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STUDIES IN ANCIENT ORIENTAL CIVILIZATION * No. 56

THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

SERIES EDITORS

Thomas A. Holland
and
Thomas G. Urban
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Internet publication of this work was made possible with the

generous support of Misty and Lewis Gruber

Portrait Mummies from Roman Egypt

(I-IV Centuries A.D.)
with a Catalog of Portrait Mummies in Egyptian Museums
bLorelei
H.Corcoran

Lorelei H. Corcoran

Drawings by William Schenck

THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

STUDIES IN ANCIENT ORIENTAL CIVILIZATION * No. 56
CHICAGO * ILLINOIS
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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 94-69 121

ISBN: 0-918986-99-0

ISSN: 0081-7554

The OrientalInstitute, Chicago

01995 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.

Published 1995. Printed in the United States of America.

Series Editors' Acknowledgments

The following are acknowledged for their help in the production of this volume: Lloyd
Anderson, Ecological Linguistics,, Washington, D.C.; Professors Robert D. Biggs and
Erica Reiner, The Oriental Institute; Cheryl Corey and Davis Scott, McNaughton &
Gunn, Inc.; Valery Braun and Terry Redell, University of Chicago Printing Services;
Cleo Huggins, Mountain View, California; Charles Jones, Research Archivist, The
Oriental Institute; and Emily Teeter, Assistant Curator, The Oriental Institute Museum.

Front cover and title page illustrations: Egyptian Museum, Cairo CG 33216 (Stucco Mummy No. 19)
Printed by McNaughton & Gunn, Inc., Saline, Michigan
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .............................................................................................. vii
LIST OF FIGURES.......................................................................................................... i
LIST OF MAPS ................................................................................................................. xi

LIST OF PLATES ................................................................... o.......................................... xiii

LIST OF TABLES ...............................
............................................................
o.......... . ... xv
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............... ........................................................................... ......... xvii
BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................... ... xix
CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ..................... ........................................................................ 1
PRELIMINARY REMARKS: THE ACADEMIC CLIMATE .. o.....................o............................... 1
BACKGROUND TO THE SUBJECT ...................................................................................... 2
THE SUBIECT ................................................................. o.......................................... 3
THE PROBLEM WITH THE S UBJECT................................................................................ 5
LINES OF INQUIRY ........................................................................................................ 6
METHODOLOGY........................................................................................................ 7
RESULTS............................................................................................................ ....... 8
THE OBJECTIVE ........................................................................................................... 8
CHAPTER 2. CHRONOLOGY............................................................................................. 13
INCLUSIVE TIM\E RANGE ................................................................................................ 13
INTERNAL CHRONOLOGY OF THE PORTRAIT M UMMIES........................................................ 14
DATING THE PORTRAITS............................................................................................. 16
DATE OF PORTRAITS VS. DATE OF MUMMIES...................................................................... 17
INTERNAL DATING: S EQUENCE -DATING THE MUMMIES ........................................ o............... 18
CASE STUDIES IN DATING PROBLEMS............................................................................. 22
DATING PROBLEMS WITHIN THE CORPUS........................................................................... 27
IMPLICATIONS OF THE CHRONOLOGY............................................................................. 32
CONCLUSIONS ......................................................................................................... 32
CHAPTER 3. PROVENIENCE............................................................................................. 35
THE SUITABILITY OF THE EPITHET " F AYOUM .............................. 0............................... ..... 35
PROBLEMS WITH PROVENIENCE...................................................................................... 38
. .. . . . .. . . . .. . . . .. . . . . ..
SITE MANUFACTURE OR THE TRANSPORT OF MUMMIES 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........... 0 38
A CASE STUDY IN PROVENIENCE: T HE ORIGIN OF THE RED-S HROUDED PORTRAIT M UMMY ...... 39
DIAGNOSTICS OF DESIGN: RED -SHROUDED MUMMIES ........................... 0 .................. 0 .........
0.*... 42
S HARED TRADITIONS OF D ESIGN: R ED-S HROUDED M UMMIES................................................ 43
DIAGNOSTICS OF LOCALITY......................................................................................... 44
L.OC AL.CH1A R ACTER ISTICS OF DEFCORA TED MUI MMIE.......................45
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CHAPTER 4. ICONOGRAPHY: SYMBOLISM AND MEANING ...................................... ............... 49

APPROACH ................................................. 49
BEGINNING AT THE B OTITOM: THE FOOTCASE ...................................................... 50
BODY FIELD DECORATION ............................... ........ . . .................... 55
.............................
CORO NA TION ................................................................................. 61
CONCLUSIONS ..................................................... ........ ... ..................... 64
CH A PTER 5. PATRON AGE ...............................
....................... .........................................
.................... 65
RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION OF THE PATRON GROUP ................................... ............... 65
ONOMASTICS ................................ . .................... . ...................... 66
SEX, PROFESSION, AND ECONOMIC STATUS .................................... .. ................. 68
A CULTIC FUNCTION FOR THE PORTRAITS ?........................................................... ...................... 74
PHYSICA L EVID ENCE ........................................................................... 76
CONCLUSIONS ........................ .. ... ............................................
.......................... 78
CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES ................ . ............... . ...................... 81
RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMIES
Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 1. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33214 ...................................... 82
Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 2. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33222 ...................................... 85
Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 3. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33223 ...................................... 90
Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 4. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33224 ...................................... 94
Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 5. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33225 ...................................... 98
Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 6. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33226 ...................................... 101
Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 7. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33227 ...................................... 105
Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 8. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, JE 42790......................................... 109
Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 9. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. prov. 30/9/14/8 ...................... 113
Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 10. Graeco-Roman Museum, Alexandria, Inv. 7311.................. 117
Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 11. Graeco-Roman Museum, Alexandria, Inv. 7312.................. 121
RED-SHROUDED MUMMIES
Red-shrouded Mummy No. 12. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, 126
CG 33217 ..........................
....................
Red-shrouded Mummy No. 13. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, 129
CG 33218 ..........................
....................
Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, 132
CG 33219 .........................................
Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, 141
CG 33220 .........................................
Red-shrouded Mummy No. 16. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, 152
CG 33221 ...........................
...................
Red-shrouded Mummy No. 17. Karanis/Kom Oshim, Inv. 159
432 .............................................
STUCCO MUMMIES
Stucco Mummy No. 18. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33215 ....................................... 162
...................
Stucco Mummy No. 19. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33216 .............................. 171
Stucco Mummy No. 20. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33280 .............................. 181
Stucco Mummy No. 21. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33281 .............................. 187
194
Stucco Mummy No. 22. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. prov. 17/10/16/1 ......................................
Stucco Mummy No. 23. Coptic Museum, Cairo, Inv. 4124 ................................ 203
INDICES ......................................................................... 213
PLATES .......................................................................... 225
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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
BM prefix for object inventory number in the British Museum, London

ca. circa

CG prefix for object inventory number in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo

cm centimeter(s)

fig(s). figure(s)

fn. footnote

m meter(s)

MFA prefix for object inventory number in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

n. note

N/A not applicable

No(s). number(s)

p(p). page(s)

pers. comm. personal communication

p1(s). plate(s)

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LIST OF FIGURES
1. Demotic Inscriptions from Mummy Shrouds ....................................... .... .................. 41
2. Diagnostic Panel Shapes ....................... .............................. ..... ............... 45
3. Detail of Register One, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14 ................. ... .................. 135
4. Detail of Register Two, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14........................ ........................... 136
5. Detail of Register Three, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14 ........... ................................. 137
6. Detail of Register Four, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14 ............................................. 137
7. Detail of Register Five, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14 ...................... ............................ 138
8. Detail of Register Six, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14.......................... ............................ 139
9. Detail of Register One, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15 ................ ....... ....................... 144
10. Detail of Register Two, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15 ........................ . ..................................... 145
11. Detail of Register Three, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15 ........................................... 146
12. Detail of Register Four, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15 ..................... ...................... 147
13. Detail of Register Five, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15 .......................................... 148
14. Detail of Register Six, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15 ................................................... 149
15. Detail of Register Seven, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15 .............................. .............. 150
16. Detail of Foot Cover, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 16 ...................... .................................... 154
17. Detail of Register One, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 16 ................... ............................ 154
18. Detail of Register Two, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 16...................... ............................. 155
19. Detail of Register Three, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 16 ............................................................... 156
20. Detail of Register Four, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 16 ......................... . .................... 156
21. Detail of Register Five, Portrait, and Frame, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 16 .................................... 157
22. Detail of Foot Cover and Register One, Stucco Mummy No. 18 ......................................... ................. 165
23. Detail of Register Two, Stucco Mummy No. 18....................... .... ........................ 166
24. Detail of Register Three, Stucco Mummy No. 18 ............... ................ ...................... 167
25. Detail of Register Four, Portrait, and Frame, Stucco Mummy No. 18.................................................. 169
26. Detail of Foot Cover, Stucco Mummy No. 19 ............................................................... 173
27. Detail of Register One, Stucco Mummy No. 19 .............................. . . . .......................... 174
28. Detail of Register Two, Stucco Mummy No. 19.................................... . .. ..................... 175
29. Detail of Register Three, Stucco Mummy No. 19 .............................. .. . ................. ..... 177
30. Detail of Portrait and Frame, Stucco Mummy No. 19 ................... ............................... 178
31. Detail of Foot Cover, Stucco Mummy No. 22 ................................................................ 196
32. Detail of Register One, Stucco Mummy
_......................
No. 22 ............................. 197
33. Detail of Register Two, Stucco Mummy No. 22.......................................... 198
34. Detail of Register Three, Stucco Mummy No. 22 ......................................... 199

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35. Detail of Portrait and Frame, Stucco Mummy No. 22.................

00...0.........000..... 201
36. Detail of Foot Cover, Stucco Mummy No. 23...6............o................................. ........ ........ 205
37. Detail of Section One, Stucco Mummy No. 23....... ...........
*.......... . .... .....
.. .. .. .. . . . . . . . 206
38. Detail of Section Two, Stucco Mummy No. 23 ................ ....... 6.....0....................... ......... 207
39. Detail of Section Three, Stucco Mummy No. 23.....0................................................. .......... 208
40. Detail of Left Side, Stucco Mummy No. 23 ............... 0............................................. ......... 210
41. Detail of Right Side, Stucco Mummy No. 23 o...........
................. .... o.................................. 210
42. Detail of Portrait and Frame, Stucco Mummy No. 23 ................o.........
................... .... o...... 211
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LIST OF MAPS
1. Map of Egypt Indicating Find Sites for Mummy Portraits ...................................................... 36
2. Map of the Fayoum Indicating Find Sites for Mummy Portraits ............................................... 37

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LIST OF PLATES
1. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 1. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33214
2. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 2. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33222
3. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 3. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33223
4. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 4. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33224
5. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 5. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33225
6. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 6. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33226
7. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 7. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33227
8. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 8. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. JE 42790
9. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 9 and Underside of Footcase. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. prov. 30/9/14/8
10. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 10 and Detail of "Chest Strip" Studs. Graeco-Roman Museum, Alexandria,
Inv. 7311
11. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 11. Graeco-Roman Museum, Alexandria, Inv. 7312
12. Red-shrouded Mummy No. 12. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33217
13. Red-shrouded Mummy No. 13. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33218
14. Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33219
15. Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33220
16. Red-shrouded Mummy No. 16. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33221
17. Red-shrouded Mummy No. 17 and Detail of Portrait. Karanis Museum, Karanis/Kom Oshim, Inv. 432
18. Stucco Mummy No. 18. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33215
19. Stucco Mummy No. 19. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33216
20. Stucco Mummy No. 20. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33280
21. Stucco Mummy No. 21. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33281
22. Stucco Mummy No. 22. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. prov. 17/10/16/1
23. Stucco Mummy No. 23. Coptic Museum, Cairo, Inv. 4124
24. Underside of Footcase. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Inv. E. 103.1911
25. Gilt Stuccoed Bust. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Inv. E.103.1911
26. Front View of Footcase. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. 6839
27. Side View of Footcase. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. 6839
28. Detail of Underside of Footcase. British Museum, Inv. 29782
29. Detail of Underside of Footcase. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. prov. 12/11/16/13
30. Detail of Lustration Scene. Graeco-Roman Museum, Alexandria, Inv. 27808
31. Detail of Lustration Scene. Stucco Mummy No. 22, Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. prov. 17/10/16/1
32. Aedicula with Portrait. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33269

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LIST OF TABLES
1. Corpus of Portrait Mummies ..................................................................................... 4
2. Checklist of Mummy Portraits with Documented Body Coverings............................................. 9
3. Preserved Portrait Mummies from Group Burials with Wedge-faced or Gilt Mummies Recovered
During the 1888 Season of Excavations at Hawara............................................................... 20
4. Preserved Portrait Mummies from Group Burials with Wedge-faced or Gilt Mummies Recovered
During the 1911 Season of Excavations at Hawara .............................................................. 20
5. Portrait Mummies with Footcases from the 1911 Season at Hawara.......................................... 27
6. Preserved Red-shrouded Portrait Mummies and Distribution of Find Sites ................................. 40

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This monograph is a revision of my doctoral dissertation submitted to the Department of Near Eastern
Languages and Civilizations of the University of Chicago in 1988. It is, therefore, with gratitude that I first
acknowledge the encouragement and guidance of the members of my advisory committee: Professors Janet H.
Johnson and Edward F. Wente of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Professor
Kathleen J. Sheltont of the Department of Art. I also wish to acknowledge my debt to Oriental Institute faculty
members, Professors Helene Kantort, Klaus Baert, and George Hughest. For his patient and skillful teaching of
Koine Greek, I acknowledge David Wilmott. For their inspiration, I credit my Tufts University professors,
Alexander Kaczmarczyk and Thomas Corcoran t.
Preparation of my manuscript for publication could not have been accomplished without the support of the
Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology, a Tennessee Center of Excellence at The University of Memphis. I am
especially grateful to Dr. Richard R. Ranta, Dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts, and Dr. Carol
Crown, former Chair of the Department of Art, for their help and encouragement. The proficient line-drawings
that enhance the reading of the decorated mummies were produced by William Schenck through the generous
support of the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archaeology.
As a recipient of a Ryerson Travel Fellowship administered by the University of Chicago, and as an ARCE
(American Research Center in Egypt) fellow funded by the Smithsonian Institution Foreign Currency Program, I
was able to travel and live in Egypt from October 1984 to June 1985 in order to research data for this project.
With the permission of the Egyptian Antiquities Organization and through the co-operation of the directors and
staff of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo; the Graeco-Roman Museum, Alexandria; the Coptic Museum, Cairo; and
the Karanis Museum, Karanis/Kom Oshim, I was allowed direct access to all of the objects studied in this corpus.
As a member of the epigraphic staff of the Karnak Great Hypostyle Hall Project of The University of Memphis,
under the direction of Dr. William J. Murnane, I traveled to Egypt in the summer of 1993 and again in the spring
of 1995 and was able, at each season's end, to recheck measurements and data for the examples in the Egyptian
Museum, Cairo.
I wish to acknowledge my gratitude to Dr. Ahmed Kadryt, then Chairman of the Egyptian Antiquities
Organization, and the Members of the High Committee for permission to undertake the research for this project. I
am especially grateful to Dr. Mohammed Saleh, Director of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo; Dr. Mounir Basta, then
Director of the Coptic Museum, Cairo; Mme Doryea el-Sayed, Director of the Graeco-Roman Museum,
Alexandria; and Mr. Sabri Ghabbour, Director of the Karanis Museum (Kom Oshim). I extend a special note of
gratitude to Mme Elham Montasser, Curator of the Graeco-Roman section of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, and to
Mme Zenab Tawfik and Mr. Mohammed Hagrass. Without the permission, cooperation, and assistance of the
directors, curators, and staffs of the above-mentioned museums this project could not have been successfully
completed.
I am grateful to the directors and staffs of the following European and American museums for their
permission and assistance in studying the relevant objects in their collections: Dr. Flemming Johansen, Director of
the Antiquities Section of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Copenhagen; Miss Janine Bourriau, former Acting
Keeper of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England; Miss Allison Duke, Keeper of the Collection of Girton
College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England; Dr. William Kelly Simpson, former Curator, Department
of Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Mr. Newland F. Smith III,
Librarian of Seabury-Western Theological Seminary; and Dr. Helen Whitehouse, Keeper of the Egyptian
Department, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England.

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xviii PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

For their insights, comments, bibliographic references, or help, I thank the following individuals of the
Egyptological community: Dr. Barbara (Greene) Aston; Dr. Lanny Bell, Director, and the staff of the Epigraphic
Survey of Chicago House (1984-85 and 1986-87); Dr. Martha Bellt; Dr. Robert S. Bianchi; Mr. Edwin C. Brock,
Director of the Canadian Institute in Egypt (1984-85); Dr. Willy Clarysse; Ms. Sue D'Auria; Dr. Ehrhart Graefe;
Mme Attiya Habachit; Mr. Hisham Hegazy; Dr. Lisa Heidorn; Dr. Richard Jasnow; Mr. Charles E. Jones; Dr.
Janet H. Johnson; Dr. W. Raymond Johnson, Mme Amira Khattab; Dr. Cathleen Keller; Dr. Marianne Eaton-
Krauss; Dr. Mary-Ellen Lane; Dr. Peter Lacovara; Mr. Christian Loeben; Dr. Dominic Montserrat; Dr. Hanka
Nawrocka van Heijen; Dr. Henry Riad; Dr. Robert Ritner; Dr. Margaret Cool Root, Dr. David Silverman; Ms.
May Trad; Dr. Edward Walker; Dr. Edward Wente; and Dr. Terry Wilfong.
I am especially indebted to the following individuals for their careful reading of the manuscript and for their
corrections and suggestions: Dr. Robert S. Bianchi and Dr. Klaus Parlasca. I also thank Professor Robert D. Biggs,
Chairman of the Oriental Institute- Publications Committee, and Dr. Peter F. Dorman and Dr. Edna R. Russmann,
who reviewed the manuscript.
For editorial supervision, I am grateful to Dr. Thomas Holland and Mr. Thomas Urban of the Oriental
Institute Publications Office. Without, however, the computer skills and patience of Mrs. Annette Webb Lane,
The University of Memphis, and Mr. John Sanders, the University of Chicago, the manuscript of this text would
not have existed. I thank Mr. David Horan, Mr. Hugh Busby, and Ms. Patti McRae of The University of Memphis
for their technical assistance with my photographic images. Mrs. Doris Layne provided invaluable assistance in
proofing the final manuscript.
In acknowledging the encouragement and support of my friends in Chicago, I thank Richard Jasnow, Robert
and Peggy Grant, and Gretel Braidwood.
To my mother, Hilda Corcoran, my sister, Marlena, and my brother, Gtinter, I dedicate this book. I thank my
beloved cat, Freebie, for helping me to see it through.
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xxx PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

Sauneron, Serge
1952a "Note sur une bandelette d coree." Bulletin de l'Institut Frangaisd'Archeologie Orientale du Caire
51: 53-55.
1952b Rituel de l'embaumement. Cairo: Service des Antiquites de l'gypte.
1980 The Priests of Ancient Egypt. Translated by Ann Morrissett. Reprint. New York: Grove Press.

Schifer, Heinrich
1974 Principles of Egyptian Art. Edited by Emma Brunner-Traut. Translated and edited by John Baines.
Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Schulz, Regine
1993 "Mumienhuille mit Portriittafel." In Antike Welt im Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim: Die dgyptische
Sammlung, edited by Arne Eggebrecht, p. 106. Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabem.

Shore, A. F.
1970 Review of Mumienportrdts und verwandte Denkmdler, by Klaus Parlasca. Journal of Egyptian
Archaeology 56: 232-33.
1972 PortraitPaintingfrom Roman Egypt. London: The British Museum.

Simpson, William Kelly

1972 "Acquisitions in Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1970-
1971." The Connoisseur 179, number 720: 113-22.
1974 "Ptolemaic-Roman Cartonnage Footcases with Prisoners Bound and Tied." Zeitschriftfiirdgyptische
Sprache und Altertumskunde 100: 50-54.

Smith, Elliott and Jones, F. Wood

1910 The Archaeological Survey of Nubia: Report for 1907-1908, Volume 2: Report on the Human
Remains. Cairo: Ministry of Finance.

Smith, Mark
1979 "The Demotic Mortuary Papyrus Louvre E. 3452." Ph.D. dissertation. The University of Chicago.
1987 The Mortuary Texts of Papyrus BM 10507. Catalogue of Demotic Papyri in The British Museum,
volume 3. London: The British Museum.

Smith, William Stevenson

1978 A History of Egyptian Sculpture and Paintingin the Old Kingdom. Reprint. New York: Hacker Art
Books.

Spencer, Patricia
1984 The Egyptian Temple: A LexicographicalStudy. London: Kegan Paul International.

Spiegelberg, Wilhelm
1925 Demotische Grammatik. Heidelberg: Carl Winters Universitaits Buchhandlung.

Steenken, John Gerald

1987 "The Holy and Socio-Political Character of Early Coptic Monasticism." Ph.D. dissertation. The
University of Chicago.

Steindorff, Georg
1944-45 "Reliefs from the Temples of Sebennytos and Iseion in American Collections." Journal of the
Walters Art Gallery 7-8: 46-59.

Swindler, Mary
1929 Ancient Paintingfrom the EarliestTimes to the Periodof ChristianArt. New Haven: Yale University
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Taylor, John H.
1988 "Tomb Group of Nes-mut-aat-Neru." In Mummies and Magic: The FuneraryArts of Ancient Egypt,
edited by Sue D'Auria, Peter Lacovara, and Catharine Roehrig, pp. 173-75. Boston: Museum of
Fine Arts.

Thieme, Marjolein and Pestman, P. W.

1978a "Cloth from the Mummy of Didyme-Thatres." In Textes grecs, ddmotiques, et bilingues, edited by E.
Boswinkel and P. W. Pestman, pp. 142-43. Papyrologica Lugduno-Batava, volume 19. Leiden: E. J.
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1978b "Inscribed Mummy Linen of the Roman Period." In Textes grecs, dcmotiques, et bilingues, edited by
E. Boswinkel and P. W. Pestman, pp. 225-31. Papyrologica Lugduno-Batava, volume 19. Leiden:
E. J. Brill.

Thompson, David Lowell

1972 "The Classes and Hands of Painted Funerary Portraits from Antinoopolis." Ph.D. dissertation.
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
1975 "Four 'Fayum Portraits' in the Getty Museum." The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal 2: 85-92.
1976 The Artists of the Mummy Portraits.Malibu: The J. Paul Getty Museum.
1978/79 "A Painted Triptych from Roman Egypt." The J. PaulGetty Museum Journal 6-7:185-92.
1982 Mummy Portraitsin the J. Paul Getty Museum. Malibu: The J. Paul Getty Museum.

Turner, E. G.
1968 Greek Papyri:An Introduction. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Te Velde, Hermann
1967 Seth, God of Confusion. Probleme der Agyptologie, volume 6. Leiden: E. J. Brill.

Van Walsem, Ren6

1992 "The Usurpation of Royal and Divine Actions and/or Attributes in the Iconography of late 21st-
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Vermeule, Cornelius
1976 Review of Kunst der Ptolemder- und Romerzeit im Agyptischen Museum Kairo, by Ginter Grimm,
Mohiy Ibrahim, Mohammed Mohsen, and Dieter Johannes. Bibliotheca Orientalis 33: 328-29.

Vos, R. L.
1978 "Demotic Mummy Labels Containing Permission to Bury, Addressed to Totoes, a hrj si; of the
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P. W. Pestman, pp. 260-67. Papyrologica Lugduno-Batava, volume 19. Leiden: E. J. Brill.

Walker, Edward
1991 "Aspects of the Primeval Nature of Egyptian Kingship: Pharaoh as Atum." Ph.D. dissertation. The
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Wallet-Lebrun, Christian
1985 "A propos d'Wb " Note lexicographique." GattingerMiszellen 85: 67-88.

Walters, Elizabeth J.
1988 Attic Grave Reliefs that Represent Women in the Dress of Isis. Hesperia Supplement 22. Princeton:
American School of Classical Studies at Athens.
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xxxii PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

Wente, Edward F.
1969 "Hathor at the Jubilee." In Studies in Honor of John A. Wilson, edited by E. B. Hauser, pp. 83-91.
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1971 "Mysticism in Pharaonic Egypt?" Journalof Near Eastern Studies 41: 161-79.
1982 "Funerary Beliefs of the Ancient Egyptians." Expedition 24: 17-26.

Wildung, Dietrich
1973 "Der Kinig Agyptens als Herr der Welt? Ein seltener ikonographischer Typus der Knigsplastik des
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1977 "Erschlagen der Feinde." In Lexikon der Agyptologie, Volume 2, edited by Wolfgang Helck and
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Winlock, Herbert E.
1925 "The Museum's Excavations at Thebes." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 19
(The Egyptian Expedition 1924-25), pt. 2, pp. 32-33.

de Wit, Constant
n.d. Le Rdle et le sens du lion dans l'Egypte ancienne. Luxor: Gaber Aly Hussein.

Witt, R. E.
1971 Isis in the Graeco-Roman World. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Wolff, Hans Julius

1966 "Law in Ptolemaic Egypt." In Essays in Honor of C. Bradford Welles, edited by Alan E. Samuel, pp.
67-77. New Haven: American Society of Papyrologists.

Zauzich, Karl-Theodor
1968 Das dgyptische Schreibertradition,2 volumes. Agyptische Abhandlungen, volume 19. Wiesbaden:
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INTRODUCTION
PRELIMINARY REMARKS: THE ACADEMIC CLIMATE
In the opening lines to Greeks in Ptolemaic Egypt, Napthali Lewis (1986, p. 1) describes
the parameters of "Greek history, as taught in our schools and colleges." The students' course
work comes to an end, typically, in 338 B.C., a terminus defined
by a rationale which sees no point in studying the political institutions of the city-states
after their heyday, and deplores the way in which the glorious culture of the Greeks lost
its clear identity when it was diffused by the wholesale emigration of Greeks into the
oriental lands of Alexander's conquests (ibid.).
Classical scholarship of the second half of the twentieth century has, however, as noted by
Lewis, "devoted increasing attention to the Hellenistic world."' In contrast to viewing the three
centuries after Alexander and the first centuries of the modem era as a period of provincialism
and decline, these scholars have followed the inspirational invitation of Michael Rostovtzeff
(1920, p. 161) who, in a prescient lecture delivered to the Oxford Philological Society and
subsequently published in the Journalof Egyptian Archaeology, spoke of the Hellenistic period
as "one of the most important epochs in the evolution of the world" and enjoined his fellow
scholars to pursue an understanding of the economic and social structure which became the
prototype for our modem world.
The disdain that classicists demonstrated for "the 'decadent' Greek world after Alexander"
(Lewis 1986, p. 1) was mirrored by the opinion of egyptologists toward this same period of
time. Although time-line charts extended the chronology of ancient Egypt to the Arab conquest
in A.D. 641 (Baer 1980, p. 190), little significance was placed on the later periods in the stan-
dard reference work for classes in Egyptian history, Sir Alan Gardiner's Egypt of the Pharaohs
(1961). After chronologically relating the historical events in Egyptian history leading finally
to the death of Alexander, Gardiner's text returned in summation to a discussion of the prehis-
tory and early dynastic history of Egypt, leaving the student with the distinct impression that it
was better to review the dawn of Egypt's great culture than to examine its "twilight" 2 years.
In view of the traditional biases, then, of scholars of classics and egyptology against the
study of what each perceived as the dissolution of a great civilization, one of the more startling

1. This interest is evidenced by such symposia as "Life in a Multi-Cultural Society: Egypt from Cambyses to
Constantine and Beyond," sponsored by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, September 4-8,
1990 (subsequently published in Johnson 1992) and "Alexandria and Alexandrianism," sponsored by the J.
Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, April 22-25, 1993.
2. This designation comes from the title of a publication, L'Egypte du crnipuscule de Tanis a Merod," in a series
on the history of Egypt, which has as its goal "aller ' l'encontre de pr6jug6s tenaces, mais injustifi6s"
(Aldred, Daumas, Desroches-Noblecourt 1980, p. 3) that have stigmatized the Late period. The title, how-
ever, capitalizes on the popularity of the very prejudice it wishes to discourage.
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PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

results of the current broadening of interest in Egypt-to include the periods of Ptolemaic and
Roman rule-is the revelation of the "fallacy of the fusion hypothesis as a basis for under-
standing the history of Hellenistic times" (Lewis 1986, p. 4). The result that both mainstreams
feared: that the great culture each respected had syncretized into a watered-down, hybrid form,
following the Hegelian formula "Greek + Oriental = fusion of the two" has, upon careful con-
sideration, turned out to be a false perception based on a superficial impression. Contrary to
traditional expectations and given the information now available from current analytical stud-
ies, it is probably more accurate "to posit two strong cultural traditions maintained side by side,
occasionally interacting with one another" (Johnson 1984, p. 120).
The duality of cultures is illustrated by the preservation of "two separate legal systems"
(ibid., p. 120, n. 82)3 and two separate-but-equal languages. Although Greek served as the
linguafranca of the elite as well as the official language of the province, 4 the native Demotic
was the vehicle for a vital indigenous scribal tradition (see Zauzich 1968). And, whereas
Lewis (1986, pp. 154-55) notes that "no native Egyptian word made its way into Greek usage
in the thousand years that Greek endured as the language of Ptolemaic, Roman, and Byzantine
Egypt," the investigations of Willy Clarysse (1987) have revealed that only a few Greek words
are attested in Demotic texts. If a cultural coalescence had been desired, the maintenance of
two separate language identities and the limited exchange and adoption of vocabulary is con-
sidered to have been perhaps "the greatest single factor preventing a true fusion of the native
and Hellenistic cultures" (Shore 1972, p. 18). It is, moreover, the relatively recent mastery of
that late stage of the Egyptian language, Demotic, 5 that has lent momentum to "the efforts of
scholars whose goal it is to assess both the Greek and Demotic evidence in order to better un-
derstand the dual nature of the time" (Bagnall 1982, p. 21).

