Mummy mask of Syros
From Hawara, Egypt
Roman
Period, 20 BC - AD 20
Gilded mummy-masks such as this appear to have
been made for persons of high status in the early part of the Roman
Period (from about 30 BC). Though Roman artistic traits began to
influence native styles in the succeeding fifty years, the masks
are still very clearly Egyptian in
design.
This is clear in
the imagery used, including here: the winged sun-disc; a falcon;
the human-headed ba
(spirit of the deceased); winged serpents representing the
goddesses
Wadjet
and
Nekhbet,
and the mummy on a bier, flanked by winged sphinxes. On the back of
the head is
Nut,
the sky-goddess, holding two falcons;
Anubis
and
Horus
presenting the mummy to the seated
Osiris,
and below, the spirit of the deceased, depicted again as a
ba
bird.
Above the face is a
headband with a central sun disc flanked by
uraeus-serpents.
On the top of the head, as though propelling the sun disc, is a
blue scarab beetle with outspread wings. There is also a Greek
inscription identifying the dead man as Syros, son of a man called
Herakles. The face and wig are covered with gold leaf. The use of
gilding for the face, common in ancient Egypt, indicates that the
deceased was considered as having attained divine status, as gold
was regarded as the flesh of the
gods.
The site of Hawara is
famous for its Roman mummy portraits.
S. Walker and M. Bierbrier, Ancient faces: mummy portrai-1 (London, The British Museum Press, 1997)