Golden Mummies : Shroud

Golden Mummies

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Painted linen shroud, with jewellery added in gilded plaster. The shroud was made for a young girl, who is shown full-length painted on a layer of gesso (thin plaster). She wears a white tunic with purple tapestry bands down the front and around the ends of the sleeves. Her hair is short, and she wears heavy gold bracelets and anklets, added to the shroud in plaster; she also wears gold ear-rings and rings. In her left hand, she holds a floral garland, and her right hand is raised, palm outwards, in a gesture of greeting or prayer. On her feet, she wears a pair of thong sandals.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>From below her hands to her ankles, the girl's body is covered by a bead-net pattern, filled with rosettes, in imitation of contemporary depictions of shrouded gods like Osiris. A shrine-like frame topped with cavetto cornice and rearing cobras encloses her face, as if a divine statue. Along the sides of her body are several Pharaonic funerary scenes, such as the jackal-headed god Anubis tending a mummiform body.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The shroud was acquired by a British-German collector, Max Robinow, in the late 19th century. The style of decoration shows that it belongs to a group of similar shrouds discovered at Antinoe, where the Roman Emperor Hadrian founded a new city in 130CE The style of dress indicates that the shroud was made in the late 3rd century to mid-4th century CE (c. 280-350 CE).</p>