BACKGROUND TO THE SUBJECT

Nowhere has the vision of the dichotomy of these two cultures been more obscured, how-
ever, than in the perception of the evidence from the physical remains of this era: the artistic
documents of Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt. As early as 300 B.C. the selective integration of
Greek perspectival elements within a traditional Egyptian framework of frontal images is evi-
dent in the reliefs of the tomb of Petosiris (Lefebvre 1924), in Middle Egypt, indicating an as-
similation of Greek artistic techniques within Egyptian funerary decoration. As with language
and the law, however, the sepulchral arts cannot be read as products of a hybrid culture. If fu-
nerary art is to be aligned with only one of the two rival cultures, surely it embodies the sym-
biotic relationship between the indigenous religion of Egypt and the visual form in which that
theology was actualized. Although these scenes have been interpreted as depicting, within the
same composition, one figure represented "dans le style egyptien, et l'autre dans le style
greco-romain" effecting a kind of "style double" (Castiglione 1961, p. 211 ) the form of this fu-

3. For the separation of legal institutions in the Ptolemaic period, see also Wolff 1966, pp. 66-77.
4. Latin is not expected to be found even in administrative use, as Greek was "the more convenient language"
(Bagnall 1976, p. 21).
5. The first working grammar of Demotic, Wilhelm Spiegelberg's Demotische Grammatik (1925), appeared in
the first quarter of the twentieth century. The first journal for Demotic and Coptology, Enchoria.Zeitschrift
fiir Demotistik und Koptologie (Wiesbaden), was introduced in 1971. The first comprehensive dictionary of
Demotic, The Demotic Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, edited by Janet H.
Johnson, is forthcoming.
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INTRODUCTION

nerary art actually only possesses that "indefinable quality ... which speaks of the Nile"
(Vermeule 1976, p. 329).
The "growing school of thought which sees Hellenistic culture generally in terms of juxta-
position rather than of mixture" (Bagnall 1982, pp. 18-19) has made strides particularly in the
field of Ptolemaic studies, and most of the examples cited above relate to the status of Hellenic
and Egyptian cultures during that earlier period of interaction. It is remarkable, therefore, that
the assumptions which have been proved untenable for the Ptolemaic period continue to be
applied to the social climate of the Roman era, a misjudgment which this present work seeks to
redress.

THE SUBJECT
The subject of this study is the portrait mummy, a classification of artistic documents from
Roman Egypt. The portrait mummy was popular during the first to the fourth centuries A.D. It is
so-called because an impressionistically rendered portrait, painted in encaustic (wax) or tem-
pera on a wooden panel or linen shroud, was positioned over the face of a wrapped mummy.
Portrait mummies have been considered a paradigmatic product from Roman Egypt that re-
flects the influence of the Greek artistic tradition. This characterization, however, is a miscon-
struction derived from over-emphasis of the significance of the portraits alone viewed as single
elements isolated from their physical and cultural contexts.
The combination of a "realistic" portrait and rigidly formalized body has been unkindly
viewed as a cultural and artistic compromise that resulted in "a spectacle of ugliness, medi-
ocrity, and incongruity" (McCrimmon 1945, p. 61). While acknowledging that "the use to
which they were put [derived] its inspiration from ancient Egyptian practices and belief'
(Shore 1972, p. 25), with the exception of Klaus Parlasca, who "considers the portraits ... to-
gether with other mummy decoration of the period from a historical rather than artistic view-
point" (see Shore 1970, p. 232), scholars have studied the portraits and the mummies from
which they have been isolated as disparate elements. Classical scholars and art historians have
embraced the portraits as the products of an impressionistic, Hellenistic artistic tradition. When
examined in its intact form, however, as analyzed in the present work, the portrait mummy
proves itself to align with works that can be characterized as representative not of "Roman
provincial art, but ... as an extension of and an elaboration upon [native] Egyptian traditions"
(Root 1979, p. 2).
The objects that form the corpus for this study are the twenty-two examples of complete
portrait mummies (Nos. 1-22) and one stucco portrait shroud (No. 23) which are in the collec-
tions of museums in the Arab Republic of Egypt (see table 1 and Catalog of PortraitMummies,
below). In the description of objects C. C. Edgar cataloged in 1905, he commented that "the
Cairo collection of whole figures is not completely representative, and probably indeed there
were more varieties than those of which entire specimens are now in existence" (Edgar 1905a,
p. xii). At present, less than one hundred complete portrait mummies are known to have been
preserved worldwide (see table 2). Most of these, which were recovered during the ex-
cavations of Sir Flinders Petrie at the Fayoum site of Hawara, 6 were deliberately scattered in

6.Petrie excavated at Hawara for two seasons: 1888 and 1910-11. His work is published in Petrie 1889 and
1911. For color photographs of select portraits, see Petrie 1913.
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PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

accordance with the excavator's desire. 7 The portrait mummies in the collections of museums
in Egypt, therefore, represent approximately one-quarter of the known complete examples.
The portrait mummies in Egyptian museum collections were, therefore, chosen to form the
corpus for this study because they constitute not only the largest available corpus, but also the
most complete representative sampling for study in one geographic area. In this text, a mummy
in the basic corpus is referred to by its designation and number in the Catalog of Portrait
Mummies.

Table 1. Corpus of Portrait Mummies

Designation in this Volume Museum Inventory Number Illustration(s)

RHOMBIC -WRAPPED MUMMIES

Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 1 Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33214 pl. 1
Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 2 Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33222 pl. 2
Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 3 Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33223 pl. 3
Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 4 Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33224 pl. 4
Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 5 Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33225 pl. 5
Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 6 Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33226 pl. 6
Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 7 Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33227 pl. 7
Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 8 Egyptian Museum, Cairo, JE 42790 pl. 8
Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 9 Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. prov. 30/9/14/8 pl. 9
Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 10 Graeco-Roman Museum, Alexandria, Inv. 7311 pl. 10
Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 11 Graeco-Roman Museum, Alexandria, Inv. 7312 pl. 11

RED-SHROUDED MUMMIES
Red-shrouded Mummy No. 12 Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33217 pl. 12
Red-shrouded Mummy No. 13 Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33218 pl. 13
Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14 Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33219 pl. 14; figs. 3-8
Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15 Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33220 pl. 15; figs. 9-15
Red-shrouded Mummy No. 16 Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33221 pl. 16; figs. 16-21
Red-shrouded Mummy No. 17 Karanis/Kom Oshim Museum, Inv. 432 pl. 17

STUCCO MUMMIES
Stucco Mummy No. 18 Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33215 pl. 18; figs. 22-25
Stucco Mummy No. 19 Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33216 pl. 19; figs. 26-30
Stucco Mummy No. 20 Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33280 pl. 20
Stucco Mummy No. 21 Egyptian Museum, Cairo, CG 33281 pl. 21
Stucco Mummy No. 22 Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. prov. 17/10/16/1 pls. 22, 31; figs. 31-35
Stucco Mummy No. 23 Coptic Museum, Cairo, Inv. 4124 pl. 23; figs. 36-42

Preliminary research was done on a corpus limited to intact wrappings with painted por-
traits that were illusionistically and naturalistically rendered. This decision was influenced by
the tradition of classicists and art historians who designated these images-particularly the
earlier panel paintings-as having been "painted from life" (e.g., Thompson 1982, pp. 14-15).
However, as Edgar (1905a, p. xiii) intimated, even those seemingly life-like representations
conformed to the same idealization that characterizes all images of human figures from

7. Petrie's goals in distributing the finds were to broaden their sphere of influence, motivate greater interest in
Egyptology, and to protect any class of objects, confined to one center, from being lost to the academic field
(British School of Archaeology in Egypt and the Egyptian Research Account 1934, p. 3).
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INTRODUCTION

ancient Egypt because the cultic function of all of these images was essentially the same. The
"portrait mummies" do not signal a break in tradition. Rather, as evidenced by the decoration
of the bodies that is, also as Edgar noted, "descended from different types among the earlier
mummies," the portrait mummies belong to a continuum of cultic works of art, the antecedents
for which are the painted shrouds and cartonnage masks and the last descendants of which are
those Late Antique stuccoed faces (for example, CG 33276-33279) which, while Herbert
Winlock (1925, pp. 32-33) condemned as "atrocities of hideousness," he correctly identified as
the "bedizened grand[children] of the days of paganism."
The data from the objects that form the basic corpus were supplemented by information
from some additional objects that were examined firsthand. These objects, which are referred
to in the text when they elucidate specific problems related to the provenience, chronology,
iconography, or patronage of the portrait mummies, include examples of portrait mummies in
museum collections outside of Egypt (especially the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Girton
College, University of Cambridge, England; the Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Copenhagen; and
the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu) and contemporary wedge-faced mummies and mummies
with gilt stucco masks, as well as contemporary cartonnage masks and foot covers.

THE PROBLEM WITH THE SUBJECT

The degree to which collectors have shown a preference to separate the painted panels
from their wrapped and decorated mummies has contributed to the more accurate portrayal of
the history of the recovery of portrait mummies as the history of the search for portraits. 8 The
motivation that, above all, prompted the isolation of the objects from their unwieldy and con-
spicuously funereal context was the aesthetic appeal of the portraits to modem tastes.
Before the late nineteenth century, only a small number of isolated portraits were in the
possession of private collectors (see Parlasca 1966, pp. 20-23). 9 After that time, the popularity
of the paintings grew when an exhibition of them, organized by a Viennese art dealer, Theodor
Graf, traveled within Europe and to North America. The details of the circumstances of the
discovery of the find-site of these portraits are not clearly known but can by summarized, as
follows. In the summer of 1887, Theodor Graf was offered four portraits from his agent in
Cairo who had acquired them from an Austrian surveyor in the employ of the Egyptian
administration in the Fayoum. 10 The initial sale of the portraits to Graf so encouraged the
plunder" of intact mummies that upon his return to Cairo in the fall of 1887, Graf found his
house filled with the series of portraits that he successfully, and profitably, marketed (Parlasca
1966., p. 24).12

8. For a detailed summary of the history of the recovery and acquisition of portraits and portrait mummies, see
Parlasca 1966, pp. 18-58.
9. The more impressive private collections were those of Henry Salt, British Vice-Consul to Egypt in the 1820s,
and D. M. Fouquet, a French doctor in residence in Cairo after 1887.
10. The claim of the Austrian surveyor (as quoted by Georg Ebers [1893, p. 16]), that "Bedouin Arabs, in dig-
ging for salt," stumbled upon the cemetery site, may be apocryphal. For a discussion of the varying accounts
of the discovery, see Parlasca 1966, pp. 23-27.
11. However, although the surveyor in question was mapping a large part of the Fayoum area, the accusation by
Shore (1972, p. 11 ) that, in addition to the acknowledged find-spot of er-Rubayyat, "more than one cemetery
was ransacked by Graf's agents" in their search for portraits, cannot be substantiated.
12. A comprehensive sale catalog with color plates was compiled by Paul Buberl (1922).
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PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

The predilection to separate portrait from mummy has continued ever since13 and has ef-
fectively facilitated the transfer of portraits from the sphere of the egyptologist to that of the
classicist and art historian. The individual portraits have been studied in terms of their relative
quality and the hairstyles, jewelry, and clothing they depict. Attempts have also been made to
group portraits according to schools of painters and to identify individual artistic hands.14
Whereas there have been some academic concessions to the fact that "the decoration of the
rest of the figure apart from the head ... descended from different types among the earlier
mummies," the conventional approach to the objects has been for "the style and details of the
portraits themselves ... [to serve as the] ... primary guides in arranging the series" (Edgar
1905a, p. xii). Studies of the paintings alone have not, however, answered the more challeng-
ing questions that are posed by the approximately one hundred, or ten percent of the approxi-
mately one thousand mummy portraits in museums throughout the world,' 5 which have been
preserved within a wrapped mummy.

LINES OF INQUIRY
Information relevant to the greater issues having sociological and religious implications
can only be obtained from an investigation of complete mummies that preserve the portraits
within the context of their decorated wrappings. The data from complete mummies examined
in this study have been used to address the following lines of inquiry:

Chronology When were these mummies made? Can objective and relative chronologies be es-
tablished? Do the dates proposed for the designs and decoration of the mummy
wrappings corroborate the dates that have been assigned to the individual por-
traits? 16

Provenience Where were these mummies made? Although portrait mummies have been recov-
ered from cemeteries throughout Egypt, should it be assumed that these mummies
were made at their find-site or can particular decorative motifs identify them as the
products of specific workshops?
By recording idiosyncratic motifs from mummies with a known provenience,
local characteristics of manufacture sites can be identified. On the basis of the
presence of such particulars, a provenience can be assigned to an object that is
otherwise only ascribed to "the Fayoum" or, because it was purchased on the art
market, does not have a provenience.

13. A recent instance of a portrait being separated from its mummy is Inv. No. 170 of the National Cultural
History and Open-Air Museum in Pretoria, South Africa. A photograph of the complete mummy appears in
Thompson 1976, pl. 20. In Thompson 1982, p. 10, fig. 14, a photograph of the detached portrait (Inv. 68/68)
was substituted for that of the complete mummy.
14. Such results have been successfully achieved by Thompson (1972), who incorporates many of the conclu-
sions from his dissertation in a popular introduction to the portraits (idem 1982, pp. 16-23).
15. The portraits are being collected into an international corpus by Parlasca (1969, 1977, 1980, forthcoming);
the forthcoming publication of volume 4 will bring the total number of cataloged portraits nearer to one thou-
sand. Unfortunately, the percentage of known intact mummies has not increased proportionately.
16. The dates accepted for this purpose are those given by Parlasca (1969, 1977, 1980). Where there is a con-
flict between the dates given there for the individual portraits and the dates suggested by the mummy wrap-
pings, each argument is considered and discussed.
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INTRODUCTION

Ideology What does the iconography of the decoration of these mummies tell about the reli-
gious convictions of the patron class? Are there specific motifs that can be catego-
rized as "borrowed" or "Graeco-Roman" in origin, or can the iconography of the
mummies be explained in terms of native Egyptian traditions?

Patronage Who commissioned these mummies? To what ethnic and social group(s) did the
patrons belong?
Of the two dynamic and disparate cultures existing at that time, to which ele-
ment-Hellenic or native Egyptian-did the patrons of these mummies belong? Do
they indeed, as has been assumed on the basis of details from the portraits alone,
belong to "the Mediterranean aristocracy that came to control Egypt in Graeco-
Roman times?" (Thompson 1982, p. 43).

METHODOLOGY
The method of recording the wrappings and cartonnage designs for this study was: (1)
measurement, (2) freehand sketching, and (3) photography. This information is gathered and
presented in the Catalog of PortraitMummies, in which each of the twenty-three portrait
mummies of the basic corpus is described in detail. The portrait mummies in this study are di-
vided into three categories of body types based on the technique of manufacture and decora-
tion of the mummy casings (i.e., rhombic-wrapped, red-shrouded, and stucco mummies).

Rhombic-wrapped Mummies (Nos. 1-11)

The most common form is a cover of multiple layers of linen bandages arranged in a rhom-
bic or diamond-shaped pattern. Although the rhombic patterning resembles the design of
beaded nets used to cover wrapped mummies from the Twenty-fifth Dynasty onward (see
Taylor 1988, p. 175); in fact, such a beaded net appears in paint along the outer edges of the
lengths of Red-shrouded Mummies Nos. 14 and 15, the intention of the embalmers here was
probably to simulate, with linen bandages, the intricate knots of an expensive wooden coffin
since portrait mummies were laid directly in the ground without first being placed within a
wooden sarcophagus. The body fields of rhombic-wrapped mummies were embellished by the
addition of inlaid gems (real or paste), gilt strips of cartonnage, or gilt stucco buttons. Foot
covers of painted cartonnage were sometimes added.

Red-shrouded Mummies (Nos. 12-17)

A second technique of body decoration was to envelop the portrait mummy in a smooth
cloth or a stiffened stucco casing that was painted red. The body fields were either divided into
horizontal registers that depicted funerary or mythological scenes or a painted representation
of the full-length, fully-clothed figure was continued from the painted portrait head. Gilt stucco
buttons were sometimes applied to the body surface. Foot covers of painted cartonnage could
be added.

Stucco Mummies (Nos. 18-23)

The least common form is a body cover of stucco where the body field, continuing funerary
or mythological scenes in horizontal registers, has either been completely gilded (sometimes
with the addition of glass or semiprecious stone inlays) or where the portrait is painted directly
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PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

onto the stuccoed shroud and the body field is divided into a grid pattern or "apron" that is
decorated with raised stucco motifs.

Measurement
Petrie (1911, p. 15) suggested that the measurements of certain diagnostic features-such
as the size of gilt buttons-might be used as an indicator of date. The statistics of other details,
such as the width and number of linen bandages in rhombic wrappings, were included in the
description of every mummy in the hope that such information might be significant in deter-
mining the date or provenience of an object. The identification of such features could then
prove useful when applied as a standard to mummies with similar body decorations-but with-
out painted portraits--or to the numerous examples from the Late period of animal mummies
of the sacred ibis, baboon, and cat.

Freehand Sketching
Freehand sketching requires the thoughtful examination of every object to be drawn. One
learns thereby to recognize the essential characteristics of an object and how these elements
were put together in their proper relation. Such an ability is invaluable when assessing a frag-
mentary or anomalous object (such as the stucco portrait shroud, Stucco Mummy No. 23).

Photography
Photographs provide objective documentation. Full-length photographs of many of the
mummies (whose portraits, however, have been published) are not available elsewhere. For
greater clarity, full-length photographs of portrait mummies with complex decorative scenes
have been supplemented by the line-drawings of William Schenck. These line-drawings were
based on the author's photographs, freehand sketches, and author's notes.

RESULTS
The next four chapters of this study address the more basic, but challenging, questions con-
cerning the "when, where, why, and who" of these social and religious documents. Conclusions
are drawn from an analysis of the decoration of the intact body coverings of portrait mum -
mies-mummies which are, or were, embellished by the addition of painted portraits-and a
comparison of this information with evidence taken from the portraits alone.

THE OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study is to present an analysis based on the following two premises:
1. That two cultures existed simultaneously in Roman Egypt, Hellenic and Egyptian, and that
"it was not least in the area of funerary ritual that Egyptian custom remained a vital and re -
sponsive force" (Root 1979, p. 2).
2. "Tant que Ia religion 6gyptienne fut vivante, les oeuvres de l'art religieux ont 6t6 r6alis6es
..dans les formes traditionnelles" (Castiglione 1961, p. 209).
The analysis articulates the specific question of whether or not the portrait mummy-an
example of an important artistic and religious document of that bi-cultural era-provides doc-
umentation for the survival into the Roman period of the native Egyptian religious structure.
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INTRODUCTION

Table 2. Checklist of Mummy Portraits with Documented Body Coverings

Rhombic-wrapped Mummies (Portraits Published by Parlasca)

No. 1 Parlasca2 Museum Inv. No. 3 PresentLocation4 Provenience

*1. 1/1 ................. Inv. 11411 .................. Staatliche Museen, Berlin ................ .......... Hawara
2. 1/3 ................. No Number ................. Girton College, Cambridge, England........................... Hawara
3. I/5 .............. Staatliche Museen, Berlin ...................................
Inv. 11412 ................... Unknown
4. I/6 ................. Staatliche M useen, Berlin ............................................
Inv. 11413 ................... Unknown
5. 1/11 .............. Staatliche M useen, Berlin ...........................................
Inv. 11752 .................... Hawara
*6. 1/13 .............. Inv. 2914 ................... National Gallery, London....................... .................. Hawara
7. 1/14 .............. CG 33223 .................. Egyptian Museum, Cairo.......................................... Hawara
8. 1/16 ..............
CG 33226 ................... Egyptian Museum, Cairo ..................................... Fayoum
9. Inv. 1911.440 ...............
1/26 ............. National Museum, Dublin ............................................ Hawara
Inv. 1653 ......................
10. 1/29 ............. Egyptian Museum of the University of Leipzig ........... Hawara
*11. 1/37 ..............
Inv. 1954.9 ................. Salford City Art Gallery, Salford, England .................. Hawara
Inv. AE 1425 ................
12. 1/40 ............. Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Copenhagen ....................... Hawara
CG 33225 ....................
13. 1/43 .............. Egyptian Museum, Cairo ................................... Hawara
Inv. 1021 .....................
14. 1/44 ............. University of Heidelberg Egyptian Institute ............... Abusir el-Meleq
Heidelberg
15. 1/45 .............. Inv. H 33112 ................ Martin von Wagner Museum, University of ................ Abusir el-Meleq
Wiirzburg, Wirzburg
Inv. 13595 ....................
16. 1/47 .............. British Museum, London ..................................... Hawara
Inv. E11.139 ..............
17. 1/50 ............ Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York ............... Hawara
*18. 1/56 ............ University College, London .........................................
Inv. 19609 ................... Hawara
19. 1/58 ..............
CG 33227 ................... Egyptian Museum, Cairo ..................................... Hawara
20. 1/62 ..............
Inv. 11.2892 ................ Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ....................................... Hawara
Inv. prov. 30/9/14/8 .... Egyptian Museum, Cairo ................
21. 1/65 .............. ........... Hawara
*22. 1/67 .............. Staatliche Museen, Berlin ............................................
Inv. 10974 ................... Hawara
*23. 1/71 ..............
Inv. 1913.512 .............. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford ................................. Hawara
*24. 1/77 ...........
Inv. E. 102.1911 .......... Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England ................. Hawara
Inv. 1307 .....................
25. 1/85 .............. Staatl. Sammlung Agypt. Kunst, Munich ..................... Hawara
*26. 1/92 .............
Inv. 1911.354 .............. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford ....................................... Hawara
*27. 1/98 ............
Inv. 1951.160 .............. Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh ............................. Hawara
*28. 1/115 ............. Inv. 2972 ..................... Staatl. Sammlung Agypt. Kunst, Munich ..................... Hawara
*29. 1/116 ............. Inv. 9137 ..................... Oriental Institute, Chicago ........................................... Hawara
*30. 1/132 ............. Inv. 5379 ..................... Manchester Museum, Manchester ............................ Hawara
*31. 1/133 ............. Inv. 5378 Manchester Museum, Manchester ............................
.................... Hawara
32. 1/134 ............. Inv. 1888.832 Ashmolean Museum, Oxford .......................................
.............. Unknown
33. 1/136 ............. Inv. E 4857 .................. Musdes Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels .............. Hawara
*34. 1/145 ............. Inv. 2915 .................... National Gallery, London ............................................ Hawara
35. 1/147 ............. JE 42790 ..................... Egyptian Museum, Cairo ............................................ Hawara
*36. 1/149 ............. Inv. 2913 ..................... National Gallery, London ............................................ Hawara
37. 1/160 ............. Inv. 1768 ................ Manchester Museum, Manchester, England ............ Hawara
*38. 1/163 ............. University College, London ......................................
Inv. 19613 .................. Hawara
39. 1/170 ............. Inv. 1911.210.1 ............ Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh ............................. Hawara
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10 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

Rhombic-wrapped Mummies (Portraits Published by Parlasca) (cont.)

No. 1 Parlasca2 Museum Inv. No.3 PresentLocation4 Provenience

40. 1/181 ............. CG 33224 ................ Egyptian Museum, Cairo ........................ Unknown
*41. 1/193 ........ Inv. R. 137 ................ Art Gallery and Museum, Brighton ........................ Hawara
*42. 1/195-6 ......... Inv. 5380-15 ............ Manchester Museum, Manchester ............................... Hawara
43. 1/204 ........ Inv. 11673 ................. Staatliche Museen, Berlin ....................... Hawara
*44. 1/206 ........ Inv. 2912 .................. National Gallery, London ....................... Hawara
*45. 1/211 ......... Inv. 19610 ................. University College, London ................................... Hawara
46. 11/253 ......... CG 33214 ................. Egyptian Museum, Cairo ........................................ "Fayoum"
47. 11/268 ........... CG 33222 .................... Egyptian Museum, Cairo ..................... ............... "Fayoum"
48. 11/273 ............. Inv. A.F. 6882 .......... Musee du Louvre, Paris ......................... "Antinoopolis"
*49. 11/289 ........... Inv. 4858 .................. Musees Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels ......... Hawara
*50. 11/363 ......... Inv. 5377 .................. Manchester Museum, Manchester ......................... Hawara
51. 11/366 ........ Inv. 7312 ..................... Graeco-Roman Museum, Alexandria .................... "Hawara"
52. 11/376 ........ Inv. 7311 .................. Graeco-Roman Museum, Alexandria .................... Unknown
*53. 11/380 ........ Inv. 11-61 ............. Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham .................. Hawara
54. 11/384 ........... Inv. 11.2891 .............. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ................................. Hawara
*55. 11/441 ........... Inv. 19607 ................... University College, London ................................... Hawara
56. 11/646 ........ Inv. 31161/42 .......... Staatliche Museen, Antikenabteilung, Berlin ......... er-Rubayyat
*57. 111/531 ....... Inv. E. 462 ............... University Museum, Philadelphia .......................... Hawara
*58. 111/541 ....... Inv. AE 1473 ........... Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Copenhagen ................. Hawara

An asterisk (*) denotes a mummy portrait originally preserved within a wrapped mummy whose body coverings were docu-
mented, but whose body is no longer preserved.
2
Roman numeral refers to volume of Parlasca's Ritratti di Mummie in which mummy is published (I = Parlasca 1969; II =
Parlasca 1977; 1II = Parlasca 1980); arabic numeral is Parlasca's inventory number.
3Inventory number in italics is of a mummy discussed in the text; inventory number in boldface is of a mummy described in the
Catalog of PortraitMummies (see pp. 81-212, below).
4
0bjects listed in the National Gallery, London are presently in the British Museum, London.
5
Manchester Museum Inv. 5380-1 is a double-sided panel portrait.

