Golden Mummies : Cover for a mummified body

Golden Mummies

<p style='text-align: justify;'>This cartonnage (linen and plaster) cover was placed over the chest of the mummified body of a man. It carries the standard protective and transformative imagery of this object type: an elaborate floral collar with the Eye of Horus motifs, a goddess – probably to be understood as Nut - with outstretched arms, the Four Sons of Horus and the sister goddesses Isis and Nephthys.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'></p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The hieroglyphic inscription names the deceased as ‘Nimaatre’, a man who carried the title of priest of the goddess Neith – worshipped in the Faiyum region as the mother of the chief local deity, the crocodile god Sobek. Nimaatre was one of the names of Amenemhat III, a king whose enormous pyramid complex was located at Hawara and who was venerated as a god during the Graeco-Roman Period. The man named on this object lived around 1500 years after his royal namesake, attesting to the popularity of the cult. Nimaatre’s father was also a priest of Neith and had the very Faiyumic-sounding name Sobekmose (lit. ‘born of Sobek’).</p>