [06/002] AMSTERDAM
Inventory number APM 7122
Dating PTOLEMAIC PERIOD
Archaeological Site UNKNOWN
Category MASK
Material PLASTER; STRAW; LINEN; GOLD
Technique PAINTED ON STUCCO; GILDED; STUCCO
Height 48 cm
Width 36.4 cm
Depth 25.1 cm



Bibliography•G.A.S. Snijder, Algemeene Gids Allard Pierson Museum Amsterdam, 1956 (tweede druk), 17 (nr. 104)
•W.M. van Haarlem (ed.), CAA Allard Pierson Museum Amsterdam, Fasc. 1, 1986, 84-86
•R.A. Lunsingh Scheurleer, W.M. van Haarlem, Gids voor de afdeling Egypte, Allard Pierson Museum Amsterdam, 1986, 42, 43/fig. 22 (nr. 3)
http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/detail.aspx?id=12471