Other Rhombic-wrapped Mummies1

No. Published Museum Inv. No. PresentLocation Provenience

59. Corcoran Schwabe 1985.......... No Number ............... Seabury Western Theological Seminary ........ Hawara
pp. 190-93, pl. 22 Chicago
60. Parlasca 1985, p. 102, n. 38 ..... Inv. 13.10.1911.25 .... Public Museum, Liverpool, England ............... Hawara
61. Not published ...................... Inv. 30018 ........... Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago ..... Unknown
62. Leclant and Clerc 1992 ......... No Number ............ Egypt ............................... Graeco-Roman
pp. 216-17, pl. 9, fig. 52 cemetery near
Marina el-Alemain

1These examples do not appear in Parlasca's Ritratti di Mummie (1969, 1977, 1980); some will not appear in Parlasca
(forthcoming) because their portraits are not preserved.
2
The total number of mummies found is not listed. However, four are shown in the photograph and all were described as being
poorly preserved due to humidity.
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INTRODUCTION 11

INTRODUCTION
Red-shrouded Mummies (Portraits Published by Parlasca) 1

No. 1 Parlasca2 Museum Inv. No.3 Present Location Provenience

1. 1/7 .............. BM 21809 .................... British Museum, London... ................ Hawara

2. 1/34 ......... Inv. 11.600 A andB ..... Brooklyn Museum, New York ............... Hawara
3.4 1/41 ......... Inv. 1966.88 ........... Kestner Museum, Hannover, Germany.........Hawara
*4 1/59 ......... CG 33232 ............. Egyptian Museum, Cairo... ................. Unknown (Hawara?)
*5. 1/77 ......... Inv. E. 102.1911 .......... Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge ............. Hawara
6. 1/101 .......... CG33217 .................. Egyptian Museum, Cairo.... ................ el-Hibeh
7. 1/127 .......... CG 33218 ............. Egyptian Museum, Cairo ................... Fayoum
8. 1/158 .......... Inv. AE 1426 ........... Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Copenhagen.........Hawara
9. 1/162 .......... BM 21810 .................... British Museum, London... ................. Hawara
10. 1/164 ......... CG 33219 ............. Egyptian Museum, Cairo... ................ Unknown (Hawara?)
11. 1/185 ......... Inv. 1767 ................. Manchester Museum, Manchester, England. Hawara
12. 11/248 ......... Inv. 50.650 ................... Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ................ Unknown (Akhmim?)
13. 11/260 ......... CG33221 .................... Egyptian Museum, Cairo ................... Hawara
14. 11/332 ........ Inv. E. 63.1903 ......... Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England. el-Hibeh
15. 11/365..... CG 33220 ............... Egyptian Museum, Cairo........................... Unknown (Hawara?)
1
An asterisk (*) denotes a mummy portrait originally preserved within a wrapped mummy whose body coverings were docu -
mented, but whose body is no longer preserved.
2
Roman numeral refers to volume of Parlasca's Ritratti di Mummie in which mummy is published (I = Parlasca 1969; 11
Parlasca 1977); arabic numeral is Parlasca's inventory number.
3
lnventory number in italics is of a mummy discussed in the text; inventory number in boldface is of a mummy described in the
Catalog of PortraitMummies (see pp. 8 1-212, below).
4
When acquired by the museum, this portrait was inserted within mummy wrappings to which, however, it might not have
originally belonged.

Other Red-shrouded Mummies1

No. Published Museum Inv. No.2 Present Location Provenience
3
16. Schulz 1993, p. 106,.None ............ On loan from the Stiftung Niedersachsen, Hannover,.. Probably ( Iel-Hibeh
p1. 101 to the Pelizaeus-Museum, Hildesheimn, Germany
17. Not published........ v. 432.........Karanis/Kom Oshim Museum, Egypt............... Deir el- Banaat, Fayoum
18. Thompson 1982, pp. nv. 81.AP.42. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu.................Unknow
32-33, fig. F, cover
19. Parlasca 1963,........Iv. 61.66.3. Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of.......Saqqara
pp. 264-68 Missouri, Columbia
20. Petrie 1911, p. 22o. v. 267 FE336 Petrie Museum, University College, London..........Hawara
21. Parlasca 1966, p.80..Iv. 1775.......Manchester Museum, Manchester, England .......... Hawara
22. Parlasca 1966, p. 20, Iv. E 13044. Muse du Louvre, Paris ........................ Unknow] n (Hawara?)

23. Parlasca 1966, p. 190 ... No Number......Coll. Koffler-Truniger, Luzern .. ..o ..................... Unknowi, (Hawara?)
24. Parlasca 1966........... No Number Kunsthistorische Museum, Photographic Dept........ Unknowi a (Hawara?)
pp. 246-475 Vienna
1
These examples do not appear in Parlasca's Ritratti di Mummie (1969, 1977, 1980); some will not appear in Parlasca
(forthcoming) because their portraits are not preserved.
2
lnventory number in italics is of a mummy discussed in the text; inventory number in boldface is of a mummy described in the
3
Catalog of PortraitMummies (see pp. 8 1-212, below).
Suggested here on the basis of its similarity to Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 12 and Fitzwilliam Museum nv. E. 63.1903
4
This mummy, once considered lost, has been relocated (Klaus Parlasca. pers. comm.. July 14. 1994).
5
Parlasca has identified, from an archival photograph, a mummy covering of the red-shrouded type that was advertised in the
first Graf sale catalog. The cover appeared to him to be decorated in a manner consistent with those from Hawara.
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12 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

Stucco-shrouded Mummies (Portraits Published by Parlasca)

2
No. Parlasca Museum In. No. 3 PresentLocation Provenience

*1. 1/17 .................. Inv. 11652 ......................... Staatliche Museen, Berlin .................................... Saqqara
Inv. 09.181.8 ......................
2. 1/20 .................. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York ............... Unknown
Inv. 4280/11 a 5750 ...........
3. 1/21 ................ Pushkin Museum, Moscow .................................... Unknown
4. 1/83 ..................
C G 33216 .......................... Egyptian Museum, Cairo ...................................... Hawara
5. 1/216 ................. Inv. 08.202.8 ...................... Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York ............... Unknown
6. 1/596 .................
Inv. 11659 .......................... Staatliche Museen, Berlin ...................................... Saqqara
7. 11/286 ............... Inv. 13277 .......................... Staatliche Museen, Berlin ...................................... "Saqqara"
*8. 11/324 ............... Inv. 4229/I la 5749 ........... Pushkin Museum, Moscow .............................. Saqqara
*9. 11/325 ............. Inv. 11651 .......................... Staatliche Museen, Berlin ...................................... Saqqara
*10. 11/392 .............. Inv. 54.993 ........................ Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ..................... ...... Unknown
11. 11/397 ............. Inv. prov. 17/10/16/1 ....... Egyptian Museum, Cairo ...................................... Unknown
12. 11/413 ............... Inv. 6715 ........................... British Museum, London ...................................... Unknown
13. 11/415 ............. Inv. A.F. 6484 ................. Musee du Louvre, Paris .......................................... Antinoopolis
14. 11/416 ............... Inv. 17953 .......................... Vatican Museum, Vatican..................................... Antinoopolis
15. 11/417 ............... Inv. A.F. 6485 ................... Mus6e du Louvre, Paris.......................................... Antinoopolis
16. 11/419 ............... Inv. A.F. 6440 ................... Musee du Louvre, Paris ........................................ Antinoopolis
17. 11/420 ............... Inv. A.F. 6487 ................. Mus e du Louvre, Paris .......................................... Antinoopolis
18. 11/421 ............. Inv. A.F. 6489 ................. Musee du Louvre, Paris .................................. Antinoopolis
19. 11/424 ............... Inv. A.F. 6488 .................. Mus6e du Louvre, Paris.......................................... Antinoopolis
20. 11/425 ............... Inv. A.F. 6490 ................. Musee du Louvre, Paris .......................................... Antinoopolis
21. 11/426 ...............
Inv. A.F. 6482 ................. Musde du Louvre, Paris ................................. Antinoopolis
22. 11/427 ............. Inv. A.F. 6492 .................. Mus6e du Louvre, Paris ......................................... Antinoopolis
23. 11/477 ............. Inv. 6713 .......................... British Museum, London ........................................ Unknown
24. III/595 .............. Inv. 4124 .......................... Coptic M useum , Cairo ........................................... Saqqara
25. 111/597 .............. CG 33281 ....................... Egyptian Museum, Cairo ....................................... Saqqara
26. 111/598 .............. Inv. 778 ............................. Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden ................. Saqqara
27. 111/599 .............. Inv. 777 ............................ Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden ................. Saqqara
1
A shroud preserved intact, or nearly intact, but which no longer envelops a mummy, is marked with an asterisk (*).
2
Roman numeral refers to volume of Parlasca's Ritratti di Mummie in which mummy is published (I = Parlasca 1969; II =
Parlasca 1977; III = Parlasca 1980); arabic numeral is Parlasca's inventory number.
3Inventory number in italics is of a mummy discussed in the text; inventory number in boldface is of a mummy described in the
Catalog of PortraitMummies (see pp. 81-212, below).

Other Stucco-shrouded Mummies 1

No. Published Museum Inv. No. 2 PresentLocation Provenience

28. Edgar 1905a, pp. 69-70, pl. 31 ..... CG33215...... Egyptian Museum, Cairo.............................Unknown (Hawara?)
29. ibid., pp. 123-26, pl. 47 ............. CG 33280 ...... Egyptian Museum, Cairo ....................... Saqqara
30. ibid., pp. 129-31, pl.48................ CG 33282 ...... Egyptian Museum, Cairo .............................. Unknown
1
These examples do not appear in Parlasca's Ritratti di Mummie (1969, 1977, 1980); some will not appear in Parlasca
(forthcoming) because their portraits are not preserved.
2Inventory number in italics is of a mummy discussed in the text; inventory number in boldface is of a mummy described in the
CatalogofPortraitMummies (see pp. 81-212, below).
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CHRONOLOGY
INCLUSIVE TIME RANGE
Although details from the portraits were initially thought to indicate a date in the Ptolemaic
period (see Edgar 1905a, p. 225), the first quarter of the first century A.D. is now considered to
be the terminus ad quem1 for the introduction of the use of portrait mummies. The date of the
founding of the city of Antinoopolis in A.D. 1302 provides a reference for their floruit. The
general range for the manufacture of portrait mummies is from the first century A.D. to the
fourth century A.D.3 Portrait mummies belong historically to the period of Roman rule in Egypt,
a time which is "often considered to be 'postpharaonic"' (Bianchi 1983, p. 18, n. 35).
It is critical to the objective of this study to point out, however, that there is no element of
the iconography of these mummies which cannot be placed within the tradition of native
pharaonic Egyptian religion and funerary ritual. This evidence supports the idea that in Egypt
"artistic trends from about 720 B.C. onward ...from Piankhy to Constantine the Great ... seem
to begin and continue without regard for changes in rulers" and that "the system of reigns, dy-
nasties, and periods [which has dictated the chronological categorization of Egyptian objects]
does not work very well" (ibid.). This art-historical view is concurrent with a trend in archaeo-
logical theory which recognizes that "artifacts did not remain in step with political change"
(Kemp 1984, p. 20).
Although the portrait mummies have been designated as "Hellenistic" or "Graeco-Roman,"
they belong more properly to the category of objects of Egyptian manufacture that were, for
the most part, "little affected by what was happening in the rest of the Mediterranean world"
(Bianchi 1980b, p. 166). In order to emphasize the degree of continuity that the portrait
mummies exhibit as "the final products of the age-old indigenous Egyptian art that lived on in
the tradition of its great past," 4 it is suggested here that, although they were produced in Egypt

1. The earliest date for a mummy portrait listed by Parlasca (1969, p. 25, no. 1) is to the reign of Tiberius (A.D.
14-37). That portrait is of "Aline," Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Inv. 11415 [see Relative Dating Indicator No.
1, next page].
2. A discussion of the exact date for the foundation of the city can be found in Thompson 1972, pp. 1-5.
3. Based upon her comparison of women's hairstyles in mummy portraits to the styles depicted on statues of
women of the Imperial court, Barbara MUller ([now Borg] 1990, pp. 71-72) has proposed that mummy por-
traits cannot date later than the Severan period (ca. A.D. 200). Edgar (1905a, p. xvii) also suggested that
"the custom of decorating mummies with painted portraits seems to have fallen into disuse by the middle of
the IIrd century." Edgar, however, must have been referring specifically to the disuse of painted panel por-
traits because he then continues to add that portrait mummies, referring here to the painted and stuccoed
shrouds, "did not altogether die out at this time." Whereas the use of panel portraits seems to have fallen out
of favor before the end of the third century, the genre, in its stuccoed manifestation, continued to the end of
paganism in Egypt.
4. Said in reference to the art of the Thirtieth Dynasty and of the Ptolemies by Steindorff ( 1944-45, p. 59).
13
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14 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

at the time after which Egypt was conquered and ruled by the Romans, the portrait mummies
should be classified as works that belong to the tradition of native pharaonic Egypt.

INTERNAL CHRONOLOGY OF THE PORTRAIT MUMMIES

ABSOLUTE DATING INDICATORS
The only point of absolute chronology (chronometric dating) established for an individual
portrait mummy was obtained by the radiocarbon analysis of cloth fragments that had adhered
to the splintered panel of a mummy in the collection of the National Cultural History and
Open-Air Museum, Pretoria, South Africa (Thompson 1982, pp. 10, 11, n. to fig. 14). A photo-
graph in Thompson 1976, fig. 20, depicts the panel still attached to its poorly preserved
mummy (Inv. 170). The photograph in Thompson 1982, fig. 14, shows that the panel has been
separated from the mummy and given a new registration number, Inv. 68/68. The cloth sam-
ples from the wrappings were dated to A.D. 175 ± 60. The portrait, which is not yet published in
Parlasca's portrait catalog, depicts a gaunt-faced adult male with wide eyes, short curly hair,
and close frizzy beard. A probable date in the late Antonine period for the portrait would cor-
respond well with the radiocarbon results for the mummy wrappings. Unfortunately, other than
that the mummy wrappings were of the rhombic type, no details of the body decoration are
given, nor are they visible in the earlier photograph.

RELATIVE DATING INDICATORS

There are six relative chronological indicators for the portrait mummies:
1. The first is the stela of "Aline" that was found next to a portrait mummy, the portrait of
which is now in Berlin (Inv. 11415). The somewhat ambiguously written text on the stela
refers to a woman named Aline, who died at the age of thirty-five in Year 10 of an un-
named emperor (presumed to be Tiberius) or A.D. 24 (Parlasca 1966, pp. 94-95, n. 30). 5 As
the portrait mummy was the only adult female in the group burial with which the stela was
found, it has been assumed that the stela was associated with that mummy. However, no
stela has ever been found in connection with any other portrait mummy (Germer,
Kischkewitz, and Luining 1993, p. 188), and Parlasca (1966, p. 94) has correctly argued that
the circumstances of this discovery "geben also keine sichere Gewihr fuir die fast allgemein
6
vorausgesetzte Zusammengehortigkeit von Grabstein und Frauenmumie."
2. A papyrus found "folded up and placed on the portrait" of a rhombic-wrapped mummy
(Mus6es Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Inv. E 4857) excavated by Petrie at Hawara presents
potential inscriptional evidence for dating, although there are also difficulties with the cor-
relation of this document and the mummy with which it was associated. The papyrus con-
tains the "middle of 13 lines from [the] bottom of a document detailing the transfer of prop -
erties, with references to the records of the eleventh year of Hadrian, A.D. 127" (Petrie
1911, p. 23). The problem of the dating of this mummy is discussed in the Second Test Case,
pp. 24-27, below.
3. An inscribed stone, "turned face down and built into the foot of a wall which was appar-
ently of the same age as the burial" of three portrait mummies, was found during the 1911
season of excavations at Hawara by Petrie (1911, p. 14). The stone was inscribed in Greek

5. The stela was lost during the Second World War; the inscription is discussed in Bernand 1975, p. 113, no. 59.
6. Parlasca (1969, p. 25) reiterates this justifiable concern and dates the portrait rather on the basis of the
hairstyle to the reign of Tiberius.
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CHRONOLOGY 15

and reads, "Kephalion son of Leonidas lived 48 years, ever to be remembered" (ibid., p.
22, no. 7). Even if the stone could be proved to have been directly connected to the portrait
mummies, the inscription can unfortunately be dated on paleographic grounds only to "the
Imperial period" (Bernand 1975, p. 111, no. 57).
4. In the el-Hibeh excavation report, Grenfell and Hunt (1906, p. 4) state that they found "not
far from each other, two admirably preserved portrait-mummies" and that "in the same
group" was found an undecorated mummy inscribed with the date of death in the sixteenth
year of Trajan, or A.D. 112-113 (Parlasca 1966, p. 40). In an earlier report, the excavators
had stated, in reference to the portrait mummies, that "only one of them [was] in juxtaposi-
tion to a plain mummy dated in the reign of Trajan" (Grenfell and Hunt 1903, p. 2).
The ambiguity of the excavators' statements leaves open the question as to which of the
two portrait mummies was indeed found next to the dated mummy. Of the two portrait
mummies, one is a male depicted with a full Hadrianic beard and curly hair (Fitzwilliam
Museum, Inv. E. 63.1903); the other is a mature woman with a Trajanic hairstyle (Red-
shrouded Mummy No. 12). Edgar 7 and Parlasca 8 assume that the inscribed mummy was
found in proximity to the female portrait mummy (presumably because of the close compat-
ibility of their dates), but the Hadrianic male mummy, separated from the Trajanic era by
at most a forty year span, need not have necessarily been ruled out.
5. Edgar (1905b, p. 226, n. 11) notes that an inscription, dated to the time of Marcus Aurelius
that was "not acquired by the Museum," is said to have come from the same find as two
Hawara portraits which are now in Cairo. Unfortunately, Edgar did not specify precisely
which two portraits in Cairo were associated with the inscription.
6. As a general indicator of date, inscriptions on the mummies provide not only references to
names common in the Roman period but also contain a funerary salutation that points
"decidedly to the Roman period" (Edgar 1905b, p. 226). "EYTYXEI is the ordinary word of
farewell on the funereal inscriptions of Roman Egypt" (ibid., n. 16) and examples on por-
trait mummies are misspelled in a way that is characteristically Koine (e.g., BM 21810:
APTEMIAU1PE EYTXI; Manchester Museum, Inv. 1775: APTEMIAUPE EYTYXI; and Red-
shrouded Mummy No. 16: OEPMOYOAPINEYYYXEI; Petrie 1889, p. 18). 9

DATING INDICATORS PROVED ERRONEOUS

There are also at least two statements cited in the literature as evidence for dating that
have been proved to be erroneous:
1. Petrie lists as an indicator of date "the Pollius Soter series of the age of Hadrian." 10 The
attribution of this series of portraits to the tomb of Pollius Soter, archon at Thebes in the
reign of Hadrian, has been proved erroneous."

7. Edgar (1905b, p. 226) states, "At Hibeh, Messrs. Grenfell and Hunt found a papyrus [sic] of the reign of
Trajan and the mummy of a woman with panel portrait in contiguous graves." Edgar's article was contempo-
rary with the excavator's reports.
8. Parlasca 1966, pp. 40, 191; see also the entry for the female's portrait in Parlasca 1969, p. 54, no. 101
9. See David and van Groningen 1965, p. 17*: "This language shows all peculiarities which characterize the
iowrj as such.... The changes in the pronunciation are evident from the numerous orthographical errors: the
sounds of o and o,e and at, rt and t,ot and v,later even Et, t,oL, and tare mixed incessantly."
10. Petrie 1911, p. 12 (C); Petrie's reference there to "Hawara 16" should read "Hawara 18."
11. Edgar (1905b, p. 227, n. 17) credits that "Wilcken has rightly cast doubt on the identification (Arch. Anz. i.
p. 6)." The question is discussed in detail by Parlasca (1966, pp. 20-21, 44-48), who concludes that the
dates for the individual portraits in the series are not all compatible with a Hadrianic date and although some
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16 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

2. A second erroneous statement, corrected by Edgar (1905b, p. 226 n. 11), appeared in the
1903 Guide to the Cairo Museum that associated a group of portraits with "an inscription of
the reign of Claudius," but "what was really found with it was a group of portrait-stat-
uettes."

DATING THE PORTRAITS

Since there exists not one portrait that is inscribed to a regnal year of a named emperor, the
method of dating the portraits has traditionally been based, for the most part, on two assump-
tions.12 The more general of the two is an agreement among scholars that, despite the differ-
ences in ability among individual artists, the deteriorating economic condition in Egypt during
the Roman period resulted in a continuous decline in the quality of portraits and that "the finer
portraits will be earlier than the poorer" (Petrie 1911, p. 4). The essence of quality, strongly
aligned with painterly style, was first articulated by Drerup (1933) and his definition of quality
as a devolution from naturalism has provided the guideline for the stylistic dating of portraits.
The second assumption is that the hairstyles of men and the hairstyles and jewelry of women
were based upon the fashions set by the Imperial court at Rome. The fundamental dictum is
that "a portrait could not be of an earlier date than when a certain style which is shown in it
came into Imperial fashion" (Petrie 1911, p. 12).
Of the two-men's and women's hairstyles-Petrie (1911, p. 13) proposed that the men's
hairstyles were "more likely to be contemporary with Rome" and the "very familiar figure" of
the emperor. Edgar (1905b, p. 228) lists examples of those specific men's hairstyles that can
be assigned with certainty: bearded men with "the curly luxuriant hair which is so distinctly
characteristic of the Antonine period" and a style "which has the hair above the forehead di-
vided into three conspicuous locks just like the Imperial portraits" of Septimius Severus. Edgar
(ibid., p. 228, no. 27) invalidates, however, the unequivocal statement that "the portraits of
bearded men could not be earlier than Hadrian as it was not until his time that beards came
into fashion," by citing examples of first century stucco masks that depict men with beards (cf.
Bothmer 1960, p. 174). Although women's fashions in the Egyptian province might "easily lag
fifty years behind that of the Empress" (Petrie 1911, p. 13), women's hairstyles tend to be
more easily used for dating than men's as they are, in general, more distinctive.
Women's jewelry has also been used as a criterion for dating. Petrie (1889, p. 19, pl. 10;
idem 1911, pp. 11-12) identified three popular earring styles: (1) the ball-earring, (2) the
hoop-earring, and (3) the bar or pendant earring. Originally presumed by him to be successive,
Petrie (1889, p. 19) became convinced that they "were partly in use at the same time" (Petrie
1911, p. 12), perhaps by Edgar's (1905b, p. 230) persuasive argument that "they do not follow
each other with mechanical regularity." The simpler earring forms do, however, seem to ac-
company the plainer necklaces shown in earlier portraits and "the pendant-earrings go with the
more complex and gaudy forms of necklaces" (Petrie 1911, p. 12) depicted in later portraits.
Obviously, antiquarianism can cause problems here, and "an Antonine matron portrayed
wearing the family heirloom, her great-grandmother's Neronian brooch, can cause some

of the portraits in the group might have come from Thebes, Champollion's registration note assigning them
to the Soter burial was in error. This situation is further discussed by Grimm (1971, pp. 246-52).
12. For a summary of the two assumptions, see Thompson 1982, p. 11. Montserrat (1994, pp. 578-81; pl. 3 1-33)
has introduced a heretofore underutilized method that does not involve evidence from details of the portraits
themselves. He has attempted rather to date the paintings from the paleography of their inscriptions; regret-
tably, however, few of the portraits are inscribed.
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CHRONOLOGY 17

chronological confusion" (Thompson 1976, CHRONOLOGY

p. 11). As with the relative order of the perceived1
quality of the paintings themselves and the fashions of men's and women's hairstyles, the use
of jewelry design as a dating criterion "is of great value if used with caution" (Edgar 1905b, p.
230).

DATE OF PORTRAITS VS. DATE OF MUMMIES

With all of the variability factors considered, the dates arrived at by Parlasca (1969, 1977,
1980) for their individual portraits provided a framework to date the particular body wrappings
associated with the complete portrait mummies of this corpus. The most important factor to be
remembered in the dating of mummies is that in most cases-except for those examples where
the portraits of children (as on Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 1) and adults (as on Red-
shrouded Mummy No. 12) were painted directly onto the burial shrouds-the portraits them-
selves must date somewhat earlier than the type of mummy wrappings in which they were in-
corporated. The difference in time-between the date at which the portrait was commissioned
and the date at which it was included within the funerary wrappings of the deceased-is ex-
emplified by portrait mummy Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Inv. AE 1425 (Parlasca 1966, p. 66).
The portrait depicts a man in his prime, yet direct examination of the head, after removal of
the portrait and wrappings, revealed that the man's beard was white and his teeth were old and
worn. Parlasca suggests that such a portrait of an adult painted directly onto the funerary
wrappings was probably a copy of a portrait that had been made to depict the deceased at a
younger age.
The length of the interval between the date of the idealized portrait and the date of the
manufacture of the mummy is directly related to the average life expectancy. Men and women
in Roman Egypt who did survive to adolescence could have expected to live into their forties
and beyond.13 Census returns list the ages of male heads of households at forty to fifty years
old (David and van Groningen 1965, pp. 6-8). Furthermore, there existed a category for the
poll-tax for those individuals "older than 60 years" (ibid., p. 41, n. 9)14 who were exempt from
payment.
Mummies for which the age at death of the deceased was known could provide valuable
information concerning the time span between portrait date and date of the manufacture of the
mummy. If the problematic example of "Aline" is left aside, whose age at death was given on
her stela as "thirty-five," evidence for an individual's age at death is known in only two cases
for portrait mummies-CG 33237 and Brooklyn Museum, Inv. 11.600 A and B-and
unfortunately only one of these has been preserved intact.
The date for the mummy wrappings of "Demos" (CG 33237), the idealized portrait of
whom depicts an adult woman whose age at death was twenty-four years old,' 5 should have
been more or less contemporary with the Flavian date Parlasca (1966, p. 79) assigned to her
portrait. Unfortunately, the portrait has been separated from its mummy, at least since Edgar's

13. For a careful, statistical analysis of the data from three hundred census returns from Roman Egypt (first to
third century A.D.), see Bagnall and Frier 1994.
14. Persons age 65 and older, however, comprised "only about 3 percent of the total population" (Bagnall and
Frierl1994, p. 104).
15. Her name and age are known from an inscription (CG 33238) that was written ingold on a stuccoed strip of
canvas painted red (Petrie 1889, p. 20, p. 37, pl. 8, no. 4; Edgar 1905a, pp. 92-93). The inscription is now
cataloged as SB 1 1425 = 3963 (see Thieme and Pestman 1978b, p. 227).
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18 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

(1905a, p. 92) description of the isolated portrait in the Cairo catalog of 1905 (perhaps even at
the excavation site by Petrie),' 6 so that all that is known about the body wrappings is Petrie's
(1889, p. 20) ambiguous comment that her inscribed name band had been placed across her
chest over "all the bandages," perhaps implying that the mummy was of the rhombic-wrapped
type.
The inscription on the mummy wrappings of "Demetris (Demetrios?)" initially mis-identi-
fled by Petrie (1911, pl. 26, no. 51) as female, indicates that he died at the age of eighty-nine
(Brooklyn Museum, Inv. 11.600 A and B; Parlasca 1966, p. 79; idem 1969, p. 35). According to
Parlasca, the portrait of Demetris appears to have been painted to represent the individual as
an idealized older man in his fifties. An approximately thirty year time span between the date
of the portrait and the date of the mummy wrappings can then be projected. The portrait is
dated, according to Parlasca, on the basis of the hairstyle and the painterly style, to the late
Flavian period. Although this portrait also has been separated from its mummy, 17 a description
and line-drawing of the wrappings appears in Petrie's excavation report (Petrie 1911, p.20, pl.
21 [center]). The body wrappings belong to the category of red-shrouded portrait mummies
dated to the early part of the second century, (see Red-shrouded PortraitMummies, pp. 28-29,
below). The time span, therefore, between the late Flavian portrait (about A.D. 90) and the
early second century date for the wrappings corresponds exactly to the thirty year interval
between the time at which the portrait was commissioned and the date of death and manufac-
ture of the decorated mummy.
The difference in age between adulthood and death being on the average about a quarter
of a century, 8 some leeway is given in dating a portrait mummy on the late side of the portrait
date. The date for the wrappings of a complete mummy cannot, however, be earlier than the
date for its portrait.

