Golden Mummies : Panel painting

Golden Mummies

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Representation of a young person removed from their mummified body, painted in encaustic (hot wax) on a thin wooden panel. The portrait has lost part of the painted surface over the left side of the subject's face, and fragments of mummy wrappings adhere to the bottom left corner of the panel. The subject's clothes are indistinct. Around the neck is a plaited cord and a pendant. The subject's short hair is brushed forward into a fringe, and a thin gold ribbon is tied around the top of the head; the ends of the ribbon hang over the person's left shoulder. The portrait dates to c. 100 to 130 CE. It was found together with another portrait, 5379.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>There is some disagreement over whether this portrait represents a boy or a girl. The hairstyle and possible lack clothing suggest a boy; however, if the pendant is a crescent-shaped moon (called a lunula), the portrait could equally represent a girl.</p>

of


Want to know more?

Under the 'More' menu you can find metadata about the item, any transcription and translation we have of the text and find out about downloading or sharing this image.

No Contents List Available
  1. Item Metadata
No Metadata Available
  1. Transcription (diplomatic)
  1. Transcription (normalised)
  1. Translation
  1. Similar items

Share

If you want to share this page with others you can send them a link to this individual page:
Alternatively please share this page on social media