INTERNAL DATING: SEQUENCE-DATING THE MUMMIES

One of the more useful methods in dating the portrait mummies is a system of sequence-
dating. It is used here in two ways. The first involves the dating of mummies of various types
found buried together with the portrait mummies. The second method deals with the identifi-
cation of motifs of dated mummies and the comparison of these motifs with other mummies on
which they appear in order to corroborate or confirm these dates.,

EVIDENCE FROM ASSOCIATED MUMMIES IN GROUP BURIALS

The first method of sequence-dating involves inscribed evidence found in connection with
two types of mummies (the wedge-faced, rhombic-wrapped mummy and the gilt cartonnage
mummy) that were found buried together with portrait mummies. The inscribed evidence
found with the wedge-faced and gilt mummies provides a general chronological range for the
dates of these mummies. If it is accepted that "in der Regel mehr oder minder gleichzeitige

16. Petrie (1911, p1. 26) describes a number of portrait mummies whose body and wrappings were badly rotted.
Those portraits that were in good condition were salvaged from their poorly preserved bodies.
17. "Il ritratto fu nel 1939 staccato dalla mummia perfettamente conservata" (Parlasca 1969, p. 35). The
mummy, in a fragile condition today, is in storage at the museum.
18. Although a percentage of the population lived beyond the average, life expectancy for both men and women
after the age of five was approximately forty-one years (Bagnall and Frier 1994, pp. 89, 108).
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CHRONOLOGY 19

Mumien gemeinsam beigesetzt wurden" (Parlasca 1966, p. 53), then the dates for these types
of mummies can provide a range for the types of portrait mummies found buried with them.
The earlier of the two inscriptions associated with non-portrait mummies found with por-
trait mummies is "a papyrus dated under Tiberius," which was found by Petrie (1889, p. 16)
"in the rubbish just over" a wedge-faced, rhombic-wrapped mummy. Although he cautioned
that "the wedge-faced mummy might have been long buried before the papyrus was written; or
the papyrus might be a century old in rubbish thrown over the mummy," Petrie (1911, p. 12)
concluded that the papyrus was most probably "ten or twenty years old when lost" (ibid., p. 14)
and he suggested a date of about A.D. 40 for the wedge-faced, rhombic-wrapped type of
mummy.
The second inscription, used as evidence for the date of gilt cartonnage mummies, is the
name "TITOX QAAYFIOX AHMHTPIOX" written on the fillet of a gilt head-piece.19 It was
considered by Petrie to be "aught but an error for Titus Flavius Demetrios" (Petrie 1889, p.
16), a name given (or assumed) in honor of the emperor. Petrie deduced that if the deceased
had been born "about A.D. 80, the early stages on these mummies would point to our dating this
example to about A.D. 110" or even as late as "A.D. 140 or more" (ibid.; idem 1911, p. 12).
This date for the early stages of gilt cartonnage mummies, however, resulted in the need for
Petrie to place the date for the introduction of painted portraits "to about A.D. 130 to 140"
(Petrie 1889, p. 17).20 Edgar (1905a, p. 227) considered the date that Petrie proposed for the
beginning of the series of gilt busts (A.D. 110-130)-to which the series of portrait mummies
was related-as "far too late." In an effort to place the earliest painted portraits at the begin-
ning of Roman rule in Egypt, Edgar (1905b, p. iii) demonstrated that the latest date for the
manufacture of the gilt mask of Titus Flavius Demetrius would "scarcely be earlier than A.D.
70, though it need not be much later," and concluded that the earliest portrait mummies would
then date to "the Claudian age" (idem 1905a, p. 230). Although Parlasca (1966, p. 104) gives
A.D. 69 as the terminus ad quem for this particular example, he cautions that the type of
mummy with gilt head-piece probably enjoyed a relatively long popularity and earlier and
later examples are likely to have occurred.
The recovery of portrait mummies from group burials with both wedge-faced, rhombic-
wrapped mummies and mummies with gilt cartonnage head-pieces is therefore a general indi-
cator for dating especially if it is assumed, at least in some cases, as Petrie (1911, p. 3) sug-
gested, that mummies found buried together "were probably nearly all in direct ancestry" al-
though "it is probable that at least two generations are represented, perhaps three." If it is as-
sumed that the time span for wedge-faced mummies and those with gilt head-pieces is from
the beginning of the first century to about the end of the first century, all the portrait mummies
found buried together with mummies of this type should be coeval to them in date or would
date to, at the latest, the first third of the second century.
Tables 3 and 4 list group burials recorded by Petrie from his excavations at Hawara in
which cases the particular mummies involved could be identified. From the 1887-88 excava-
tion, Petrie (1889, p. 15) claims to have recorded "no less than sixteen [portrait mummies] as
being found with other portraits, or with plain mummies, in one grave" but mentions only two
examples specifically. The first is of a group burial that Petrie characterizes as a family burial,
in which the portrait mummy of a woman was found together with those of three children: two
girls whose mummies were equipped with gilt busts and one boy whose portrait, like that of the

19. The piece is described in Petrie 1889, p. 16. Parlasca (1966, p. 104) states that the object is now lost.
20. Petrie (1911, p. 14) later adjusted this starting date for the series to "A.D. 100."
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20 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

adult female, was painted on canvas (ibid., p. 17; Parlasca 1966, pp. 98-99, 113, pl. 9/2).21 In
the second burial the portraits seemed to represent a father and son (Petrie 1911, pp. 4, 11;
Parlasca 1966, p. 52). Petrie discussed a number of group burials in the text and listed all intact
portrait mummies in a catalog (Petrie 1911, pl. 26).

Table 3. Preserved Portrait Mummies from Group Burials with Wedge-faced or Gilt
Mummies Recovered During the 1888 Season of Excavations at Hawara'
Group Date2
GROUP ONE
Two Gilt Busts A.D. 50
Portrait Mummy, BM 21809 A.D. 41-54
Portrait Mummy, CG 33268 A.D. 37-45
1
Information for the composition of this group from the 1888 season at Hawara is from Petrie 1889, p. 17.
2
Dates for the portrait mummies are taken from the dates listed for their respective portraits in Parlasca 1969.

Table 4. Preserved Portrait Mummies from Group Burials with Wedge-faced or Gilt
Mummies Recovered During the 1911 Season of Excavations at Hawara'
Group Date2

GROUP ONE (Nos. 2, 3, and 4) Found with wall of same date that contained a stone with the inscription of
3
Kephalion
One Gilt Bust A.D. 50
One Plain-wrapped A.D. 50
Portrait Mummy, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Inv. E11.139 A.D. 69-96
Portrait Mummy, Royal Scottish Museum, Inv. 1911.201.1 A.D. 115-120
Portrait Mummy, Seabury Western Theological Seminary, No Inventory Number A.D. 50 4
GROUP TWO (Nos. 5 and 6)
Three Gilt Busts A.D. 50
Two Wedge-faced A.D. 50
Portrait Mummy, National Museum of Ireland, Inv. 1911.440 A.D. 50
Portrait Mummy, Staatl. Sammlung Agypt. Kunst, Munich, Inv. 1307 A.D. 70-80
GROUP THREE (Nos. 7, 8, and 9)
One Wedge-faced A.D. 50
One Plain-wrapped A.D. 50
Portrait Mummy, ("face peeled off")
Portrait Mummy, University College, London, Inv. 19610 ca. A.D. 138
Portrait Mummy, Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham, Inv. 11-61 ca. A.D. 1805
GROUP FOUR (No. 10)
Two wedge-faced A.D. 50
Portrait Mummy, Public Museum, Liverpool, Inv. 13.10.1911.25 ca. A.D. 1386
GROUP FIVE (Nos. 12 and 13)
Four Wedge-faced A.D. 50
Portrait Mummy, Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Inv. AE 1425 A.D. 69-80
Portrait Mummy, Girton College, No Inventory Number A.D. 14-37

21. Parlasca accepts the group as consisting of a mother and her children. To this category of family group buri-
als that included portrait mummies and gilt cartonnage mummies could be added the burial of "Aline" and
her children (also accepted as a family burial by Germer, Kischkewitz, and Lining [1993]). The presump-
tion of a familial relationship strengthens the case for a contemporary dating of the mummies.
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CHRONOLOGY 21
GROUP SIX (No. 27)
One Wedge-faced A.D. 50
Portrait Mummy, Manchester Museum, Inv. 53817 ca. A.D. 135

GROUP SEVEN (No. 28)

One Wedge-faced A.D. 50
Portrait Mummy, Manchester Museum, Inv. 5377 A.D. 135

GROUP EIGHT (No. 36)

One Gilt Bust A.D. 50
Portrait Mummy, National Gallery, Inv. 2913 A.D. 117

GROUP NINE (No. 46)

Two Gilt Busts A.D. 50
Portrait Mummy, Ashmolean Museum, London, Inv. 1911.354 A.D. 69-79

GROUP TEN (Nos. 49 and 50)

One Wedge-faced A.D. 50
Portrait Mummy, Re-buried(?) "badly oiled" 8 rhombic
Portrait Mummy, Royal Scottish Museum, Inv. 1951.160 A.D. 98

1Information for the composition of group burials found during the 1911 season at Hawara is taken from Petrie 1911, p. 4 and
pl. 26. The "nos." correspond to the inventory numbers given to the mummies at the excavation site by Petrie. Information
concerning the present location of the mummies was taken from the chart compiled by Parlasca (1966, pp. 251-52).
2
Dates for the portrait mummies are taken from the dates listed for their respective portraits in Parlasca 1969.
3
This inscription has been dated to the Imperial period on the basis of the writing (Bernand 1975, p. 111, no. 57); see Relative
Dating Indicators, No. 3, above.
4
Corcoran Schwabe 1985, p. 193.
5
Due to its group burial with wedge-faced and plain-wrapped mummies, the late Antonine date for the Nottingham portrait
should be reconsidered. See Internal Dating:Sequence-Dating the Mummies, pp. 18-22; see fn. 22, below.
6
Parlasca 1966, p. 50, n. 234. Parlasca (ibid.) refers to the damaged portrait as that of a man although Petrie (1911, pl. 26, no.
10) cataloged this mummy as female.
7
The panel of Manchester Museum, Inv. 5381, was painted on both sides. Each is a portrait for the same individual, but at a
different idealized stage of life. The portraits are dated to the Trajanic and to the late Hadrianic periods. The mummy was
probably manufactured in the late Hadrianic period (Petrie 1911, p. 8; Parlasca 1969, p. 80).
8
Petrie 1911, pl. 26, no. 49.

In all but one case (see table 4, Group Three) in which portrait mummies were found
together with wedge-faced or gilt mummies, the portrait mummies associated with these
burials have been dated by Parlasca to the time period from the beginning of the first century
to the first third of the second century. 22 These dates-arrived at from details in the portraits-
are, however, also complementary to the dates known to have corresponded to the use of gilt
cartonnage mummies and therefore correspond exactly to those that can be determined using a
simple form of sequence-dating. An analysis of the characteristics of the body wrappings and
decoration of these portrait mummies permits the identification of motifs that correspond to
these dates. These motifs are:
1. The use of colored tapes or bandages
2. Gilt buttons (either in the center of rhombs or in a row across the chest or ankles)
3. A painted, cartonnage footcase

22. In light of the fact that the group burial of two men whom Petrie (1911, p. 11) proposed might be "Father
and son"-Nottingham, Museum and Art Gallery, Inv. 11-61 (Parlasca 1977, p. 62, no. 380) and Petrie
Museum, Inv. 19610 (Parlasca 1969, p. 83, no. 211)-also included wedge-faced mummies and a plain-
wrapped mummy, the late Antonine date assigned by Parlasca to the former portrait should be re-evaluated
(see note 5 to table 4, above).
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22 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

4. A red body field covering

5. Numerous and tight rhombic layers
6. Glass or semiprecious stone inlays
7. The addition of a gilt horseshoe-shaped frame

CASE STUDIES IN DATING PROBLEMS

In the literature, there are two cases of group burials of portrait mummies in which the in-
dividual mummies have been dated in terms of their portraits, but later re-dated according to
other criteria. These two cases are noted by Parlasca (1966, pp. 52, 101) as otherwise standing
outside the norm for group burials because the individual mummies in each circumstance
would seem to have been separated from the mummies with which they were found by a time
span greater than fifty years. As a test, these two portrait mummies are examined (below) in
terms of their wrappings and accessories, in relation to the other mummies with which they
were found, and in the context of the mummies of the same type in this corpus, to see whether
the type of body wrapping and accessories employed can be helpful in resolving the dating
dilemma.
The first group is that of a female portrait mummy (Girton College, No Number) that was
found together with four wedge-faced mummies and the portrait mummy of a male (Ny
Carlsberg Glyptothek, Inv. AE 1425). The second group is that of a female portrait mummy
(Mus6es Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Inv. E 4857) and a male portrait mummy (Museum of
Fine Arts, Inv. 11.2891). All of these mummies were excavated in Petrie's 1911 season at
Hawara.

FIRST TEST CASE

Background and Description
The female portrait mummy (Girton College, No Number) is that of an adult.23 It is sixty
one inches in length and sixteen inches at its widest point across the shoulder area. The portrait
is painted in watercolor on coarse burlap-type linen. The exposed painted area is twelve and
one-quarter inches in length and eight and one-quarter inches in width, a relatively large por-
trait field. The body is wrapped in three-eighths inch tapes in an elaborate and tight rhombic
pattern. The feet are carefully wrapped in the same pattern as the body with a diamond-shaped
rhombus centered over each foot. The rhombi are six layers deep with one cross-over. The oc-
tagonal-shaped tape frame about the portrait is seven to eight layers deep. A shroud covers the
back and sides of the head, the lower half of the sides, and the bottom half of the foot wrap-
pings and is secured by the uppermost layer of rhombic tapes. There are no colored tapes, gilt
buttons, nor any trace of a cartonnage footcase.
The Girton mummy was initially dated by Drerup, followed by Gross, to the first half of the
third century A.D. A date in the third century was proposed because of the presumed similarity
of the hairstyle depicted in the portrait to that of the Empress Plautilla seen on coins of the
early third century. Consensus on this date has not been unanimous, however, as the portrait
was dated by Petrie to A .D. 120 and by Mary Swindler to the second century. The span be -

23. The kindness of Miss Janine Bourriau, Acting Keeper of the Egyptian Collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum,
Cambridge, is acknowledged for her introduction to Miss Allison Duke, curator of the collection at Girton
College, University of Cambridge, who facilitated the study of the Girton mummy in March 1986.
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CHRONOLOGY 23

tween the third century date and the Flavian date proposed for the male mummy with which
the Girton mummy was found and the over one hundred year span between this and the first
century dates for all other adult portraits painted on canvas was not sufficient evidence for
Parlasca (1966, p. 101, n. 67) to alter the date for the Girton mummy, but it did prompt him to
re-examine the portrait.
The portrait of the Girton mummy depicts a young woman with hair fixed in a very simple
way, parted in the center and pulled back at each side behind her ears. The same simple
waved hairstyle can be seen on two portraits, CG 33265 and CG 33268. Edgar (1905b, p. 229)
dated CG 33265 to the Claudian period because the hairstyle-"parted in the middle, waved to
each side, and more or less curly round the forehead"-appeared to him to be a simplified
variant of a style in vogue at the time of Claudius (also see Parlasca 1969, p. 45). Petrie (1911,
p. 13) points out, however, that the style lacks "any of the sharp furrows and fussy ear-bunches
characteristic of that fashion."
Although the hairstyle might indicate a date in the early first century, it cannot really, as
Parlasca concluded, be said to be fixed in any "deliberate fashion" (ibid.). Parlasca therefore
deemed the hairstyle inconclusive for dating. He did, however, consider the style of the paint-
ing and concluded that the strong modeling in a very painterly technique, the crisp delineation
of contours, and the use of light and shadow supported a date for the portrait to the time of
Tiberius (A.D. 14-37; see Parlasca 1969, p. 26; Petrie 1911, p. 102).

Comparison Dating
The context of the burials of both CG 33268 and the Girton mummy helps to establish the
proposed early first century date for the Girton portrait. CG 33268, the mummy portrait of a
woman, was found by Petrie in a group burial containing three mummies of small children
(table 3, Group One), presumed by Petrie to have been the woman's own: two girls with gilt
cartonnage busts and one boy with a portrait on canvas. It was this reason-the occurrence of
gilt mummies in the same tomb-that persuaded Parlasca (1969, p. 26) to date CG 33268 with
its simple waved hairstyle to the last years of the reign of Tiberius or the first years of
Claudius.
The Girton mummy was found in a grave together with four wedge-faced mummies and
the portrait mummy of a male (Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Inv. AE 1425; see table 4, Group
Five). 24 Because Parlasca (1969, p. 64) noted that the hair was not visible, he dated the male
portrait to the early Flavian period on the basis of painterly style. The hair can be seen,
however, around the right ear and is cut in a short style not inconsistent with an early first
century date. 25
The body of the male portrait mummy is wrapped in an elaborate rhombic pattern of col-
ored tapes. This body wrapping is similar both to that of Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 5, the
portrait mummy of an infant whose portrait is dated to the first century (Parlasca 1969, p. 38),
and to a male portrait mummy whose portrait is dated by the style of the sharply delineated
features to the reign of Tiberius (Egyptian Museum of the University of Leipzig, Inv. 1653;
Parlasca 1969, p. 34; idem 1966, p. 101). A first century date for the male mummy based on
the hairstyle of the portrait, its painterly style, and the similarity of its body wrappings to that

24. This mummy was studied firsthand in September 1984 with the permission of Dr. Flemming Johansen,
Director of the Antiquities Section of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, and with the kind assistance of Mr.
Mogens Jorgensen, curatorial intern of the Egyptian Department.
25. The hair is clearly visible in the large, color plate in Petrie 1913, pl. 11.
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24 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

of two other mummies with portraits dated to the first century, and an approximate date of A.D.
50 for the wedge-faced mummies found with the Girton mummy point to an early first century
date for the Girton mummy itself.

Conclusionfor FirstTest Case

Similarities in the manufacture of all mummies (i.e., Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Inv. AE
1425; Egyptian Museum of the University of Leipzig, Inv. 1653; and the Girton mummy) with
portraits painted on linen, not wood panels, are that the rhombic wrappings include no gilt but-
tons within the rhombs, or rows of gilt buttons at the chest or ankles, nor do any of these mum-
mies have accessory footcases. Edgar (1905b, p. 231, n. 38) proposed that "some of the early
portraits, perhaps the earliest of all, were on cloth" and cited CG 33268 as an example. The
evidence for the similarity of their body wrappings corroborates evidence from the portraits
that indicates that these mummies were all made about the middle of the first century A.D.
Moreover, the other mummies with which the Girton mummy was found all date to the first
century. Parlasca's re-dating of the Girton mummy to the reign of Tiberius (A.D. 14-37) is
therefore probably correct.

SECOND TEST CASE

Background and Description
The second study involves the re-dating of two other Hawara portrait mummies found
buried together, a male (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Inv. 11.2891) and female (Mus6es
Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Inv. E 4857). The portrait of the male has been dated to the
Antonine period because of the presumed similarity between the hair and beard depicted in the
portrait to that of Emperor Lucius Verus (A.D. 161-169; Petrie 1911, pp. 13-14). Petrie (ibid.,
p. 14) suggested a date for the female mummy of "A.D. 180." The female mummy was initially
considered by Parlasca (1966, pp. 52, 101) to belong to the Trajanic period (A.D. 98-117).
Parlasca (1969, p. 64), however, subsequently re-dated the female portrait to the early
Antonine period (ca. A.D. 138).
A crucial factor in the dating of the female mummy is a dated papyrus fragment that was
found "tucked beneath the bands" (Petrie 1911, p. 23c) of the linen frame surrounding the
portrait (see Relative Dating Indicators, No. 2, above). The document contains references to
events that occurred in the year A.D. 127. Petrie (ibid., p. 12) considered that the document
might have been contemporary to the references in it, but that it had been inserted into the
frame of the wrapped mummy a decade or more after the mummy itself had been manufac-
tured as mummies are believed to have been kept within the home for a period of time after
manufacture and before burial. 26 Petrie (1911, pp. 12-14) concluded, however, that the doc-
ument was probably to be dated to "about A.D. 160" as it was more likely for the document "to
have been searched and copied at a later time." He therefore dated the portrait mummy to
about "A.D. 180."

26. Petrie (1889, p. 15; 1911, pp. 2-3) set forth the idea that mummies were kept in the house for a time before
being sent out to the cemetery in order to explain the damage-bird guano stains, broken and scratched
footcases, etc.-which had occurred to them before burial. This explanation has been generally accepted by
scholars (see Parlasca 1966, p. 120; Thompson, 1982, p. 8). Further evidence for the keeping of wrapped
mummies at home comes from a Greek novella. The significance of this reference was first recognized by J.
Gwyn Griffiths (1978, pp. 433-37). For a discussion of the possible cultic function of portrait mummies, see
Corcoran 1992, pp. 57-60, pl. 7.1; and Chapter5, below.
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CHRONOLOGY 25

The Trajanic date that Parlasca (1966, p. 52) had initially considered for the female por-
trait mummy presented him with the longest gap of time, of which he was aware, between two
mummies found buried together. It was perhaps in an effort to close the fifty year gap between
the date for this female portrait mummy and the late Antonine date assigned to the male por-
trait mummy buried with it that Parlasca (1969, p. 64) re-dated the female portrait mummy to
the early Antonine period. An examination of the body wrappings of both mummies in terms of
their decoration and technique and in relation to the wrappings of other dated mummies helps
to determine whether this re-dating was justified.

Description of Male PortraitMummy, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Inv. 11.2891

The male portrait mummy (Inv. 11.2891) is sixty-five and three-quarter inches in height.27
The portrait, in encaustic on a thin wood panel, depicts an adult male with dark curly hair and
arched bushy brows. He has a thin mustache and thick curly beard. Petrie (1911, pp. 13-14)
thought he saw a similarity between the hair and beard in this portrait to that of the emperor
Lucius Verus (A.D. 161-169) and dated the portrait to about A.D. 170. On stylistic grounds-
due to the use of reflective light and on the basis of hairstyle-Parlasca (1969, p. 59) dated the
portrait to about A.D. 200.
The design of the body wrappings lends some support in the dating of this mummy. The
body is wrapped in a rhombic pattern that is somewhat carelessly executed. There are no gilt
buttons and no strips of buttons at the chest or ankle. At the center of each rhombus, however,
is a square of darkened linen that would have produced a decorative colored pattern similar to
the designs of another mummy (Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Inv. AE 1425, see Conclusionfor
First Test Case, p. 24, above), dated to the last half of the first century. And although there is
no longer any trace of it remaining, Petrie's entry (1911, pl. 26) for the male portrait mummy
(Inv. 11.2891) indicates that it originally was equipped with a cartonnage footcase (see p. 32
for the dating of this accessory to before the first half of the second century). These factors
indicate a somewhat earlier date for the mummy than that deduced from the hairstyle.
Evidence from the body wrappings of the Boston mummy preclude a unilateral dating of the
male mummy to the late Antonine period and provide for flexibility in the dating of its com-
panion piece.

Descriptionof Female PortraitMummy, Musees Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire,Inv. E 4857

The female portrait mummy (Inv. E 4857) is that of an adult. 28 The portrait is executed in
encaustic on a wood panel and is bordered by a gilt stucco frame in the shape of a horseshoe
that is inlaid with colored glass. The body is wrapped in a rhombic pattern six layers deep.

27. Dr. William Kelly Simpson, former Curator of the Department of Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, kindly granted permission for the examination of the rhombic-wrapped
mummy (Inv. 11.2891) in June 1984. Also gratefully acknowledged is the cooperation of Miss Mimi
Leveque, conservator, and Ms. Sue D'Auria of the Egyptian Department, under whose supervision the
mummy was CT-scanned. The mummy was most recently studied in April 1987 in preparation for writing,
"Portrait Mummy of a Man" (Corcoran 1988f).
28. Musdes Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Inv. E 4857, is the only mummy discussed in detail here that has not
been examined firsthand. Parlasca (1969, p. 64) states that he was unable to provide measurements for the
portrait in his corpus because at the time he collected information for the entry "non essendo accessibile il
magazzino dove la mummie e conservata." Details concerning the body decoration for this mummy have,
therefore, been taken from Petrie 1911, pl. 26.
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26 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

There are gilt buttons inserted within the rhombic body pattern and one row of gilt buttons
across the chest. The feet are covered by a gilt footcase.
The portrait depicts a mature woman with hair parted in the center and pulled back at each
side to create a triangular space at the forehead. 29 Spirals of curls cascade over each ear. A
large pearl at the top of her head appears to be the head of a hairpin that holds in place her
tight upswept bun. Parlasca (1969, p. 64, no. 137) concedes, in his description of a similar
hairstyle, that "il contorno triangolare della fronte era usuale al tempo di Traiano." The hairpin
is also commonly found on late Flavian portraits to secure the upswept bun (Edgar 1905b, p.
229). Parlasca concludes, however, that this must be somehow an updated Antonine version of
the earlier style.

Conclusion for Second Test Case and Additional Observations

The body wrapping and accessories provide evidence to corroborate a Trajanic date for the
Brussels portrait; for comparison, see the portrait of Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 2, which is
dated to the Trajanic period (A.D. 110-120) by its hairstyle, similar to that of the Brussels por-
trait (Inv. E 4857) and analogous to the hairstyle depicted in portraits of the empress Plotina
(ibid., p. 229; Parlasca 1977, p. 34). The body wrappings of Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 2
also provide numerous points of comparison with the Brussels portrait mummy (Inv. E 4857).
First, both contain gilt buttons within the rhombic patterning. Second, the chest strip of
Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 2 contains inlaid glass and semiprecious stones in analogy to
the glass inlays of the frame of the Brussels portrait mummy (Inv. E 4857).3 0 Last of all, both
mummies are embellished by the addition of a painted, cartonnage footcase.
In a list of intact portrait mummies, Petrie (1911, pl. 26) cites eighteen mummies that were
equipped with footcases (see table 5). Of these eighteen, thirteen portraits have survived. The
dates for the preserved examples from among this group, which are based on their portraits, all
fall between the mid-first century to the Hadrianic period (A.D. 50-138). The Antonine date
assigned by Parlasca to the Brussels portrait mummy (Inv. E 4857) and the Boston portrait
mummy (Inv. 11.2891) causes them to stand out as isolated exceptions to these others.
Further evidence to support a re-dating to the early second century for the Brussels portrait
mummy (Inv. E 4857) comes from the addition to its panel portrait of a gilt stucco frame.
Parlasca (1977, p. 59, no. 366) states that "riquadri a ferro di cavello non sono piu documentati
per Hawara dopo il II sec." Indeed, examples from this corpus indicate that all Hawara mum-
mies equipped with a frame of this type are datable to no later than the first half of the second
century. All evidence from the body wrappings indicates, therefore, that Parlasca's initial dat-
ing of the Brussels portrait mummy (Inv. E 4857) to the Trajanic period was probably correct.

Conclusionfor Case Studies in Dating Problems

The results achieved by these two test cases underlie the importance for context in the
dating of portrait mummies. The evidence from details of the portraits does not need to be re-
lied upon alone to date these objects. Rather, evidence from the portraits should be used in
conjunction with information from other mummies found in group burials and from the design
of the body wrappings to confirm and corroborate these dates.

29. For a description and photograph of the portrait, see Parlasca 1969, p. 64, pl. 32, no. 5.
30. Bianchi (1983, pp. 14-16) places the use of contiguous glass inlays and "feigned semiprecious stones" that
"serve as framing elements" in the time range of the second century A.D.
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CHRONOLOGY 27

Table 5. Portrait Mummies with Footcases from the 1911 Season at Hawara
Petrie'sNo.1 PresentLocation2 Date3

1. 3. Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Museum, Inv. 1911.210.1 A.D. 117

2. 11. Lost
3. 15. Reburied
4. 18. Brussels, Musees Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Inv. E 4857 A.D. 180
5. 19. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Inv. 11.2891 A.D. 170
6. 21. = 4.4 Chicago, Seabury Western Theological Seminary, No Inventory Number A.D. 75
7. 22. "Eaten by ants"
8. 23. London, National Gallery, Inv. 2915 AD. 117-138
9. 24. "Traces only"
10. 25. Cairo, Egyptian Museum, Inv. prov. 30/19/14/8 [= No. 9] A.D. 50
11. 27. Manchester, Manchester Museum, Inv. 5381 A.D. 1355
12. 30. Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Inv. 11.2892 A.D. 50
13. 36. London, National Gallery, Inv. 2913 A.D. 117
14. 38. ("reserved")
15. 42. Philadelphia, University Museum, Inv. E. 462 A.D. 117 or 3256
16. 43. London, University College, Inv. 19607 A.D. 117
17. 46. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, Inv. 1911.354 A.D. 75
18. 50. Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Museum, Inv. 1951.160 A.D. 100
1The sample is taken from Petrie 1911, pl. 26.
2
The present locations of the mummies in the sample (with the exception of No. 6) were taken from the chart compiled by
Parlasca (1966, pp. 251-52).
3
Dates are taken from the dates listed for the respective portraits by Parlasca (1969, 1977, 1980).
4
Corcoran Schwabe 1985, p. 190, n. 3.
5
This panel was painted on both sides with a portrait of the same individual, but each was painted to idealize a different stage
of his life, the younger dated "al regno di Traiano, gli altri due sono del tempo di Adriano" (Parlasca 1969, p. 80). See table
4, note 7.
6
Parlasca (1980, p. 31) dates the portrait to the reign of Constantine, although he admits that the hairstyle is typically Trajanic.
The early fourth century date should be reassessed due to the conclusions reached for the end of the series of portrait
mummies at Hawara (see Conclusions, pp. 32-34, below) and due to the description of the type of wrappings (specifically,
the addition of the cartonnage footcase).

DATING PROBLEMS WITHIN THE CORPUS

Several of the portrait mummies described in the Catalog of PortraitMummies present dis-
crepancies between the dates assigned to their respective portraits and the dates suggested by
their body coverings.
RHOMBIC-WRAPPED PORTRAIT MUMMIES
The first test case involved the re-dating of a rhombic-wrapped portrait mummy (Girton
College, No Number) from the middle of the third century to the middle of the first century
A.D. The dates assigned to Rhombic-wrapped Mummies Nos. 10 and 11, in the collection of the
Graeco-Roman Museum, Alexandria, deserve a similar reappraisal.

1. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 10

The first portrait mummy is that of an adult male. It is sixty-four and one-quarter inches in
length, and sixteen and seven-eighths inches across the shoulder area. The body is wrapped in
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28 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

a careful rhombic pattern with the addition of gilt buttons within the rhombi and a strip of gilt
buttons across the chest. The rhombi are six layers deep with one cross-over. A shroud covers
the back and sides of the head and the lower half of the sides. The base of the mummy is dam-
aged (bandages are loose), but the remains of an added cartonnage footcase are preserved.
Parlasca (1977, p. 61) dates the portrait "dallo stile" to the late Antonine period. However,
the technique of the body wrappings indicates a date earlier than that. The gilt buttons, gilt
chest strip, and careful deep rhombi indicate a date in the late first or the early part of the sec-
ond century. The addition of a footcase indicates a date no later than the first half of the sec-
ond century.

2. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 11

The second portrait mummy is that of an adult male, fifty-eight and one-half inches in
length, and fourteen inches across the shoulder area. The body is wrapped in one-half inch
tapes in a careful and tight rhombic pattern that is accentuated by alternating black and plain
colored linen. The rhombi are four layers deep with one cross-over. Gilt buttons are inlaid
within the rhombi and a row of gilt buttons forms a band across the chest. The portrait, in en-
caustic on wood, is embellished by the addition of a carved and gilt horseshoe-shaped frame. A
shroud covers the back and sides of the head (obscuring the octagonal fabric opening about the
portrait), the lower half of the sides, and the bottom of the foot wrappings. The feet are en-
cased in a cartonnage footcase.
Parlasca (1977, p. 59) states that "lo stile del ritratto fa pensare a una datazione verso la
meta del III sec.," but because of the horseshoe-shaped frame, he concludes that it must be
"un'opera piuttosto sommaria dell meta del II sec." The design of the body wrappings-the use
of gilt buttons, the tight colored bandaging, a horseshoe-shaped frame, and the addition of a
painted cartonnage footcase-indicates a date in the late first or early second century.

RED-SHROUDED PORTRAIT MUMMIES

A letter 31 from the second (or third) century A.D. details the circumstances of a woman who
is sending to her brother the wrapped mummy of their mother for burial. The woman describes
the mummy so that her brother can identify it with certainty. She writes that in addition to their
mother's name having been written above the abdominal cavity (E'tt trfg lKotXW) of the
mummy and on a wooden tag tied around the neck (KcT'cT& toi0tpa 'Xou), the mummy is
painted the color of roses (Egyov Xpfi g~ 568tvov). This letter provides a general time frame in
which to date the red-shrouded mummies. One portrait mummy in particular, Red-shrouded
Mummy No. 16, fits the description in the letter very well. It is that of a woman named
Thermoutharin, whose name is known from the inscription in gilt stucco on the mid-section of
the mummy, and whose mummy wrappings consist of a solid stucco casing that was painted
red on the underside (back) and overpainted a bright pink on the front.

1. Red-shroudedMummies Nos. 14 and 15

Parlasca (1969, p. 71) dates the portrait of Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14 "agli ultimi anni
del regno di Traiano o ai primi di quello di Adriano (ca. A.D. 117)." He notes the horseshoe-
shaped frame in assigning a provenience to the mummy. The frame, in addition to being char-
acteristic of mummies from Hawara, is also typical of a date before the end of the second half

31. The letter is P. Par. 18bis = W. Chr. 499; see Thieme and Pestman 1978b, pp. 230-31.
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CHRONOLOGY 29

of the second century. The presence of a cartonnage footcase is further evidence for an early
second century date.
Parlasca (1977, p. 59) has proposed, however, a fifty year gap between Red-shrouded
Mummies Nos. 14 and 15, as he assigns the portrait of No. 15 to the late Antonine period. Yet,
the body wrappings of these red-shrouded mummies present such similarity in construction and
design as to have prompted Edgar (1905a, p. 78) to refer to them as being the "same type."
The full length of each of the body wrappings is divided into horizontal registers that contain
funerary scenes. Although the artistic execution precludes the designs having been produced
by the same artist, the repertoire of scenes and stylistic technique strongly suggest that the two
pieces are the products of the same workshop. Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15 also has a car-
tonnage footcase, which points to an early second century date. Evidence from the body
wrappings suggests that these two mummies should be closely dated and that perhaps the late
Antonine date assigned to the portrait of Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15 should be reassessed.
Both Red-shrouded Mummies Nos. 14 and 15 should be dated to the first third of the second
century, 3 2 a time during which red-shrouded mummies enjoyed their popularity.

2. Red-shrouded Mummy No. 17

This portrait mummy (excavated in the 1980s by the Egyptian Antiquities Organization)
has been included in the red-shrouded group, although it is unique in that it is (1) the only
example in which the portrait was drawn on a sheet of papyrus, and (2) although the body is
encased in a stiff stucco shell, the body is undecorated in any way.
The draftsmanship of the portrait painting on papyrus resembles that of the portrait on linen
of a stucco shroud (Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Inv. 11652), which Parlasca (1969, p. 30) dates
to the later Claudian years (A.D. 54), and that of a mummy portrait (University of Heidelberg,
Egyptian Institute, Inv. 1021), also on linen, which Parlasca dates (ibid., p. 38) to the second
half of the first century. The hairstyle of the young man on papyrus (Red-shrouded Mummy
No. 17), however, is not the fringed clip of the Claudian years (A.D. 41-54). Its fullness more
closely resembles the loose and longer fashion of the Hadrianic period. Although the men of
the second century are usually shown with beards or mustaches, this young man has no facial
hair, not even a wispy, scraggly beard such as appears in other first century examples. 33 In this
way (lack of facial hair), the portrait of Red-shrouded Mummy No. 17 resembles another
mummy portrait in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Inv. 18.9.2), which Parlasca
(1969, p. 73) dates nevertheless to the first years of Hadrian (A.D. 117) or the early Antonine
period (A.D. 138). A date in the early part of the second century for the technique of the body
wrapping would corroborate a date in the Hadrianic era for the portrait.

STUCCO PORTRAIT MUMMIES

The third group of portrait mummies, the stucco mummies, can be divided into two types
(see Methodology, pp. 7-8, above). The first, and perhaps earlier, are those mummies with
portraits on wood panels, the body fields of which are completely covered with a gilt stucco
casing. Although certain red-shrouded portrait mummies also have hard stucco casings and
could be included here, they are more effectively cataloged with the other red-shrouded

32. See Parlasca 1966, p. 190, in which he states that "von diesen [red-shrouded portrait mummies] scheint
keines junger zu sein als das erste Drittel des 2. Jh."
33. Compare the men's beards on Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Inv. 13277, or Pushkin Museum, Inv. 4229/1 la
5749, in Parlasca 1966, pl. 36, nos. 1, 2.
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30 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

examples. The stucco mummies included here have casings that are completely gilt and, unlike
the red examples, contain glass or semiprecious stone inlays. The similarity of these gilt stucco
carapaces to gilt stucco masks and busts prompted Petrie (1889, p. 17) to suggest that they
were directly descended from such earlier works. The second type of stucco mummy might be
as much a regional variant as a chronological one 34 as examples of this type are, at present,
known only from the Saqqara necropolis. Yet, decorative elements within the scheme appear
to contain precedents for Byzantine motifs and might, therefore, indicate a late date. This
portrait mummy type is decorated with raised stucco designs on a canvas shroud and the
portrait is painted directly on the gessoed shroud.

Type One: Gilt Stucco Casings

1. Stucco Mummy No. 18
This gilt stucco mummy of a young boy is not included in Parlasca's corpus because only a
few fragments of the painted portrait are still in place. The body decoration is, however, intact
and is similar to Stucco Mummy No. 19, which is the mummy of a young girl whose portrait
has been dated by Parlasca (1969, p. 49) on the basis of hairstyle "fra la meta del I secolo e il
periodo post-traianeo," 35 although he adds that the date most likely for the portrait is "al tempo
di Adriano." 36 The abundance of jewelry that Parlasca (1969, p. 49) described as "di gusto
quasi bizantino" is a factor which prompted Edgar (1905a, p. xii, n. 2) to suggest that this type
of mummy might "go very well with a later date" and also corresponds with the ornate
additions to the stucco portrait mummies from Saqqara that have been dated to the mid-third
century. If the second stucco group does date to this later period, it would appear that as the
standard of living continually fell, the women of the mummy portraits were portrayed with
ever more elaborate jewelry.
Using a system of cross-dating, motifs in the decoration of the stuccoed body can be identi-
fied that can help to date the gilt stucco portrait mummy (type one) to the first quarter of the
second dentury. Although stylistic differences between the two (especially noticeable in the
rendering of the figure of Anubis) indicate that the artist of Stucco Mummy No. 18 was not as
skilled as that of Stucco Mummy No. 19, the scenes in the horizontal registers of both Stucco
Mummies Nos. 18 and 19 are identical. These scenes are from the same limited repertoire of
scenes depicted on the red-shrouded portrait mummies dated to the early part of the second
century.
Two other factors that indicate an early second century date are the addition of a stylized
horseshoe-shaped frame which is molded in stucco around the portrait of Stucco Mummy No.
18, and the use of inlaid glass and semiprecious gems. It was shown in the Second Test Case,
pp. 24-27, above, how the use of both stones and glass on chest strips (Rhombic-wrapped
Mummy No. 2) and portrait frames (Mus6es Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Inv. E 4857) is com-
patible with a date in the Trajanic period.

34. Edgar (1905a, p. vi) cautioned that "one must beware of mistaking local differences for chronological ones."
35. The ornament in the young girl's hair is shown on another portrait dated to the Trajanic period (Parlasca
1969, p. 53, no. 98).
36. Parlasca (1966, pp. 116-17) had concluded in a discussion of the mummy, however, that due to the lack of
paint on the gilt surface, the mummy belonged to the late first century.
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CHRONOLOGY 31

Type Two: Stuccoed Shrouds

The second group of stucco mummies are those that have the portrait painted directly onto
a stuccoed and decorated shroud. Of the four examples of this type in the corpus (Stucco
Mummies Nos. 20, 21, 22, and 23), three have a known provenience: the necropolis at
Saqqara.

1. Stucco Mummy No. 22

The first example in this category is the portrait mummy of an adult woman with raised
stucco designs. The back of the head and the underside of the foot covering also contain
painted funerary designs. The portrait is painted directly onto the body field shroud and is sur-
rounded by a horseshoe-shaped stucco frame inlaid with stones. The body field is divided into
horizontal registers that depict funerary scenes. The registers are divided by raised stucco
bands inlaid with gilt stucco buttons.
Parlasca (1977, p. 67) has revised his initial dating of the portrait "per lo stile e per il tipo
di acconciatura" from between A.D. 220-230 to A.D. 330-350 (Parlasca 1985, p. 103, pl. 4c).
Aspects of the body decoration that are similar to the design of portrait mummies from the
early second century-the horseshoe-shaped frame, the use of inlaid glass, the figure of Sokar-
Re at the head, 37 as well as the scene depicting the "baptism of pharaoh," which is a part of the
repertoire of scenes shown on second century red-shrouded portrait mummies (see pp. 59-60,
below)-point to this mummy as being one of the earliest of the type of stuccoed mummies
from Saqqara. The highly modeled crown that the young woman wears is the same type as the
crown shown worn by the emperor and his son(s) in the famous Berlin rondo depicting the
family of Septimius Severus (A.D. 200-210) (Staatliche Museen, Antikenabteilung, Inv.
31329).38 A late second or early third century date for this mummy therefore seems probable.

2. Stucco Mummy No. 20

Two almost identical portrait mummies also belong to the category of stuccoed mummies
from Saqqara, both of which are adult female mummies (Stucco Mummies Nos. 20 and 21). In
the photograph of Stucco Mummy No. 20 published by Edgar (1905a, pl. 47 [left]), the portrait
can be seen to have suffered a great deal of loss of stucco and paint, especially at the forehead
and across the lower part of the face at the mouth. The mummy itself has collapsed along its
entire length, apparently a hazard with this type of mummy as the same thing has happened to
Stucco Mummy No. 22. The similarity in body decoration, however, indicates that Stucco
Mummies Nos. 20 and 21 are both from the same workshop and should be closely dated.
The design of a fragmentary shroud, Stucco Mummy No. 23, is similar to the arrangement
of the body field in squares with raised stucco designs, within which are single figures or vi-
gnettes. Parlasca (1980, pp. 46-48) dates the portraits of both Stucco Mummies Nos. 21 and 23
to the middle of the fourth century, placing these examples at the very end of the series of por-

37. This figure appears on many late first century plaster heads, e.g., the figure of Sokar-Re on the back view of
CG 33131 in Edgar 1905a, pl. 12 (center). The kneeling female figure (Nut? Maat? Isis? Nephthys? or the
deceased herself?) on the underside of the foot cover of Stucco Mummy No. 22 finds a parallel in the figure
on the upper part of the back of the plaster bust shown in Castiglione 1961, fig. 18.
38. See photograph in Thompson 1976, fig. 55. This same plastic wreath, which Edgar (1905a, p. xi) describes
as being "characteristically Byzantine," appears on the stuccoed shrouds from Deir el-Bahri, which are dis-
cussed by Parlasca (1966, pp. 207-09). Although these shrouds have been dated to the fourth century, they
might be somewhat earlier, cf. Corcoran 1988d, p. 214.
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32 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

trait mummies in Egypt. The ram of Mendes motif, however, which appears on both Stucco
Mummies Nos. 22 and 23, provides a link between the "earlier" (type one) and "later" (type
two) stucco types and points again to the possibility that the differences between the two types
might be due to regional rather than chronological differences.

IMPLICATIONS OF THE CHRONOLOGY

The dates arrived at for the body decoration of portrait mummies can be used in the dating
of mummies with missing or damaged portraits as well as mummies with similar body decora-
tion but without painted portraits. For example, a wedge-faced mummy (Karanis/Kom Oshim,
Inv. 440) of the wedge-faced type described by Petrie but embellished by the use of three col-
ors of tapes in the rhombic patterning and by the addition of gilt buttons can thusly be dated to
the late first or early second century. Sequence-dating may also be applied in the case of a gilt
stucco mummy (Graeco-Roman Museum, Inv. 27808),39which has no portrait (the gilt mask
belonging to it was vandalized), that can be dated to the first quarter of the second century
A.D.40 by a comparison of elements of its body decoration similar to those of portrait mummies.

CONCLUSIONS
Traditionally, the painterly style and elements of the portraits themselves-particularly
jewelry and hairstyles-have been used to date the mummy portraits and subsequently their
intact mummies. The idea of painterly style as a criterion for dating portraits is, however,
susceptive to subjective interpretation. The use of hairstyles, especially the hairstyles of men,
which are less distinct at all dates than those of women, also cannot be relied on for dating.
Moreover, it is perhaps best, for dating purposes, not to rely solely on the authenticity of details
in works of art that were produced to fulfill religious requirements within an Egyptian context,
not classical milieu.
If the best that can be done using the portraits, therefore, is to suggest a relative chronol-
ogy, then other criteria that can provide additional information for dating purposes must be
considered. First in significance should be the context of group burials, of particular importance
being the types of mummies with which portrait mummies have been found to be buried.
Secondly, the details of the body wrappings themselves should be considered. The following
are the dating criteria and conclusions that have been discussed:
1. Colored tapes and bandages appear most frequently on mummies with portraits dated to
the first century.
2. Gilt buttons are mostly associated with mummies whose portraits date through the first
century to the early second century.
3. Cartonnage footcases appear on mummies (typically from Hawara) with portraits that
mostly date from the late first to the early second century.

39. Dr. Henri Riad is acknowledged for his kindness in calling attention to this mummy in the collection of the
Graeco-Roman Museum, Alexandria. Dr. Riad was Curator of the museum at the time the mummy was reg-
istered into the collection.
40. Robert S. Bianchi (pers. comm., January 21, 1987) concurred that an early second century date for the
mummy seemed most probable.
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CHRONOLOGY 33
CHRONOLOGY
4. Portrait mummies with body fields covered with decorated, red-painted shrouds date to 3
the early second century.
5. Wrappings consisting of the deepest layers of rhombs, tightly interwoven, appear to be
associated with portraits dated to the second century.
6. Glass and semiprecious stone inlays on rhombic-wrapped mummies (framing the portrait
or inserted in chest strips) and on stucco mummies are associated with portraits dated to
the second century.
7. The addition of a horseshoe-shaped frame with stuccoed designs of tendrils and leaves,
which is seen on both rhombic-wrapped and red-shrouded mummies, is associated with
portraits from Hawara that date to the early second century. This feature appears in a
modified form on gilt stucco portrait mummies with inlaid glass and semiprecious stones,
that therefore date to no earlier than the second century.
8. Stucco mummies (typically from Saqqara) with body fields decorated with raised mod-
eled designs date to the late third or early fourth century.
In general, the earliest portrait mummies (those dating to the first century A.D.) are
wrapped in the most simple, yet careful, manner. The decoration of mummy wrappings asso-
ciated with portraits dated to the second century and later are more elaborate and contain
added elements.
A criticism of this dating technique might be that it is circular: dating criteria for the body
wrappings are identified from categories of wrappings whose dates have been obtained from
the portraits, yet some mummies (and subsequently their portraits) should be re-dated because
of criteria from the body wrappings. There have been many cases, however, in which dates for
the mummy portraits have been modified up or down depending upon stylistic criteria alone,
which, although it should be objective, tends to produce widely varying results. 4' Parlasca has
created a precedent for the re-dating of portraits due to more persuasive evidence from the
body decoration. For example, he chose to re-date to the middle of the second century a por-
trait that he had considered, on the basis of style, to belong to the mid-third century because it
had a horseshoe-shaped frame (Parlasca 1977, p. 59, no. 366 [Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No.
11]). In another example, where the top of the panel-and therefore all evidence of the styling
of the hair-had been lost, the portrait was dated solely on the basis of "il tipo dell'involucro
della mummia" (Parlasca 1969, p. 70, no. 158 [Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Inv. AE 1426]). In
the cases in this chapter where it was found necessary to re-date mummies, the re-dating has
always been to an earlier period. The dates for the portraits of these mummies must need then
be reappraised as a mummy cannot have been made at a date earlier than the date at which its
associated portrait was painted.
In the Catalog of PortraitMummies, the portrait mummies have been divided into three
categories based upon their distinctive body decorations: (1) rhombic, (2) red-shrouded, and
(3) stucco. These designs are not "to be regarded as successive stages of development" but
"are to a large extent contemporary" (Edgar 1905a, p. xii). As a general statement, the rhom-
bic-wrapped mummies appear, however, to be among the earliest examples (see First Test
Case, pp. 22-24, above) and date from the early first century. The red-shrouded and gilt stucco

41. Montserrat (1994, p. 578) recounts discrepancies in dating mummy portraits where the dates have varied
"by over a century." A similar phenomenon has occurred with the dating of Roman period female statues
bearing attributes of the goddess Isis, in which two scholars analyzing the same material on stylistic grounds
have arrived at widely divergent dates (see Bianchi 1993, pp. 200-01).
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34 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

mummies appear to be most common during the early part of the second century. The
mummies with stuccoed shrouds lie at the end of the series.
These findings must be placed in the context of provenience, however, which is discussed
in the next chapter. Due to the unfortunate history of the recovery of portraits, most of the ex-
amples of intact portrait mummies come from the careful excavations of Petrie at Hawara. The
range of examples from Hawara seems to fall toward the early end of the series: from the first
century to the middle of the second century A.D. Examples from other sites, such as
Antinoopolis and Saqqara, appear to be on the late end of the series.
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PROVENIENCE
THE SUITABILITY OF THE EPITHET "FAYOUM"
After reading an early draft of this manuscript, Professor Klaus Baert cautioned that in the
future editors would want to change the designation "portrait mummy" to the more familiar
"mummy portrait." This study deals, however, with evidence not from the portraits alone but
also from the complete design of intact, wrapped mummies with painted faces (on panel
boards or linen): mummies for which Petrie coined the term "portrait mummies."' The question
of whether or not such a painted face, regardless of its success or failure to convey an in-
dividual presence, was actually a "portrait" in the modem sense of the word is moot, just as it
would be if asked in reference to any painted or sculpted image from ancient Egypt. The des-
ignation "portrait mummy" is retained because of its history in the literature.
Isolated panel portraits, commonly called mummy portraits, have also been called Fayoum
portraits. It is said that J. Paul Getty circumvented his "avowed intention not to buy Egyptian
art," presumably because of its inherently funerary nature, by purchasing six objects that were
designated "Fayum portraits" (Thompson 1982, p. 1). In addition to these pieces having been
isolated from their physical wrappings and purchased strictly as panel paintings, the avoidance
of the term "mummy" in connection with them disassociated the objects in any way from their
funereal context. Isolated panel portraits continue to be referred to by egyptologists, 2 classi-
cists, 3 and art historians 4 as Fayoum portraits, but is that designation either accurate or appro-
priate? The use of the term "Fayoum" emphasizes the belief that all of these portraits were
produced in the Fayoum, a popular district for Greek settlers.
The recovery of portraits has not, however, been limited to the Fayoum area (see map 1).5
Although a greater number of portraits has been found in the cemeteries of the Fayoum (see
map 2), particularly at the site of Hawara (Petrie 1889, 1911, 1913) and in and around er-

1. Petrie used the term "portrait mummy" throughout his descriptions of the first season's finds at Hawara be-
ginning with his first reference to them in Petrie 1889, p. 15.
2. See the statements by Russmann (1984, p. 55, entry no. 55): "The immediacy of a Fayum portrait such as
this one ... " and "Fayum portraits are named after the part of Egypt in which they were found."
3. Thompson (1976, pp. 7-8) acknowledged the discrepancies associated with this epithet but nevertheless
published an article (idem 1975) on the subject entitled "Four 'Fayum Portraits' in the Getty Museum," most
probably because of their institutional affiliation and the views of Mr. Getty.
4. Jacques-Edouard Berger refers to a number of portraits from Antinoopolis in his chapter, "I ritratti del
Fayyum" (Parlasca, Berger, and Pintaudi 1985, pp. 21-57).
5. For a detailed summary of the find sites known for mummy portraits as of 1966, see Parlasca 1966, pp. 18-
58.
35
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36 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

Rubayyat, 6 portraits have been recovered from Saqqara 7 to Nubia. 8 Large numbers also come
from Middle Egypt, particularly Antinoopolis. 9 Two intact portrait mummies were

Map 1. Map of Egypt Indicating Find Sites for Mummy Portraits

(adapted from Parlasca 1966, Karte B; Baines and Milek 1980, p. 43)

6. The reader is referred to the recovery of portraits funded by the Viennese art dealer Theodor Graf (see
Parlasca 1966, pp. 23-24).
7. The first portrait mummies imported into Europe were discovered at Saqqara in 1615 by Pietro Della Valle
(see Parlasca 1966, p. 18, n. 5).
8. George A. Reisner (1908, p. 17) reported that rock-cut tomb No. 204 of Cemetery 24 at Dabod was found to
be "simply packed with mummies, ... [and] also contained fragments of three characteristic portraits on
wood (Hawara portraits)." Compare Reisner 1910, p. 175, where Reisner describes the find as consisting of
"fragments of two wooden portrait panels" (emphasis added).
9. The portraits from Antinoopolis come mainly from the excavations of Albert Gayet for the Mus6e Guimet,
France (see Parlasca 1966, p. 124; Thompson 1972, pp. 6-25).
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PROVENIENCE 37

excavated at el-Hibeh.' 0 In 1902 Lady William Cecil discovered a portrait near the entrance to
a rock tomb at Aswan, and a panel alleged to have been a fragmentary portrait was found at
el-Kharga (Parlasca 1966, p. 48), but the object has since been identified as the side panel of a
coffin." Although Parlasca (1966, pp. 43-48) casts doubt upon the credibility of the prove-
nience of a portrait mummy and portraits claimed to have a Theban origin, and Grimm (1971,
pp. 246-52) concurred with this conclusion after his analysis of evidence available up to that
time, an excavation at the Assasif under the direction of Ehrhart Graefe (1975, pp. 37-38) un-
covered fragments of wooden panel portraits in Theban tomb 196. The most recent finds, and
the northernmost finds of mummies of this type, have been made in the Western Delta at
Marina el-Alemain. 12

X Mummy Portrait Find Sites

* Other Sites

0 20 40 miles c :

KARANIS

FAYOUM HAWARA X

X EL-LAHUN Z

EL-GHARAK NILE VALLEY

Map 2. Map of the Fayoum Indicating Find Sites for Mummy Portraits
(adapted from Parlasca 1966, Karte A; Baines and Milek 1980, p. 121)

The designation "Fayoum portrait" is not, therefore, correct in a strict sense as all portraits
of this type cannot claim the Fayoum as their find site. The term "mummy portrait" (even
though the original function of most of these portraits may have been non-funerary in nature) 13
and the related term "portrait mummy," first employed by Petrie, are thus preferable. Yet the
tenacious epithet "Fayoum portrait" may be appropriate in a more general sense, if it is seen
as characterizing the cultural milieu, typified by the life-styles of those cosmopolitan cities of
the Fayoum, which fostered the production of these works.

10. The excavations at el-Hibeh, in search of papyri, were directed by Bernard P. Grenfell and Arthur S. Hunt,
on behalf of the Egypt Exploration Fund. For the discovery of the el-Hibeh portrait mummies, see Grenfell
and Hunt 1903, p. 2; idem 1906, p. 4.
11. Klaus Parlasca, pers. comm., July 14, 1994.
12. Portrait mummies were discovered near Marina el-Alemain by the 1991 expedition of the Polish Center of
Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw, under the direction of Wiktor Daszewski, working in
cooperation with the Egyptian Antiquities Organization. For a notice of the find and a photograph of four
mummies of the rhombic-wrapped type (the total number found is not given), see Leclant and Clerc 1992,
pp. 216-17, pl. 9, fig. 5.
13. Two fragments of portrait panels were found at Karanis, "not in graves, but in houses" (Root 1979, p. 56). At
Hawara, Petrie (1889, p. 10, pl. 12) discovered a portrait within a wooden frame suitable for hanging. For
the non-funerary use of portraits, see A Cultic Functionfor the Portraits?,pp. 74-76, below.
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38 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

PROBLEMS WITH PROVENIENCE

Clues for the identification of the provenience of a decorated mummy can come from
prosopography, iconography, and the source of the materials used in its actual fabrication.
Names or titles that indicate the status or social affiliations of the patrons of decorated mum-
mies can sometimes be linked to specific cities or regions. Certain religious titles and motifs
reflect allegiances to local deities or ideologies. Finally, the analysis of the materials or tech-
niques used in manufacturing the linen, cartonnage, wood panels, and paints used to manufac-
ture mummies can provide evidence for the location of production.
In the report of their excavations at el-Hibeh, Grenfell and Hunt (1906, p. 8) discussed the
difficulty of assigning a provenience to the Greek papyri recovered from the cartonnage
mummies that were found in the "Greco-Roman" cemetery there and stated that "internal evi-
dence" (presumably literary) from the papyri convinced them that the papyri were not local to
el-Hibeh. From this, Grenfell and Hunt concluded that the cartonnage mummies excavated at
the Roman period cemetery of el-Hibeh had not been manufactured there.
In his research on papyri in the Berlin Museum, William Brashear (1983, pp. 3-4) reached
a different conclusion and suggested that the diversity in the origin of papyri used to manufac-
ture the cartonnage for funerary equipment was because the paper stuffs were collected from
the trash heaps of large paper producing sites and then brought to various local workshops for
the manufacture of funerary goods. The final result, mask or covering, would be the product of
a local atelier although the individual pulp components (the letters, documents, etc.) of the pa-
pier-mache might be traced to other points of origin.
A question related to the origin of materials used to create a portrait mummy is whether the
panel portraits of mummies recovered at a particular site were actually painted at that site.
This question has been discussed by Thompson and Parlasca in a consideration of the portraits
found at the cemetery of Antinoopolis.14 This city, founded by Hadrian in A.D. 130 during his
visit to Egypt, presents an interesting case study since the mummies excavated at Antinoopolis
must date to a time after the founding of the city. The corpus of complete portrait mummies
from this site, therefore, does not begin until after the first third of the second century A.D.
Parlasca has, however, assigned some portraits excavated at Antinoopolis to the reign of
Trajan or the early years of Hadrian, a date before the city was founded. He justifies this by
hypothesizing that certain colonists would have brought portraits with them from their home-
towns when they came to settle in the new city. Thompson objects to this suggestion on the
grounds that those older settlers would probably then have felt stronger ties to their old home-
towns and would have had their mummies shipped back to their places of birth for burial.
Thompson concludes, therefore, that all the portraits found at Antinoopolis were portraits that
were painted there.

SITE MANUFACTURE OR THE TRANSPORT OF MUMMIES?

Mummies were shipped to relatives for burial. A papyrus in the Mus6e du Louvre' 5
contains the text of a letter in which a sister wrote to her brother to explain that she is sending

14. For a discussion of the problem, see Thompson 1972, pp. 37-38.
15. The letter is P. Par. 18bis = W. Chr. 499 and is published by Thieme and Pestman (1978b, pp. 230-31). The
letter was cited above (Red-shrouded PortraitMummies, pp. 28-29) in reference to the mention in it of the
color of the decorated mummy. For requesting permission for burial, see A Case Study in Provenience: The
Origin of the Red-Shrouded PortraitMummy, pp. 39-42, below.
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PROVENIENCE 39

to him the mummified body of her mother for burial, presumably to their hometown in which
her brother still resided. It was, after all, the obligation of the survivors to see to the funeral
arrangements of a deceased family member.
What if, however, in the unusual case of Antinoopolis, all the relatives of a family were
now colonists in the new city? In such a case, it is possible that the oldest member of the family
might be the first to initiate use of the cemetery associated with the new city. With Brashear's
analysis and Parlasca's deduction in mind, it can be stated, in general, that a portrait mummy
from Antinoopolis should be considered to have been manufactured at the site from which it
was excavated even if some of its material components (in this case, the panel paintings) can
be traced to various points of origin.
The letter on the papyrus in the Mus6e du Louvre does, however, offer support to Grenfell
and Hunt's idea of the transport of mummies, which had been manufactured at one site, for
burial at another locale at which the deceased had burial privileges and at which there were
individuals, preferably male relatives, who would responsibly execute the burial. In the Louvre
letter, the woman states the ways in which her brother will be able to identify the mummy of
her mother that she is shipping to him: in addition to its bright rose color, the mother's name
was inscribed above the abdominal cavity of the mummy (FntEypaR6vov irnt ti Kotking o0
6voga aiflg) and the mummy had a wooden tag tied around the neck (EiXv rdPXa v ar to
praXflXoU ).
This inscribed tag or mummy ticket was one of the bilingual wooden or ceramic labels that
were attached by string to a wrapped mummy. 16 These labels served a dual purpose.' 7 The first
was religious: to introduce the deceased to the god Osiris and the gods of the netherworld. The
more immediate function, however, was practical. The tags identified the mummy in the
embalmer's workshop and, in the case that the individual died away from home, they informed
the conveyor where the mummy was to be shipped and provided verification to the recipient.
The Louvre letter may have been redundant to the information on the mummy tag but was
provided for assurance. The mummy was sent by ship (v Rtkot) and the woman wanted her
brother to know that the freight charge had been paid by her in advance (Toi vaXou 8o0ivtog;
bnt' igo nt ripr;g) (Thieme and Pestman 1978b, pp. 230-31).

A CASE STUDY IN PROVENIENCE: THE ORIGIN OF THE

RED-SHROUDED PORTRAIT MUMMY
It is unfortunate that a provenience for the Louvre letter is not known. It would have been
helpful in resolving the question of whether the particular type of portrait mummy mentioned
in the text (the red-shrouded portrait mummy) was manufactured at one specific geographic
location, although the type has been recovered from various burial sites (see table 6). Of the
twenty preserved examples of red-shrouded portrait mummies worldwide (including three
which have survived only as textile shrouds18 and another which has been preserved to only

16. For a list of the main reference works on mummy labels, see Quaegebeur 1978, p. 232. For a rebuttal to the
articles by Bernard Boyaval in criticism of this article, see Quaegebeur 1986, pp. 99-102.
17. For the dual purposes of the mummy labels, see Quaegebeur 1978, pp. 237-38.
18. One of these shrouds was excavated by Petrie (1911, p. 22) at Hawara and is now in the collection of the
Petrie Museum, University College, London, Inv. 267 FF 336. The information concerning the present loca-
tion of this shroud is due to the kindness of Carla Petschek, an intern in textile conservation at the museum.
The second, in the collection of the Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri, Inv. 61.66.3, is
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40 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

approximately one-third its original length 19) eight are documented as coming from the Petrie
excavations at the Fayoum cemetery of Hawara. Two mummies were excavated at el-Hibeh;
one is from Deir el-Banaat in the Fayoum, one is possibly from Akhmim, and three have no
specified provenience. Of the remaining five examples, two (one of which was lost 20 and an-
other of which is in a private collection in Switzerland) are considered by Parlasca (1966, pp.
20, 190) to have had Hawara as a probable provenience, and details of the body decoration of
two other portrait mummies (Red-shrouded Mummies Nos. 14 and 15) are characteristic

Table 6. Preserved Red- shrouded Portrait Mummies and Distribution of Find Sites
Hawara el-Hibeh Deir el-Banaat Akhmim? "Fayoum"
or Unknown

1. Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Inv. AE 1426 x

2. Brooklyn Museum, Inv. 11.600 A and B x
3. Red-shrouded Mummy No. 16 (= CG 33221) x
4. BM 21809 x
5. BM 21810 x
6. Manchester Museum, Inv. 1775 x
7. Manchester Museum, Inv. 1767 x
8. Petrie Museum, Inv. 267 FF 336 x
9. Muse du Louvre, Inv. E 13044 x*
10. Coll. Koffler-Truniger, No Number x*
11. Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14 (= CG 33219) x*
12. Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15 (= CG 33220) x*
13. Fitzwilliam Museum, Inv. E. 63.1903 x
14. Red-shrouded Mummy No. 12 (= CG 33217) x
15. Stiftung Niedersachsen, No Number x*
16. Red-shrouded Mummy No. 17 (Kom Oshim Inv. 432) x
17. MFA 50.650 x
18. Red-shrouded Mummy No. 13 (= CG 33218) x
19. J. Paul Getty Museum, Inv. 81.AP.42 x
20. Museum of Art and Archaeology,
University of Missouri, Inv. 61.66.3 x

*Probably

of a Hawara provenience. The last of the group without provenience, a red-shrouded mummy
in the Stiftung Niedersachsen, Hannover, on loan to the Roemer-Pelizaeus Museum,
Hildesheim, exhibits affinities with the portrait mummies from el-Hibeh. It is most probable

published by Parlasca (1963, pp. 264-68). The third is Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Inv. 50.650 (Corcoran
1988, pp. 204-05).
19. J. Paul Getty Museum, Inv. 81.AP.42, is published by Thompson (1982, pp. 32-33, fig. F, cover illustration).
20. Concerning red-shrouded portrait mummy Musie du Louvre, Inv. E 13044, Parlasca (1966, p. 20, n. 14)
states that "heute ist die Mummie leider nicht auffindbar." The mummy has since been located within the
museum (Klaus Parlasca, pers. comm., July 14, 1994). Perhaps the mummy was among the objects
discovered in the early 1970s in a magazine in the Musie du Louvre by J. de Cenival (see Grimm 1971, p.
248, n. 22)?
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PROVENIENCE 41

then that, of the documented find sites for the red-shrouded portrait mummies, the most likely
point of origin for this type of mummification was Hawara.
A Demotic inscription from a red-shrouded portrait mummy that survives today as a textile
shroud (Petrie Museum, Inv. 267 FF 336) provides evidence to support the popularity of the
red-shrouded mummy at Hawara. The inscription (see fig. la), across the ankles of the
mummy, was originally read by Sir Herbert Thompson as "Pilto(?) the man of the Fayoum son
of Huy, Hawara" (Petrie 1911, p. 22). This same "Huy" was found by Thompson in inscriptions
on two other mummies. One inscription (see fig. lb) occurred on a mummy re-wrapped in a
plain cloth cover with portrait missing. 21 The inscription, written across the ankles, was read by
Thompson as "Premiom (the lake man) son of Huy, Hawara." On the underside of the foot
covering of a third mummy (see fig. Ic), Thompson read, "Ypy the man of the Fayoum son of
Huy." Thompson concluded that all three mummies belonged to "one family, three sons of
Huy" (Petrie 1911, p. 8).
In a corrected reading of these Demotic inscriptions, Robert Ritner (pers. comm.,
November 20, 1987) read the sign groups "p. rmt ym" (see fig. la-c) as an epithet of the de-
ceased, to emphasize that the individual in question was a native of the lake district of the
Fayoum. The modifier might also have been added to justify the deceased's claim for burial at
a particular Fayoum site. 22 Furthermore, Ritner (pers. comm., October 7, 1987) read the sign
group "hwj" as the verb "to put" or, in a broad sense, "to deliver."

Pyltw> p> rmt ym r hwj Hrwr

(The reading IHrwr, an unattested and unhistoric writing of Hawara, is very uncertain but is suggested
here as an alternative to the reading Ta wr, an unattested geographic location.
In examples b and c, below, Hwtwr is clearly written.)
a.

P5 rmt ym r hwj Hwtwr

b.

?ypy p. rmt ym ... r hwj Hwtwr

c.
Figure 1. Demotic Inscriptions from Mummy Shrouds
(after Petrie 1911, pl. 24, nos. 6 [= a], 4 [= b], and 5 [= c])

21. A second text written on a piece of cloth placed over the body was "read by Sir Herbert Thompson as,
'Arsinoe daughter of Herakleitos the woman of Hawara."' Thompson interpreted the otherwise puzzling ex-
istence of this inscription not as a reference to the deceased but as the name of the deceased's widow.
22. See Thieme and Pestman 1978a, p. 143, 1. 4, where the authors state that "the reason why mummies were
transported" to a site for burial is because the deceased "originally came from there." See Site Manufacture
or the Transportof Mummies?, pp. 38-39.
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42 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

The verb that is commonly used in the sense of "to send" in connection with the transport of
mummies is the imperative of the verb "jr" ("to go") (Nur el-Din, Pestman, and Vos 1978, pp.
187-88). However, the verb "hwj" meaning "to put" is attested in connection with funerary
materials in the following context:
jw=k r jn-n' r mr n 'rk-hh r hwj qst r hr ni s w
you are going ashore at Alk-Heh in order to put mummy-bandages on the amulets
(Mag. Pap. 9, 23) (Vos 1978, p. 265)
The verb "hwj" is used again, in connection with a burial outfit, in the sense of "deliver," in
the tale of Setne Khaemwas:
hn<sw>(?) st m-bh.Wsjr r djt hwjw t> qst n prmt - - - r pJ rmt hm n rn-f
it was commanded before Osiris to cause to be thrown the funerary outfit of that rich man
...unto this poor man named (Setne II, 2, 11-12; Vos 1978, p. 265)
The corrected readings indicate that these Demotic inscriptions were instructions to deliver
the mummies of deceased individuals, who were natives of the Fayoum, to the cemetery at
Hawara. The anthroponyme "Huy" would then be a misreading of "hwj" and relegated to the
status of a "ghost name." 23
If the red-shrouded portrait mummy (Petrie Museum, Inv. 267 FF 336) was to be delivered
to Hawara, it can be assumed that it was manufactured elsewhere. The repertoire of scenes-
Nut/Maat with outstretched wings across the breast, a cloaked Osiris in profile wearing the
atef-crown and flanked by uraei, and a solar disc with dual cobras at the ankles-painted in
horizontal registers on this red-shrouded mummy is not, however, unlike that which decorates
the red-shrouded mummy (Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Inv. AE 1426) found by Petrie at
Hawara. 24 The crudeness of the line in the drawing of the figures on the Petrie shroud, how-
ever, betrays an untrained hand; and the design and inscription suggest that a native of Arsinoe
(the town associated with the Hawara cemetery), familiar with the popular red-shrouded
mummy, died away from his hometown. He had ordered this type of design for his burial
equipment and his mummy was manufactured according to his desires; the crude execution of
the painted designs was due to the local artists' lack of practice in this particular visual idiom.
The wrapped mummy was then shipped back to the deceased's hometown cemetery at
Hawara, the site from which it was excavated by Petrie.

DIAGNOSTICS OF DESIGN: RED-SHROUDED MUMMIES

As it was just noted, one feature that characterizes the red-shrouded portrait mummies
from Hawara is the limited repertoire of scenes painted or molded in horizontal registers down
the full length of the body covering. Three of the red-shrouded mummies were presumed by
Petrie to form a family group (BM 21810, Manchester Museum, Inv. 1775, and Red-shrouded
Mummy No. 16): the two males bear the same name (Artemidoros) and all three mummies
were recovered by Petrie (1889, p. 18) from a common grave. Petrie described the three as
"similarly decorated" but did not emphasize that the mythological scenes in each horizontal
row of the body decorations are identical in all three cases.

23. For the role of papyrologists in eliminating "ghost names" from Egyptian onomastics, see Quaegebeur 1978,
p. 247; idem 1986, pp. 101--02.
24. For a line-drawing of the scenes on Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Inv. AE 1426, see Petrie 1911, pl. 21.
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PROVENIENCE 43

Two other red-shrouded portrait mummies (Brooklyn Museum, Inv. 11.600 A and B, and
Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Inv. AE 1426), excavated by Petrie during the 1911 season, have
cloth covers that are painted with funerary figures. Of the five registers of scenes, two are
identical (two Horus falcons en face and a standing figure of Nut/Maat with outstretched
wings) and are placed on the same area of the upper part of the body. A third scene---depicting
the god Osiris cloaked, wearing an atef-crown, and flanked by standing uraei-on the lower
part of portrait mummy Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Inv. AE 1426, is replaced by "a wreath of
leaves(?)" on the lower part of portrait mummy Brooklyn Museum, Inv. 11.600 A and B
(Petrie 1911, p. 15). The parallel between the scenes on portrait mummies Ny Carlsberg
Glyptothek, Inv. AE 1426, and Petrie Museum, Inv. 267 FF 336, has already been noted.
Red-shrouded Mummies Nos. 14 and 15, without provenience, exhibit such a strong simi-
larity in construction and design that Edgar (1905a, p. 78) referred to them as the "same type."
Although the artistic execution precludes the designs having been produced by the same artist,
the repertoire of scenes and stylistic technique strongly suggest that the two pieces are the
products of the same workshop. 25
In an entry for Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14, Parlasca (1969, p. 71) remarked that al-
though its place of origin is unknown, "data la cornice a forma di ferro di cavallo potrebbe
provenire da Hawara, donde provengono tutti gli esemplari di questo tipo, la cui provenienza e
sicura." If Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14 can be assigned to Hawara on the basis of the horse-
shoe-shaped frame around its portrait, its companion piece, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15,
probably also came from the same site.

SHARED TRADITIONS OF DESIGN: RED-SHROUDED MUMMIES

At the top of a sheet of cloth, painted in tempera for use as a funerary shroud of portrait
mummy Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri, Inv. 61.66.3, is the portrait
head of the deceased; her bare feet are represented at the bottom. The background of the
shroud is painted red and the body field is divided into horizontal registers containing funerary
scenes. One scene depicted on the body field, the "ram of Mendes," has been used by Parlasca
(1963, pp. 266-68) to assign a Saqqara provenience to the shroud. This red-painted shroud il-
lustrates an affinity with the red-shrouded portrait mummies from Hawara in the treatment of
the body field, but the flat rendering of the portrait within the overall scheme and the inclusion
of a diagnostic motif endemic to Saqqara identify it as a local variant of that theme.
Three red-shrouded portrait mummies (Red-shrouded Mummies Nos. 12 and 13 and par-
tially preserved mummy J. Paul Getty Museum, Inv. 81.AP.42) are decorated in a style that
differs from the body designs of the red-shrouded mummies discussed above. The red-painted
shrouds of these mummies were painted with a full-length representation of the clothed figure
of the deceased that was continued from the portrait head and shoulders as an alternative to
the body field having been divided into horizontal registers depicting mythological scenes.
The only example of this type that has a certain provenience is Red-shrouded Mummy No.
12, which was excavated by Grenfell and Hunt (1906, p. 4) at el-Hibeh. Attempts have been
made to assign a provenience to the portrait mummy J. Paul Getty Museum, Inv. 81.AP.42, on
the basis of "features in the pose and garment scheme [which] find precise parallels with those

25. For the presence of workshops, see Thompson 1972, p. 46, no. 8, p. 135.
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44 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

in portraits recovered at Hawara" (Thompson 1982, p. 32)26 and on the stylistic affinity of its
portrait to a round-topped panel portrait with a probable Hawara provenience (CG 33232).
Edgar (1905a, p. 89) noted traces of a "curving pink line" on panel portrait CG 33232 and
"remains of bandaging as on no. 33217 [Red-shrouded Mummy No. 12]." The lack of the
mummy itself, however, prevents one from knowing with certainty whether the red-shrouded
body of CG 33232 would have been decorated with a continuation of the clothed figure (as on
Red-shrouded Mummy No. 12) or with the mythological scenes that was the usual treatment of
the body field at Hawara. Assigning a Hawara provenience to portrait mummy J. Paul Getty
Museum, Inv. 81.AP.42, is complicated, however, by elements of the Getty bust that can be
paralleled with those on red-shrouded portrait mummies from el-Hibeh: (1) the deceased
wears the wreath with a central motif, which perhaps simulates the curved plumes of two
maat-feathers, that is also shown on Red-shrouded Mummy No. 12; and (2) the gold leaf
squares that outline the portrait frame also appear on red-shrouded portrait mummy
Fitzwilliam Museum, Inv. E. 63.1903. This design element, however, also appears on red-
shrouded portrait mummy Brooklyn Museum, Inv. 11.600 A and B, from Hawara.
Grenfell and Hunt (1906, p. 3) remarked on the similarity between red-shrouded portrait
mummies from el-Hibeh and those from the Fayoum, "In many cases the Hibeh mummies are
externally indistinguishable from those from the Fayoum." The red-shrouded design, probably
indigenous to Hawara, might have been borrowed and embellished upon by el-Hibeh artists
with a history of a shared artistic tradition in funerary decoration.

DIAGNOSTICS OF LOCALITY
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PORTRAIT PANELS
Distinct local traditions in the way in which portrait panels were cut down before inclusion
within the mummy wrappings have been identified and used as a basis for assigning portraits
to a particular site (see fig. 2). Parlasca (1966, pp. 125-26) noted that almost all examples of
panel portraits from Antinoopolis "weisen etwa in halber Hohe der Seiten ein deutliche
Abstufung auf." The laterally-stepped shape of the panel conformed to the "stark markierter
Absatz oberhalb der Schulterzone," which is also characteristic of the wrapped mummies from
this site. Similarly, panel portraits from Hawara tend to be rounded at the top, while the upper
corners of those from er-Rubayyat are cut on a diagonal.
Whereas panels cut in the distinctive laterally-stepped shape are more numerous at
Antinoopolis than at any other site, Parlasca (1966, pp. 125-26, n. 12) notes that the laterally-
stepped cut is not unique to Antinoopolis, nor as Thompson (1972, pp. 78-85) demonstrates,
are all panels from Antinoopolis of this shape. Although Thompson (ibid., p. 34) concluded
that "precise panel shape is unimportant," it seems more likely, given the fact that wrapped
mummies were shipped for burial to other cemetery sites, that one should differentiate the find
site from the manufacturing site of a mummy when it exhibits characteristics of production
from a certain locale other than the site at which it was excavated.

26. A detail in the portrait of mummy J. Paul Getty Museum, Inv. 81.AP.42, is a matter of concern (Corcoran
1986, p. 303): the woman is depicted wearing earrings of a common type (Petrie's Type 3), but which are
unique in that they consist of four pendant pearls. Although other types of earrings incorporate four pearls,
all other examples of earrings of this common type have only two or three pendant pearls.
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PROVENIENCE 45

a. Stepped panel, b. Round-topped panel, c. Angled panel,

Antinoopolis Hawara Er-Rubayyat
Figure 2. Diagnostic Panel Shapes
(adapted from Thompson 1972, p. 36, fig. 4)

LOCAL CHARACTERISTICS OF DECORATED MUMMIES

As in the case of the shape of the portrait panels, which can be used as an indicator to
identify the products of a specific locale, other motifs of design in the decoration of the com-
plete mummy can be diagnostic of origin. Parlasca (1969, p. 71) has identified the gilt horse-
shoe-shaped frame of cartonnage, embellished with a running vine pattern and applied directly
to the panel portrait, as a characteristic of mummies from Hawara. Another local characteristic
that should be added to this list is the prismatic octagonal-shaped border built up of layered
cloths around the portraits of rhombic-wrapped mummies from Hawara.
The ability to recognize the characteristic elements of an object and their proper configu-
ration is helpful when dealing with fragmentary examples. Parlasca (1969, p. 162, n. 66; see
also idem 1980, p. 47, no. 595) has suggested that the intact appearance of a portrait shroud
(Stucco Mummy No. 23) in the Coptic Museum, Cairo, was effected by the assemblage of
various disparate elements, since the sale of a seemingly intact object would presumably have
been more financially advantageous to the dealer who sold it to the museum in the early
1930s.
Although the shroud lacks the upper section near the breast where the deceased's hands
should be represented 27 (as shown in Stucco Mummies Nos. 20 and 21), it was the appearance
of a certain scene on the geometrically patterned body half that suggested to Parlasca (1980, p.
47; see also idem 1966, p. 162, n. 66) that the pieces of the lower half of the shroud were
originally made for a woman's shroud, not the shroud of the bearded man in the portrait. The
scene depicts a ram standing over a mummified body. This is the vivifying "ram of Mendes,"
the feminine counterpart of the mythological scene that depicts Isis as a kite above the body of

27. Although Parlasca (1980, p. 47) notes the appearance of a finger at the upper left corner ("a destra
[viewer's right] scorgono ancora parti delle dita della mano sinistra"), the shape is actually a stucco curlicue.
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46 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

her husband Osiris. Although Parlasca (1966, p. 162) attributes the "ram of Mendes" scene
only to the shrouds of women, and the face painted on the Coptic Museum shroud is that of a
bearded man, the feminine elements of this scene complement masculine motifs and do not
necessarily preclude its use on a man's shroud. The integrity of design exhibited by the
fragmentary pieces of the Stucco Mummy No. 23 argues, moreover, for all the fragmentary
pieces of the shroud to have belonged originally to one piece. 28
To the group of female shrouds that employ the "ram of Mendes" motif, Parlasca assigns a
Saqqara provenience (Parlasca 1966, p. 162). Stucco Mummy No. 22 features the "ram of
Mendes" motif. The provenience of this mummy is unknown and it is doubtful that it can be
identified with that "handsomely decorated stucco mummy, with portrait head painted on a flat
surface, which was retained by the Cairo Museum" from the excavations of Grenfell and Hunt
(1902, p. 3) at the Fayoumic (not Delta) site of Tanis. That mummy, overlooked by Edgar
(1905a), although surely in the Cairo collection at the time, was deemed by the excavators as
"deserving of special attention as supplying a link between the ordinary portrait mummies and
those in stucco with moulded features" (Grenfell and Hunt 1902, p. 3). Parlasca (1966, p. 36,
n. 137, p. 104, n. 85) is probably correct in understanding that description to have meant a gilt
stucco type (similar to Stucco Mummy No. 18), which Petrie had suggested as an early transi-
tional phase from cartonnage mummies to portrait mummies. Although the portrait of Stucco
Mummy No. 22 is encircled by a stucco horseshoe-shaped frame reminiscent of those from
Hawara, the mummy covering bears more of a structural similarity to two other stuccoed
mummies from Saqqara (Stucco Mummies Nos. 20 and 21) and the presence of the "ram of
Mendes" motif secures the Saqqara provenience for this mummy which might otherwise have
been ascribed to an indeterminable or unknown provenience. 29
Another motif, possibly specific to mummy coverings from Saqqara, appears on both
Stucco Mummies Nos. 20 and 23. This motif is the figure of a winged crocodile, an image of
the god Soknopaious, the crocodile god of the Fayoum syncretized with aspects of the god
Horus. The motif is obviously borrowed, 30 however, and may serve as yet another example of
the spread of the portrait mummy from the Fayoumic cities to points beyond.

CONCLUSIONS
Portrait mummies have been recovered from Roman period cemeteries throughout Egypt.
One of the more complex problems encountered in an effort to identify local characteristics is
that mummies, manufactured at one site, were shipped to another for burial. It is not always
certain that a mummy was manufactured at the site at which it was found, nor if its features are
elements that should be considered diagnostic for mummies from that site or rather should be
attributed to another (unknown) locale. Evidence for assigning a provenience to unexcavated
examples can come from inscriptions that mention idiosyncratic names and titles or even that
specify town names, from the physical shape of the mummy, from the analysis of the materials
used to manufacture the mummy (such as papyrus scraps used to prepare cartonnage), or from
iconographic motifs.

28. See discussion of Stucco Mummy No. 23 in the Catalog of PortraitMummies.

29. As given by Parlasca (1977, p. 67, no. 397; 1985, p. 103).
30. Zauzich (1984, cols. 1075-76) states that the image was popular "besonders in Dimeh (Soknopaiou Nesos),
aber auch an anderen Orten des Fajjum" (emphasis added).
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PROVENIENCE 47

Features that have been considered valuable as indicators of a provenience at the follow-
ing locations are:
1. Hawara
a. Portrait panels that have been cut to a rounded shape at the top
b. A gilt cartonnage horseshoe-shaped portrait frame with carved or stucco designs of
vines and tendrils
c. Red-shrouded body covers
2. Saqqara
a. Depictions of the winged crocodile god Soknopaious
b. Representations of the vivifying scene including the "ram of Mendes"
3. Antinoopolis
a. Stepped-cut portrait panels
b. Mummies with a laterally-stepped shoulder area
4. Er-Rubayyat
a. Portrait panels with their upper corners cut on a diagonal
With respect to portrait painting in general, Thompson (1972, p. 39) has remarked that
"there is some historical support for seeking the origin of Antinoopolitan portraiture in the
Fayum, and that the portraits from Hawara look more like those from Antinoopolis than do
those from any other Fayum site." In addition, two portraits excavated at Antinoopolis exhibit
the round-topped panels associated with portraits from Hawara (ibid., p. 82) indicating a rela-
tionship between the two centers. The tradition of the use of portrait mummies and the designs
used to decorate them probably originated in the Fayoum, possibly even at Arsinoe/Hawara,
but fulfilled a common need in communities throughout Roman Egypt. The religious and cultic
function of their iconography is the topic of the next chapter.
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ICONOGRAPHY: SYMBOLISM AND MEANING

APPROACH
The premise of this study is that portrait mummies were decorated in a manner which is
iconographically coherent. Following the reading of the disposition of narrative scenes from
New Kingdom temple walls that are arranged upwards in chronological order (Gaballa 1976,
pp. 102, 104, 140), the decoration of each portrait mummy can also be read in a logical se-
quence from bottom to top (evidence from the disposition of bandages even indicates that
rhombic-wrapped mummies were wrapped from the feet up). With respect to the iconography
of the mummies, there is no element that is unplanned or does not deliberately contribute to-
ward or intentionally complement the complete imagery of religious symbolism (cf. L. Bell
1987, pp. 51-52).
Neither is there any element of the iconography that is not rooted in traditionally Egyptian
ideas about the afterlife. Even those motifs borrowed from the cosmopolitan sphere of Greek,
Roman, or Asian mythology conformed to "une r6alit6 authentiquement 6gyptienne" (Grenier
1977, p. 36).1
Forewarned that "as in all questions concerning Egyptian iconography, one must beware of
imposing too narrow an interpretation on a phenomenon that is evidently the product of several
ideas and points of view" (Fischer 1963, p. 20), the thrust of this interpretation of the religious
symbolism of the portrait mummies is that there is a decidedly solar emphasis to their design.
Cautioned that "even within a corpus which reflects a limited repertoire, any motif can (and
probably was intended to) be interpreted in a number of ways," 2 and that "the duality of solar
and chthonic was a major theme ...of Egyptian funerary religion" (Wente 1982, p. 24,
[emphasis added]), the traditional Osirian aspects (chthonic and vegetal) of the decoration and
symbolism of these mummies and so, presumably, the chthonic aspirations and convictions of
the patron group in respect to their view of the afterlife were, as a result of several millennia
of theological evolution, overshadowed by a clear and distinctly legible solar iconography and
the ideology expressed by that symbolism. It is self-evident that every ancient Egyptian
mummy owes its existence to the mythology of the Osiris cult, but in the Roman period, the
role of Osiris-as it had been during various periods throughout Egyptian history-was to
serve as a foil to balance the powerful solar imagery that dominated the religious and funerary
cults.

1. Grenier expresses his opinion concerning an attribute that was assigned to Anubis in the Roman period: a
metal key, held in the hand or worn about the neck. Contra Morenz (1975, p. 519) who contended that the
attribute played no role in traditional Egyptian mythology and was simply borrowed from a Roman deity
with whom Anubis was associated (an idea accepted by Parlasca [1966, p. 164] and Grimm [1974, p. 93]).
Grenier's argument is that the appearance of the motif followed the lines of a natural evolution of ideas.
2. Robert S. Bianchi, pers. comm., January 21, 1987.
49
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50 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

The motifs discussed here therefore have a long tradition. References to relevant evidence
from the Old Kingdom (2780-2258 B.C.) to the New Kingdom (1570-1085 B.C.) in an effort to
understand these Roman period motifs is therefore justified. If there are chronological gaps be-
tween reference points, it can only be said in defense that the ancient Egyptians themselves
were antiquarians who sought out pictorial and textual models from earlier periods (Brunner
1975, cols. 386-95). It will also be necessary to cite the royal antecedents for many of these
motifs that were later used in non-royal contexts. The intermediaries in the democratization of
royal motifs were the priests who had access to royal regalia and burial outfits. 3

BEGINNING AT THE BOTTOM: THE FOOTCASE 4

In accordance with the proposal that portrait mummies can be read iconographically "from
bottom to top," the analysis of their iconographic imagery begins with an accessory that was
added to rhombic-wrapped and red-shrouded portrait mummies: 5 the painted cartonnage foot-
case. This gessoed and painted foot cover resembles, in shape, a single boot, but when in place
on a rhombic-wrapped mummy, it "was so hidden around its edge, that it appears as if it were
only a portion of a whole mummy-case of cartonnage" (Petrie 1889, p. 16). Boot-like cases are
an elaboration of "flat pieces of cartonnage of foot form placed under the outermost turn of
bandage, painted with a pattern copied from the stitching and joining of a real sandal" (ibid., p.
14).6 In the Catalog of PortraitMummies, registers are numbered and described from the bot-
tom up.

THE REPRESENTATION OF FEET

On the upper side of the boot-like casings attached to rhombic-wrapped or red-shrouded
mummies, sandaled or bare feet were depicted in paint or modeled in stucco and painted. The
feet are usually painted a pink flesh tone, although some examples show gilt toenails and oth-
ers show the feet completely gilt. The feet are often surrounded by what appears to be a perfo-
rated red disc that represents the top of the soles of the sandals. The remainder of the upper
area is customarily filled by a pattern of colored squares that might represent basketry. The
purpose of representing the feet in a permanent material was to ensure for the deceased the
ability to stand upright and to come and go in the netherworld as expressed in Spell 188 of the
Book of the Dead:
I ask that I may come and go and that I may have
power in my feet (Faulkner 1972, p. 185).

3. That, still in the Ptolemaic period, the temple priests were also the funerary priests has been shown by
Maria-Theresa Derchain-Urtel (1989).
4. The ideas in this section were first presented by the author in a paper, "The Iconography of Portrait
Mummies from Roman Egypt," delivered at the University of Chicago Art History Department Graduate
Colloquium, Chicago, February 27, 1985.
5. Cartonnage footcases were also added to mummies with cartonnage head-pieces. See for example
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Inv. E.103.191 1 (see n. 44 and pls. 24-25, below). Janine Bourriau,
former Keeper of the Egyptian Collection, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, kindly granted permission to
examine and photograph the footcase and the cartonnage mask associated with it in February 1986.
6. For a photograph of such "slippers" in situ, see David and Tapp 1984. p. 18. fig. 1.4.
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ICONOGRAPHY: SYMBOLISM AND MEANING 51

On the upper part of a late Ptolemaic or early Roman footcase (Egyptian Museum, Inv.
6839),7 in a vertical band that runs between a drawing of two sandaled feet with gilt toenails,
is a hieroglyphic text (see pl. 26) that emphasizes the solar objective of this representation.
The text reads:
'h sp sn hr rdwy f [sic _t] 'h Wsjr ?st n hbt m'i-rw hr
rdwysLt] hn' R' m wji f m hrt hrw nty r' k [sic nb]
Rise up, rise up, upon your feet. Rise up, O Osiris Isis-of-Chermis (deceased),
upon [your] feet [to be] with Re, in his bark, in the course of every day.
The goal of mobility as here stated, is to join the sun-god. The desire to join the sun-god Re
in his sacred bark as he journeys across the sky and through the underworld is a goal that ap-
pears frequently in traditional Egyptian funerary texts. 8 The fortuitous survival of this text al-
lows the motif (i.e., the representation of feet at the base of the mummy) to be placed within a
long tradition of native Egyptian funerary beliefs related to events in the afterlife. Moreover,
the theme of the text identifies a specific need for representing feet at the base of the wrapped
mummy: not merely that the deceased might come and go in the netherworld, but in order that
the deceased should have the facility to stand up among the gods who travel in the solar boat
(see Abbreviated Images of the 2 jkr n R , pp. 75-76, below).

AMULETIC DESIGNS
The amuletic designs that appear on the front edge and sides of cartonnage footcases con-
tribute further toward a solar imagery. A common decorative element in the center front edge
of these casings is a lotus blossom and buds, a symbol of resurrection (Brunner-Traut 1980, col.
1094), associated with the sun-god Nefertum. One well-known representation of the birth of
the young sun-god atop a lotus blossom is shown on the wooden sculpture from the tomb of
Tutankhamun (Egyptian Museum, Inv. 60723), in which the newly emerging god bears the
features of the young king (Edwards 1976, pl. 1, p. 99 with photograph). Spells 81 and 81 B of
the Book of the Dead (Allen 1974, p. 70) enable the deceased to be transformed into a lotus,
an indication that the sun-god and the lotus had come to be envisioned as a single entity
(Edwards 1976, p. 99). The amuletic effect of the lotus motif on the footcases would be as a
guarantee of a solar resurrection and cyclical rebirth. Elements that commonly flank the cen-
tral lotus (perhaps to delimit the ends of the world) are the wadjet-eyes of Horus, "the eldest
son of Re who with wings outstretched represents the whole sky with his eyes as the sun and
moon" (Lesko 1972, p. 6).
Although the rosette, which commonly decorates the side panels of cartonnage footcases,
has not been proved to have had an explicit solar connection, nor "in the case of the earliest-
known Egyptian example [is there] evidence to indicate that the rosette had any symbolical
meaning ... , we cannot state categorically that the Egyptians did not attach any meaning to
the ornament" (Kantor 1947, p. 265). The red floral motif is reminiscent of roses, 9 the possible
component element of the funerary garlands and wreaths, which are clearly connected with the
solar transfiguration of the deceased (see Coronation,pp. 61-64, below).
At the back edge of the side panels can usually be seen recumbent jackal-like figures (see
pl. 27). The placement at the feet of two recumbent jackal-like figures is prescribed by a text

7. The footcase is published in Corcoran 1992, p. 58, pl. 7.1a, b.

8. Beginning with the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts, see Lesko 1972, p. 5.
9. The motif is identified as such by Drenkhahn (1984, col. 309).
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52 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

from the Ritual of Embalmment (Papyrus Boulaq III, 9, 14-15 = Papyrus Louvre 5.158, 2, 3-4;
Sauneron 1952a, pp. 54-55).o The animals are similar to images of the funerary god Anubis
upon his shrine. However, they are identified on the base of a cartonnage coffin (Oriental
Institute Museum, Inv. 10797) dated to the Twenty-second Dynasty (945-715 B.C.), as the twin
wolf-gods Wepwawet. Again, on the basis of an inscription at the foot of a stone sarcophagus
(Egyptian Museum, Inv. 1308), dated "not earlier than the XXXth dynasty," "the two jackals
prove ... to be Upu-Auts [Wepwawets]" (Buhl 1959, pp. 162, 201-02, 213). The path that the
deceased traveled with the sun, in a daily journey beyond the netherworld and back, would
surely have taken him past the jackals who served as the "openers-of-the way" for the solar
boat and the guardians/guides at their posts at the dual entrances to the underworld.

THE UNDERWORLD DOOR

The daily journey of the deceased through a door of the netherworld is illustrated graphi-
cally on the base of a mummy (Staatliche Museum, Berlin, Inv. 13463),12 and on the base of
the footcase of a mummy with a gilt mask (British Museum, Inv. 29782; see pl. 28). In both
examples, the plaited undersides of a pair of sandals are positioned within an architectural
setting. Between the sandals is a lotus-topped column, surrounding the sandals are the metope
striped bands that indicate the borders of walls, and atop the sandals is a pedimental frieze of
uraei crowned by a winged solar disc. The effect of the design is that the deceased is standing
at the gateway of a great temple. Indeed a description of one such great temple (Medinet
Habu) indicates that a temple serves as:
wb mty n nb t dsr wt simw dwit
the proper temenos 13 of the lord of the holy land,
a highway for the leaders of the underworld14
On the undersides of later Roman period examples of sandal bottoms bound enemy figures are
depicted; Riihlmann (1971, pp. 77-78) interprets this architectural setting as the pillars or posts
of the "great Hall of Re" to which the enemies of the sun-god have been bound.
The daily passage of the deceased through a gateway to the other world conforms with full-
figure representations on contemporary linen funerary shrouds that depict the deceased, Osiris,
and Anubis journeying on a boat' 5 beyond a temple-like facade.16 It also helps to explain, as

10. The text specifies, however, that the motif appear over the feet, as for example on a cartonnage coffin
(Oriental Institute Museum, Inv. 10797) and a stone sarcophagus (Egyptian Museum, Inv. 1308), not at the
outer edge of the heel as is depicted on the cartonnage footcase CG 6839 and on the footcases of portrait
mummies.
11. For a photograph of the sarcophagus, see Buhl 1959, p. 35, fig. 9.
12. For a black and white drawing, see Erman 1934, p. 411, fig. 175 (c).
13. For the translation of wb; as temenos, see Spencer 1984, p. 13; see further, Wallet-Lebrun 1985, pp. 67-88.
14. Epigraphic Survey 1934, pls. 182A, 184A; see also de Wit, n.d., p. 72, "La porte du temple devenant l'entrre
de l'Autre Monde."
15. Morenz (1975b, p. 240) states that his initial response is to interpret the bark as one of the boats (morning or
evening) of the sun-god, but that the image of the boat may incorporate other mythological functions (see
also Parlasca 1966, p. 181). A connection with light that emerges from the door is seen in contemporary ar-
chitectural funerary stelae with niches to hold candles (see Drioton 1943, p. 74, pls. 1, 3, 4).
16. For a discussion of these shrouds, see Parlasca 1966, p. 157. Parlasca's disagreement with Morenz concern-
ing his interpretation of the consubstantiation of the deceased with Osiris is reiterated in Parlasca 1985, pp.
98-99, especially p. 99, n. 8.
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ICONOGRAPHY: SYMBOLISM AND MEANING 53

the postal supports of an underworld door, the representation of the architectonic columns that
frame the faces in stuccoed portrait mummy shrouds (Parlasca 1966, pp. 175-77; see also
Badawy 1978, p. 238) such as Stucco Mummies Nos. 20,21, and 23.

THE "BOUND PRISONER" MOTIF

Most Ptolemaic and early Roman examples of footcases consist merely of flat pieces of
cartonnage, painted to resemble the soles of sandals. The earliest elaborate boot-like casings
continue the representation of plaited sandal bottoms (see, for example, Egyptian Museum, JE
30325). On one early example of this boot type, the cartonnage foot cover of a fully preserved
mummy (Egyptian Museum, Inv. prov. 12/11/16/13), dated by the museum label to the
Ptolemaic period, is depicted the earliest stylized representations of a motif, which although it
had a long tradition in royal iconography appears here in a non-royal context: human figures
bound and tied within the outline of the sandal soles (see pl. 28).
In a vertical line down the outer edge of the mid-section of each sandal bottom, faced by a
bound figure, is an explanatory text to accompany the scene (paralleled by a somewhat dam-
aged text on the bottom of a footcase in Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Inv. 6983; Ruihlmann 1971,
p. 62). The hieroglyphic text reads:
hftyw. t hr gr [sichr ] _tbty . k [sic t]
your enemies are fallen under the soles of your feet
To be understood within the context of the Egyptian conception of time as both linear and
cyclical, the scene and complementary text express the act of subjugation as occurring both
once and forever.
Employed as a royal motif from the predynastic period on, 17 the motif of the pharaoh smit-
ing his enemies depicted the king as military victor over the traditional enemies of the state of
Egypt. Whereas the costume, hairstyles, and ethnic features of the enemy figures were por-
trayed with care and accuracy in early royal representations (Hayes 1953, pp. 115-16), the
characteristics that served to differentiate the figures were abandoned when the motif became
standard on the bottom of Roman period foot covers 8 where the enemies of the Egyptian state
are understood to have been reinterpreted as the forces of chaos in the underworld (Simpson
1974, p. 53).19 The figures had become, in fact, the enemies of the sun-god Re, 20 and the motif
itself was adapted through the intermediary of the priesthood to use as a powerful spell for
vindication in the netherworld by non-royal individuals. Ruihlmann (1971, p. 76) sees the
probability of an intellectual connection to the royal prerogative to subjugate one's enemies to
the private mortuary cult already in the Ramesside period, although the earliest direct
antecedent for the motif of the bound prisoners on the bottom of the footcase of a securely
dated non-royal mummy is the coffin of Homedjitef (British Museum, Inv. 6679), dated to the
reign of Ptolemy III (246-221 B.C.) (Simpson 1974, p. 53).

17. For a compendium of such scenes from the Archaic period to the Meroitic period, see Hall 1986, pp. 4-47.
18. Riihlmann (1971, p. 75) traces this development. His statement that although two figures are depicted on
each of the soles of Tutankhamun's sandals "immer nur einer aber auf den Sandalensohlen der
Mumienbilder" is however incorrect. See Simpson 1974, p. 53, where a footcase (Metropolitan Museum of
Art, New York, Inv. 90.6.87) depicting soles of sandals each having five captive figures is mentioned and
also see ibid., p. 52, pl. 4, fig. c (Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Inv. 1388). See also Catalog of Portrait
Mummies, Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 11, Foot Cover.
19. That this could already have been the case in earlier representations, see Wildung 1973, p. 116.
20. So interpreted by Rtihlmann (1971, pp. 77-78).
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54 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

The use of this motif by non-royal individuals has been characterized as "a curious and
somewhat illogical survival" (Simpson 1972, p. 113) of a royal motif whereby a seemingly
military image gained religious meaning. Yet this modern distinction between politics and reli-
gion, it could be argued, was unrecognized in ancient Egypt. Whereas some images of the king
as victor over the traditional enemies of Egypt ("the Nine Bows") appear to have had a basis
in historic fact (commemorative scenes where the king is shown in battle with named combat-
ants; Gardiner 1976, p. 57), the motif of the bound and subjugated figures and the concept of
the "king triumphant" would always have contained more than a strictly political or military
significance. 21 The identification of the king with the sun-god Re, as "creator and preserver of
the world" (Hornung, 1982, p. 139; see also Derchain 1962, pp. 61-73), is a fundamental ax-
iom of ancient Egyptian kingship.
Just as the sun-god rises victorious in his daily and cyclical battle against the forces of the
underworld, pharaoh triumphed over the mortal enemies of the state. According to Ramses III:
I am the Son of Re, who issued from his body. ... I protect Egypt, I defend it, I
let it sit (content) [in] my time, for I overthrow for [it] every land invading [its]
frontier (Edgerton and Wilson 1936, p. 86).
The image of pharaoh smiting the mortal enemies of Egypt was more than political fan-
faronading. It symbolized the successful and permanent establishment of cosmic order over
chaos.
The goal of the image in the service of the state was not simply the glorification of the
military and politic deed, not only that dread of pharaoh be placed in the heart of the enemy.
When performed on behalf of the world (i.e., the land of Egypt), the final outcome was rather
a communal sense of security, the serenity that is the result of a decisive victory (see Goff
1979, pp. 172-73), which is elegantly expressed in the dichotomous self-image projected by
Ramses III:
I [am] a king rejoicing [in] slaughter.
My reign is calmed in peace (Edgerton and Wilson 1936, p. 101).
Whether this statement is one of cause and effect, that the subjugation of one's enemies is
necessary to ensure a peaceful reign, or whether it is an example of the balanced thought pro-
cess that is inherently Egyptian, that is, that the simultaneous actuality of these disparate
events results in a state of equilibrium [maat], the equation is not complete without both ele-
ments. The seemingly grisly motif of the enemy figures securely bound and subjugated embod-
ied, therefore, not a simple morbid fascination with earthly revenge, but symbolized a hope for
cosmic order over chaos and the attainment of eternal peace.
Victory over the forces of evil was not solely the prerogative of the sun-god. The Osirian
element in the "bound prisoner" motif must be acknowledged. In myth, the king of the gods,
Osiris, was murdered by his evil brother Seth. Horus, the son of Osiris, justified his claim to the
Osirian throne by avenging the death of his father. As every Egyptian pharaoh was associated
with the god Horus, while he lived, and the god Osiris, upon his death, the cultic vindication of
the god was perpetually re-enacted. For the non-royal individual in the Roman period, vindi-
cation against one's enemies (real or ideal) assured a royal fate.

21. The statement that "die apotropaiishe Wirkung des Bildtypus ... geht weit tiber den politischen Bereich hin-
aus und umfasst auch den Schutz gegen die chaotischen Maichte der Unterwelt" (Wildung 1977, cot. 15), yet
acknowledges a boundary between the two spheres.
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ICONOGRAPHY: SYMBOLISM AND MEANING 55

The role of Osiris as king of the gods was at times merged with the role of the sun-god Re
and the crown that was inherited through the actions of the victorious and dutiful heir acquired,
for all its Osirian origin, a solar significance (Derchain 1955, p. 241). The solar overtones of
even those images traditionally identified as Osirian that depict subjugated enemies along the
base, such as the engaged statues in the first court of Medinet Habu, should be interpreted in
this light (cf. Murnane 1980, p. 21).
Contra H. Bell (1975, p. 64), the use of the motif of the "bound prisoners," therefore, in
context on Roman period portrait mummies, gives no "evidence that the religious symbolism
was 'misunderstood and its significance forgotten."' Rather, for the non-royal individual who
aspired to be assimilated in death with the king and the sun-god, the motif was employed with
the fullest comprehension of its meaning.

BODY FIELD DECORATION

REPERTOIRE OF REPRESENTATIONAL SCENES
The ancient Egyptian's "instinctive preference for balanced symmetrical composition"
(Schaffer 1974, p. 226),22 both in visual and intellectual terms, is illustrated in the choice of
funerary or mythological scenes that decorate the red-shrouded and stucco portrait mummies.
A common design at the shoulder area of the portrait mummies (see, for example, Red-
shrouded Mummies Nos. 14 or 15) depicts the deceased appearing before a seated image of
the god Osiris (on the mummies' right) and simultaneously appearing before a seated image of
the god Sokar-Re (on the mummies' left). The gods Osiris and Sokar-Re are depicted in their
dual roles as judges of the dead. 23 The sun-disc shown on the head of Sokar-Re, however, re-
veals that this is a solarized form of the god of the underworld.24 The symmetry of the scenes,
therefore, is in the balance of the roles of the solarized chthonic deities. Other scenes within
the limited repertoire of scenes that decorates the mummies include the Osirian themes of the
"Journey to Abydos," the lustration of the wrapped mummy by Anubis, the lamentations of Isis
and Nephthys, and the worship of the Abydos fetish of Osiris. In the Late period, however,
"Osiris et le culte abyd6nien sont 6clips6s" and the representation of essentially Osirian motifs
must be viewed in the context "d'une longue 61aboration syncr6tique de rites abyd6niens et ...
solaire" (Derchain 1955, pp. 239, 241).

GROUND COLOR
Significance of the Red Ground on Red-shrouded Mummies25
In ancient Egypt, specific colors were assigned characteristic values. Therefore, the sym-
bolism of the choice of the color red for the ground of red-shrouded portrait mummies must be

22. This balance is not necessarily maintained through identical symmetry, see Hornung 1985, pp. 71-77.
23. The role of (Osiris)-Sokar-Re as a judge of the dead in the Roman era is discussed by Griffiths (1982, pp.
250-51).
24. For a solarized interpretation of Sokar-Re, see Wente 1982, p. 24.
25. This section is an expanded version of a paper that was first presented at the annual meeting of the
American Research Center in Egypt, Cleveland, April 28, 1984. The kindness of Professors Edward F.
Wente and Janet H. Johnson of the University of Chicago, and Professor Cathleen Keller of the University of
California, Berkeley, for reading and commenting on the draft of the paper is acknowledged. Dr. David P.
Silverman kindly noted a reference to Professor Wente's article (1982, pp. 17-26), the references and con-
clusions contained in which have contributed greatly to the content of this discussion.
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56 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

examined, because in the conservative and traditional context of religious and funerary art to
which the mummies belong, "die Wahl der Farbe ist nicht zufillig" (Parlasca 1966, p. 190).
The red coloring of these mummies might harken back to the characteristic colors assigned
by Ptah at the creation of the world to animals, plants, and human beings. 26 Red embodied the
essential physical quality of men, as distinguished from the feminine nature, yellow. From the
Old Kingdom onward, men are depicted in painting and sculpture with reddish brown skin,
women with a yellow tone. 27 In the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties, the faces of female
mummy masks were painted yellow and the faces of men's masks painted red (Edwards 1938,
p. 33). In his archaeological survey of Nubia, Firth (1912, p. 30) reported that among the
Ptolemaic-Roman burials, mummies were wrapped in red or yellow dyed linen according to
sex. As one-third of the known examples of red-shrouded portrait mummies belong however to
women, a color distinction on the basis of sex does not seem to have been the deciding factor
in the decoration of the red-shrouded portrait mummies.
Red is a color associated with cult in the wearing of red garments for festivals (Kees 1943,
p. 463). "The women's dresses on the panel portraits are usually purple, varying from lilac to
dark violet" (Edgar 1905b, p. 232).28 Edgar (1905a, p. 74) hypothesized that the wrappings of
one female mummy (Red-shrouded Mummy No. 13) were painted red to harmonize with her
drapery. As men sporting white chitons were also wrapped in red covers it seems unlikely,
then, that the garment scheme of the portrait influenced the coloring of the funeral wrappings.
Red, as Kees (1943, p. 447) described it, is the color of the sun in the morning and evening,
the color of life-giving and life-letting blood, and of the warming or searing flame. It is the
color that the Egyptians ascribed to the gebel-the red land-and the color of its potentially
dangerous inhabitants. Red was also attributed to the god Seth (ibid., pp. 456-61; see also
Griffiths 1972, pp. 83-84).
These associations underlie the dual nature of the color. In all its forms, red embodies both
positive and negative aspects. As the vile fratricide, the god Seth was responsible for the mur-
der of his brother, Osiris. Yet, it is Seth who sits on the prow of the bark of the sun-god to pro-
tect Re against his enemy, Apophis. Whether this is the god Seth himself, or as Te Velde
(1967, pp. 105-08) has suggested, Seth has been chosen to illustrate a negative quality of the
sun-god Re, this is an occasion when Seth's characteristically violent behavior results in good.
The connection of Seth with the sun-god Re is the link to the symbolism of the color red in
a funerary context. The red color of the morning and evening sun is the result of its bloody and
cyclical battle against Apophis and the dark powers of the underworld (Kees 1943, p. 448), the

26. Kees (1943, pp. 414-15): "Am klarsten ist dieser Standpunkt in der memphitischen Gotterlehre des Alten
Reiches bezeugt. Danach hat Ptah nach der Schopfung des Weltalls die Einzelkrifte der Natur bestimmt und
geschieden, und zwar neben den mannlichen und weiblichen."
27. This is accepted as a distinction between one color and another, although Morenz (1962, note to p. 3) states
that "the Egyptians appear to have distinguished only a 'warm' and a 'cold' range of colors. Hence 'red' and
'yellow' ... are nearly synonymous." W. Smith (1978, p. 258) indicates that the alternation of colors may be
a practical device to distinguish figures in proximity, such as the members of a family group. Smith's sugges-
tion has merit in that the device was used for greater legibility, a device Egyptian artists employed when al-
ternating the colors of the coats of animals in groups or spans. The statement by Baines (1985, p. 285) that
the technique was used "to say something about ideals of beauty, in which women were paler, probably be-
cause they led a more indoor life," is repeated quite often in the literature but appears to be anachronisti-
cally applied from a Victorian perception of the roles of men and women.
28. A contemporary dowry list (ca. A.D. 127), cited by Naphtali Lewis (1983, p. 55), consisted of jewelry, cash,
and "two dresses (one red the other rose-colored)."
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ICONOGRAPHY: SYMBOLISM AND MEANING 57

same forces that are shown vanquished underfoot on the undersides of the cartonnage foot-
cases. Through sympathetic magic, the identification of the wrapped mummy with the blood-
stained body of the sun-god would secure for the deceased a successful solar deliverance from
destructive powers. This objective is, in fact, clearly stated in the Pyramid Texts, Utterance
570 (words to be spoken by the deceased):
I am the redness which came forth from Isis, I am the blood which issued from
Nephthys; I am firmly bound up(?) at the waist(?) and there is nothing which the gods
can do to me, for I am the representation of Re and I do not die. ... Stand guard, O
Seth, that I may rise in the eastern side of the sky like Re who rises in the eastern side
of the sky (Faulkner 1969, p. 225).
Traditionally, of course, it is the color gold that was associated with the flesh of the sun-
god. 29 The use of gold overlay on the stucco portrait mummies (Category three: type one) re-
flects this idea. In the decoration of rhombic-wrapped mummies, the assimilation of the de-
ceased to the glittering body of the sun-god is seen in the inclusion of gilt buttons or pieces of
gold-foil within the bases of the linen rhombs. "The idea appears to have been that the mummy
was cased in gold" (Petrie 1911, pp. 14-15), a bit of sleight of hand and a technique of econ-
omy that was even employed for the mummy of Tutankhamun (Edwards 1976, p. 134).

HistoricalBackground to the Cultic Use of Red Wrappings

The practice of covering a body with a red cloth goes back as far as the predynastic period.
In Cemetery 40 at Siali in Nubia, Jones noted, and not for the first time on burials of this pe-
riod, "brilliant red pigment being deposited upon the surface of the bones," which he conjec-
tured to have been "the only lasting traces of a colored fabric, which had lain in close contact
with the body" (Smith and Jones 1910, pp. 188-89).
The first textual reference to red cloth being used for burial comes from the autobiographi-
cal inscription in the tomb of a Sixth Dynasty official named Mery-Aa, where the tomb-owner
explains how he prepared the body of his father for burial:
hr sft hnw m jns pr-'nh
with oil from the residence and in red cloth from
the house of life (Derchain 1966, p. 73)
As "chaque linge et chaque bandalette utilises a ... une valeur mythologique precise"
(Sauneron 1952b, p. xviii), Derchain (1966, p. 73-74) concluded that the burial of Mery-Aa's
father must have been in accordance with a particular funerary ceremony. The ceremony he
suggested was one that is known from a Late period papyrus (Papyrus Salt 825), which de-
scribes a daily clothing of the statue of Osiris with red cloth from the house of life. Although
the textual evidence for this ritual is lacking from the Old Kingdom, Derchain proposed that
the liturgy must have been in existence from the first mention of the agents involved. Derchain
conjectured that, as a powerful nobleman, Mery-Aa would have had access to the red cloths
that the temple would have discarded, in order to reuse them for their apotropaic value. Based
on Kees' analogy of the color red with the sun, Derchain concluded that the red cloths must
have been charged with a "symbolisme solaire net, qui affecte ceux qui les portent" and of-
fered the example of the text from Mery-Aa's tomb as proof of the existence, from the Sixth
Dynasty, "d'une foi en une destinre solaire des morts ordinaires."

29. In a description of the wondrous birth of the first three kings of the solar oriented Fifth Dynasty (Papyrus
Westcar), the triplets are delivered with "limbs overlaid with gold" (Lichtheim 1973, p. 220).
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58 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

The colors traditionally associated with the god Osiris and used to portray his flesh were
green and black, symbolizing vegetal life and the fertile earth. That red cloths had been used
to cover a statue of Osiris was understood by Derchain (1966, p. 74) as a manifestation of
"l'union de Ra et d'Osiris dans la petite momie."
A glass amulet (Egyptian Museum, Inv. 13580)30 depicts the god Anubis performing the
rites of rejuvenation on a mummy that lies on a lion-headed bier. The scene recreates the
mummification ritual of the god Osiris for the benefit of a deceased individual. The mummy
depicted on the amulet is colored red. The same scene, painted in tempera on a wooden foot-
board from the late first century A.D. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Inv. 1979.37; Corcoran
1988a, p. 209), depicts a mummified corpse wrapped in rhombic bandages painted red.
A lunar interpretation of this scene, which likens the mummified body to that of Osiris and
the regenerating moon, has been proposed (Ritner 1985, pp. 149-55).31 In either a lunar or so-
lar interpretation of the scene, however, the body of the deceased enters a state of cosmic and
cyclic perfection. 32 The solar aspect of the representation is nevertheless evidenced in these
scenes by the agency of Anubis, the son of the sun-god Re, who was sent by Re to perform the
rejuvenation rites (Grenier 1977, p. 17) and by the choice of the color red (in the examples
cited above) for the mummy bandages. The lion-headed bier could symbolize the rwty-lion,
forming a hieroglyph for "horizon" with the body of the deceased representing the cradled sun,
the lion might be identified as the solar bark with the deceased as its divine passenger, or the
lion (and the deceased) could be considered as a single entity assimilated with the sun itself
(de Wit, n.d., pp. 72-73, 138, 136).33
The vessel that the god Anubis holds over the mummified body could contain funerary oils,
but more probably it contains sacred Nile water. The cup that holds the water has the shape of
Gardiner's Sign List W 10, which stands phonetically for the verb j'b "to unite," perhaps a vi-
sual pun for the desired result effected by libating the limbs of the wrapped mummy.
"All the lustration-and libation-formulae, which identify the water with putrescence and
exudations from the corpse, are Osirian" (Blackman 1925, p. 208). However, they replace
older solar formulae, of which examples "survived and were in use even as late as Graeco-
Roman times." One such "old lustration formula used in the Osiris Mysteries at Edfu, Philae,
and Denderah identifies the water with the primeval ocean, out of which the sun-god was born
in the first instance" (ibid., p. 206, n. 3; see also J6quier 1946, pp. 59-72). 34 The reddened body
of the deceased, identified with the sun-god, would then be physically reborn as a result of
lustration.

30. Reisner 1958, p. 130, no 13580, pl. 20; see also no. 13581, a similar amulet that is made entirely of red frit.
31. A response to Ritner's article by Millard (1987, pp. 237-38) draws a parallel between the figure of Anubis,
identified by Ritner as supporting the waxing and waning moon, with the legend of St. Christopher who car-
ried the Christ across a river since the physical body of the Christ was transformed from that of a child, on
the one bank, to that of an adult by the end of the journey. This St. Christopher legend, however, offers
closer parallels to a solar interpretation of the motif as it is the body of the sun, in Egyptian mythology, that
is born in the morning as the young child (Chepri) and ends the day as an aged man (Atum).
32. For the concept of time as it relates to the mummy, see Wente 1982, p. 23.
33. Note that the platforms of the lion beds on Red-shrouded Mummies Nos. 14 and 15 are blue (simulating
"sky"). Across the platform of Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14 is a row of white "stars."
34. For the association of the well(s) at the temple of Medinet Habu with the waters of Nun and the lustration
rites of the king as creator god, see Walker 1991, p. 71.
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ICONOGRAPHY: SYMBOLISM AND MEANING 59

THE "BAPTISM OF PHARAOH"

At the end of the Twelfth Dynasty, at the temple of Medinet Maadi, a rite is depicted for
the first time (Gardiner 1951, p. 111) that belongs to a series of episodes in a real or commem-
orative coronation ceremony (Leclant 1968, p. 48). This rite depicts the lustration of the king
by two gods who stand to either side of him and who pour a libation over him from upraised
vessels (usually hs-vases). The two gods most commonly depicted are Horus and Thoth, al-
though Seth can replace Thoth, and various other pairs of deities can also substitute (Gardiner
1950, p. 11). Gardiner believed that, "in reality, the hes purification was quadrilateral not bi-
lateral although all four gods were not shown because it was not artistically satisfactory."
Gardiner (ibid., p. 12) explained the quadrilateral implications of the scene as a desire to illus-
trate the dominion of the king over the four cardinal points. The choice of Horus and Thoth
might however have been influenced by their substitution for two creator gods, Sia and Hu,
who journeyed with Re in the solar boat and who were responsible for the resurrection of the
sun from primeval waters (J6quier 1946, pp. 80-83, 133-36).
Gardiner understood the scene to illustrate a kind of "purification," which he believed was
a prerequisite to kingship, and christened the rite "The Baptism of Pharaoh" as he drew an
analogy to Christian baptism, which through "a symbolic cleansing by means of water serves
as an initiation into a properly legitimated religious life" (Gardiner 1950, p. 3). If the textual
accompaniments to the scenes of lustration are examined, however, an even closer analogy to
the cultic function of Christian baptism is revealed. Not only does the performance of the rite
ensure a ritual cleansing-although in Christianity it involves the cleansing of mortal sin
whereas in the Egyptian rite, "such cleansing was essentially from material pollution"-but
also the individual for whom the lustration is performed actually becomes reborn (Brandon
1968, p. 52; see also J6quier 1946, pp. 56, 83).
In a discussion of a molded cartonnage coffin with glass inlays, which he dated to the early
second century A.D., Bianchi (1983, pp. 15-16) noted "the appearance of the royal motif of the
'baptism of pharaoh"' depicted "in the area of the thighs." He remarked that the scene was
"without precedent on monuments of this type." Evidence from this study indicates rather that
the lustration scene is commonly depicted on the body fields of Roman period mummies. Of
eight portrait mummies that are decorated with mythological scenes, three (Red-shrouded
Mummies Nos. 14 and 15, and Stucco Mummy No. 22) are also decorated with the lustration
scene. In addition, the scene appears on the body of a contemporary stucco mummy (Graeco-
Roman Museum, Inv. 27808; see pl. 30). These Roman examples illustrate that the motif had,
by this time, become popularly adapted to non-royal funerary use.
The earliest representation of the lustration of a non-royal person by the gods on coffins is
in fact from the Twenty-first Dynasty (see British Museum, Inv. 22939, 35 where the coffin's
owner is a woman and the lustrated individual is a female). On two of the portrait mummy ex-
amples, Red-shrouded Mummies Nos. 14 and 15, the lustrated individual is a male dressed in a
linen sheath (not the shendot-kilt worn by a king) and is therefore probably also to be under-
stood as the deceased. On two other mummies (see pls. 30-31), one certainly belonging to a
woman, the lustrated individual is depicted as a male child which illustrates that the deceased,
whether male or female, aspired to an assimilation with the royal child, Horus.

35. For a photograph of the detail, see Andrews 1984, p. 13, fig. 10, where the coffin is dated to "after 800 B.C."
In Dawson and Gray 1968, p. 8, the coffin is however dated to the Twenty-first Dynasty. The earliest non-
royal representation of the motif is from the Ramesside tomb of Neferabet, see Van Walsem (1992, p. 645).
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60 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

Leclant (1968, pp. 49-50) pointed out that purification scenes of the Eighteenth Dynasty
(Queen Hatshepsut and Amenhotep III) depict the sovereign who is being purified as a naked
(male) child. He likened the lustration scenes to nursing scenes, the flow of ankh and was-
symbols to the flow of life-sustaining milk, and the initiation of the young heir-apparent to a
lifetime of royal service as a kind of (re)birth. Stucco Mummy No. 22, which belongs to a
woman and depicts the lustrated individual as a male child with hand to mouth and sporting the
sidelock, perhaps preserves some elements of this royal image of initiation and rebirth.
As the Roman lustration scenes are uninscribed, enlightenment from New Kingdom repre-
sentations is sought in which "the texts accompanying the scenes where it is depicted yield a
self-sufficient explanation of its purpose" (Gardiner 1950, p. 6). Two examples will suffice to
show that the objective in these lustration scenes is not only a ritual cleansing, but also an ac-
tual transfiguration. The first example is from Seti's Gurna temple where Seti is libated by a
Iwn-mutef priest as Thoth observes. The inscription reads:
dd mdw jn Dhwty w'b k w'b Hr ts phr w'bsk w'b Dhwty ts phr wbak w'b Sth
ts phr w'bk w'b Dwn'nwy tsphr ... 'sp nak tp=k 'bJ nk qswk \\\...
Words to be said by Thoth, "Your purification is the purification of Horus and vice
versa; your purification is the purification of Thoth and vice versa; your purification is
the purification of Seth and vice versa; your purification is the purification of Dwn
Anwy and vice versa. ... Take (to yourself) your head, assemble (to yourself) your
bones , ..." 36
The text implies a physical reassembly of the king's bodily parts, similar to that expressed
in a "resurrection" text, Utterance 666, in the Pyramid Texts (Faulkner 1969, pp. 277-78).
A second example of a lustration scene that illustrates physical transfiguration is from
Karnak temple, B 151, 152, East Wall, South half, bottom register, south end (Nelson 1981, pl.
105). Ramses II is flanked by Horus the Behdedite and Thoth. The inscription begins:
dd mdw jn Hr s. ist w'b n(-j) tw m Cnh wis rnpj h'w-k n dt shrd mjh.m n .k

j'h wsr nht n hph.k rwd rn k mj w M rnpj.-k mj Hprj rwd RI m wbn htp
Words to be said by Horsiese, "I have purified you with life and stability. May your
limbs grow young forever. May you become a child like the body of the moon. May
power and strength be to your arm. May your name flourish like Shu ' May you grow
young like Chepri and flourish like Re when he rises and sets."
The emphasis in this scene appears to be the rejuvenation of the body of the king, compar-
ing it first to the body of the moon and then to the sun.

LUSTRATION AND THE ISIS CULT

In a final consideration of the lustration scenes on the portrait mummies, it is noteworthy to
remember the importance of the rite in the Isiac cult, the initiates of which were admitted into
the Isiac community after undergoing "un bain de consecration" (Leclant 1968, p. 50). The
young boys, whose hair is dressed in a Horus-lock 37 and who hold a vase and floral wreath,
depicted in numerous examples of mummy portraits, have been identified as acolytes of the
Isis cult by von Gonzenbach (1957), who suggests that the vase held by the boys (as the vase

36. The Epigraphic Survey, Chicago House, Oriental Institute Negative No. 7189.
37. Edgar (1905b, p. 232, n. 45) also mentions the only example where "a girl wears it on the left side" (Stucco
Mummy No. 18) (emphasis added). For examples of these "acolyte" portraits, see Parlasca 1980, pp. 53-54,
62-67.
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ICONOGRAPHY: SYMBOLISM AND MEANING 61

which Anubis holds as he attends to the rejuvenation of the wrapped mummy) probably con-
tained Nile water (ibid., pp. 119, 163).38 The depiction of the "baptism of pharaoh" motif-a
lustration scene with symbolic connotations of a physical transfiguration-would have ap-
pealed to cult members as an allusion to that step of the initiation rite into the mystery cult to
which the patrons of the portrait mummies were adherent devotees.
The beliefs of the cult of the goddess Isis, in the Roman period, were consistent with the
unity of thought expressed in the iconography of the portrait mummies. The traditional
Egyptian triad of Isis, Osiris, and Horus was replaced in the Roman period by Isis, Serapis, and
Horus/Harpocrates, with the goddess Isis in the most prominent position (Heyob 1975, p. 40).39
Osiris' role diminished because "the functions of Osiris are curiously similar to those of Isis in
the Graeco-Roman age" (Witt 1971, p. 103). Not to minimize her role as a "feminine" deity,
Isis is invoked as both "'the mother and father' of all created things" (ibid., p. 104). Her most
important aspect during the Roman period is her omnipotence "on a cosmic scale" (ibid., pp.
106-07), an evolution of her divine personality that, however, had its roots in syncretistic
tendencies evident in Egyptian religion from the New Kingdom onward (Junge 1979, pp. 97-
104). Her coupling with Serapis enhanced her developed identity as a cosmic deity since
Serapis was often equated with Zeus/Helios/Apollo and given solar attributes (Witt 1971, p.
213).
The nexus between Isis and Hathor, consort of the sun-god Re (Wente 1969, p. 90), is evi-
dent even at the temple of Dendera, Hathor's chief cult center, where for the uninitiated "it is
very difficult to distinguish whether Hathor or Isis is named in a text or represented in an im-
age" (Heyob 1975, p. 49, n. 48). This syncretism is evident also in the headdress with cow's
horns that Isis often wears in Roman representations and which is depicted in stucco above the
head of Stucco Mummy No. 19. In contemporary, and earlier, funerary inscriptions, the femi-
nine equivalent of the phrase "the Osiris so-and-so," meaning "the deceased," was not "the
Isis" but "the Hathor" (see M. Smith 1987, pp. 129-31).40
The Isis cult reached the height of its popularity in Egypt by the second century A.D., but
maintained its influence into the fourth century. These dates are significant for the floruit of
the production of portrait mummies, especially at Hawara, in the late first and early second
centuries A.D. and help to account for the continuity into the fourth century of iconographic
traditions associated with the cult.

CORONATION
In temple reliefs, the lustration rite precedes the scene in which the crown is actually
placed upon the head of the king (Gardiner 1950, p. 7). The crown that the king receives, how-
ever, is not the double crown (pshent) that he wears as king of a united Upper and Lower
Egypt but rather the atef-crown.

38. This identification has been commonly accepted by scholars, see Bothmer 1974, p. 98; Heyob 1975, pp. 77-
78. For the active participation of children in the Isis cult, see Griffiths 1975, pp. 142-43.
39. Although Osiris is prominent in Plutarch's De Iside et Osiride, this was not characteristic of the cult as prac-
ticed. Cf. Griffiths 1970, p. 74: "The intellectual analysis of the Osirian religion ... is the part where he
[Plutarch] has strayed furthest from Egyptian tradition."
40. Add to M. Smith's list of examples the Demotic inscription on a contemporary funerary shroud (Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston, Inv. 54.993; see Corcoran 1988e, pp. 204-05).
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62 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

The atef-crown is worn by Osiris, and although the king is depicted here as receiving the
crown of his father, Osiris, "Osiris is not the only god who can wear the Atef." Indeed, the atef-
crown seems to be associated with "an active role and his [the king's] relationship with other
gods." In this context, the atef-crown appears to be closely associated with the sun-god or with
"the full vigor of life," which is solar charged (Murnane 1980, p. 21; see also L. Bell 1985, p.
269, n. 83).
On the west face of the east pilaster of the Bubastite Gate at Karnak, Amun and Mut be -
stow the atef-crown upon Osorkon I. The accompanying text reads:
dd mdw jn Jmn R' \\j ?tfw n R' hr tp[ k]
Words spoken by Amen-Re, "I ' the atef-crown of Re upon [your] head" (Epigraphic
Survey 1954, pl. 13, lines 1-2).
It continues:
dd mdw jn Mwt nbt pt hnwt ntrwt jnk mwt k km- nfr k rdj.j tw m nb w' n
hnmmt h,-swt nbw hr tbty.k mj R' dt dd mdw rdj nj n-k rnpwt n hb-sd Inh
dd ws nb rdj j mnt >tfw hr tp. k mj wnn f hr tp n R'
Words spoken by Mut, Lady of Heaven and Mistress of the [gods and] goddesses, "I am
your mother who created your beauty. I have placed you as sole Lord of the sun-folk
[mankind] and placed all foreign lands under your sandals like Re forever.
(Recitation continues) I have given to you years of jubilee and all life, dominion and
strength. I have caused the atef-crown to be firm upon your head as it is upon the
head of Re." (ibid., lines 3-6).
The statements of Amen-Re and Mut not only make clear that the crown which is bestowed
is the crown of the sun-god, but Mut also reiterates the motif of the subjugated enemies (see
The "Bound Prisoner"Motif, pp. 53-55, above).
If the "baptism" scene, as a preliminary to coronation, appears on the portrait mummies
and other contemporary mummies, then a crown should be expected as a part of the iconogra-
phy. Indeed, the atef-crown itself is illustrated on the base of the red-shrouded portrait mummy
of Artemidorus (BM 21810; Kikosy 1983, p. 57, pls. 1-2). The actual act of coronation is de-
picted at the back of a contemporary cartonnage mummy mask (CG 33133).41
Kikosy (1983, pp. 58-59) has suggested that crowns captured the imagination of the Late
period and syncretism of crowns was rampant. Perhaps as an alternative to the atef, the patrons
of the portrait mummies are depicted wearing either a red floral wreath or one of gold.
Although crowns played a role in Greek and Roman funerary ritual, it is not necessary to look
for an explanation for their funerary use in an Egyptian context outside the sphere of ancient
Egyptian beliefs (Corcoran 1988b, pp. 211-12). The wreath can be identified with the crown of
the sun-god and the color choices for these wreaths, gold and red, are complementary to the
choices made for the ground color of portrait mummy covers that symbolize a solar identifica-
tion (see Significance of the Red Ground on Red-shroudedMummies, pp. 55-57, above).
Within an Egyptian funerary context, however, a conflation of ideas underlying the use of a
wreath must be acknowledged. Spells 19 and 20 of the Book of the Dead were to be recited as
a wreath was bound on the brow of the deceased in anticipation of that which was to be
awarded him in the afterlife in the Hall of Judgment (Allen 1974, pp. 34-36). It was called the
"mh n m?i'-brw," wreath of justification (Kaikosy 1983, p. 60, n. 39), as it symbolized the
vindication, by his son Horus, of Osiris, the god of the dead, against his enemies. In time, how-

41. For a photograph of the scene on CG 33133, see Kurth 1990, pl. 12, and discussion on pp. 57-62.
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ICONOGRAPHY: SYMBOLISM AND MEANING 63

ever, the Osirian crown of justification came to be associated with the sun-god Re, not as the
result of later influences, but within a totally orthodox Egyptian tradition (Derchain 1955, p.
241, n. 1):
le caractere apotropaique de la justification permet encore d'expliquer la cons6cration de cette
couronne au soleil, sous sa forme de Kh6pri, le soleil levant, qui doit lutter chaque matin contre
ses ennemis (ibid., p. 233).
The crown of justification is also associated with a feathered crown (depicted in stylized
form on Red-shrouded Mummy No. 12 and J. Paul Getty Museum, Inv. 87.AP.42). This feath-
ered crown was awarded to the deceased upon the successful passage of the weighing of the
heart against the scale of Truth (psychostacy). This ritual was originally associated with the
sun-god because Truth [maat] was the daughter of Re, fashioned by him for the benefit of
mankind (Wente 1982, p. 25).
The element that these scenes ("baptism" and coronation, "vindication" and coronation,
and "justification" and coronation) have in common is the awarding of a crown or wreath and
the presentation of its recipient to the company of the gods as a confirmation of legitimacy and
divinity. Through these representations, it becomes clear that the deceased aspires to a com-
plete assimilation with divinity as expressed in Spell 133 of the Book of the Dead:
Then the gods shall see him as one of themselves, the dead shall see him and fall on
their faces, and he shall be seen in the god's domain as (are) the beams of Re (Allen
1974, p.109).

RED WREATHS AND THE ISIS CULT

Actual wreaths were found by Petrie at the Roman cemetery at Hawara. Gas chromato-
graphic analysis has confirmed that some of these wreaths were made from a fragrant herb,
Origanemmarjoram (Edmondson and Bienkowski 1993, pp. 169-74), to which family of mints
belong those herbs commonly known as oregano, marjoram, and rosemary. Newberry (1889, p.
51) identified other wreaths as composed of roses and berries. 42 Roses were unknown in
pharaonic times (Germer 1985, p. 64) but were introduced by the Greeks, perhaps as early as
the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, and were plentiful in Roman Egypt (Keimer 1943, pp. 20-23).
Wreaths, made of stucco and painted red, appear on Roman period stucco masks from Meir
in Middle Egypt (ibid., pp. 6-7). Wreaths, painted red, some modeled in stucco, are shown in
the hands of portrait mummies. Due to the predilection of Egyptian artists to manipulate
natural forms and because of the symbolic value of color within Egyptian art, it is perhaps
pointless to identify categorically the material of the plastic and painted wreaths either as rose
flowers or as the fragrant herb of a beguilingly related name.
Keimer (1943, p. 7) notes, however, that rose garlands were employed "par les Isiaques
aux rites fun6raires" and Kdikosy (1983, p. 59) attributes the dissemination of "Diademo-
mania" to the Isis religion. In The Golden Ass, Apuleius recounts how his hero, Lucius, can
only reverse the transformation effected upon him by eating the garland carried in the hand of
an Isis priest in procession (Griffiths 1975, pp. 84-87 and discussion on pp. 159-61 ).43
Apuleius then describes the public appearance of the hero as a newly initiated devotee of
Isis. Lucius is clothed in an ornamented tunic, carries in his right hand a flaming torch, and his
head is garlanded by a wreath of palm, the leaves of which stood out similar to the rays of the

42. For a photograph of two floral wreaths, see Petrie 1911, pl. 11, figs. 5-6.
43. Is it possible that in this instance the translation of the Latin should also be questioned, in which case the
priest's wreath that so attracted the beast may have been made of the fragrant herb and not rose flowers?
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64 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

sun (Griffiths 1975, pp. 100-01 and discussion on pp. 313-15). In this description, the patrons
of the portrait mummies are recognized: transfigured through baptism, with bodies enshrouded
in white, gold, or red wrappings, wearing a solar crown. This description of the Isis devotee in
the guise of the sun-god even helps to explain the depiction of a lighted candle (Petrie 1911, p.
4) in the hand of the deceased as represented on certain stucco mummy casings (for example,
Fitzwilliam Museum, Inv. E.103.1911; see pl. 25). 44 In the description of the appearance of the
Isis initiate, the echo of the words of Amun-Re from the Ramses III temple in Karnak, pylon,
west tower, are heard:
dj -j mi? sn hm k m nb Sw shd k hrw , sn mj snn (--j)
I cause them to see your majesty as the Lord of sunlight. You illuminate their faces as
my [own] image [does] (Epigraphic Survey 1936, pl. 4, line 15).

CONCLUSIONS
In his discussion of the function of crowns in Late period funerary ritual, Kikosy (1983, p.
59) concluded that
in den meisten Fillen diirften die Verfertiger oder Besitzer kein tieferes Verstindnis mehr ffir
die Symbolik und urspringliche Bedeutung dieser Motiv gehabt haben. Sie waren zwar als
heilige Objekte igyptischer Glitter und K6nige bekannt; die Einzelheiten allerdings waren
gewiB selbst flir die Isis-Glaubigen nicht mehr besonders wichtig.
How far from true this now turns out to be. In this investigation of the body decoration of
the portrait mummies, the various motifs have all been found to exhibit a logical and coherent
symbolism, the artistic inspiration for which has as its source the tenets expressed in traditional
Egyptian religious and funerary texts (cf. Myiliwiec 1980, p. 172; Sauneron 1952b, p. 19):
1. The subjugation of the enemies and the establishment of order over chaos
2. Travel in the solar bark through the gates of the netherworld
3. The sympathetic gilding or reddening of the body (field)
4. Physical transfiguration through lustration
The gilt wreath that was painted onto the forehead of an individual depicted in a mummy
portrait, or the red wreath that is shown either on the forehead or carried in the hand, was not a
meaningless sacred relic but rather the crowning touch to the conscious and consistent iconog-
raphy of the portrait mummies.

44. Permission to examine and to photograph this object in February 1986 was kindly granted by Janine
Bourriau, Assistant Keeper of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England. The mummy to which this
stucco bust was attached was also equipped with a splendidly preserved cartonnage footcase with bound
prisoners on the soles of the sandals (see The "Bound Prisoner"Motif, pp. 53-55, and pl. 24).
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PATRONAGE
RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION OF THE PATRON GROUP
In a study that attempts to distinguish the characteristics of the individuals and schools of
artists who painted the "funerary portraits" from Antinoopolis, Thompson (1972, p. 28) hesi-
tated to "embrace the intricacies of ... [a] much debated question, i.e., the religious persua-
sions of individual portrait subjects." Thompson's (1982, p. 2) reticence was influenced by his
belief that the portraits and portrait mummies were adapted to Egyptian burial practices by
"Graeco-Roman" immigrants who had "only a limited understanding of its native religious ba-
sis" and by the idea that the popular religions, "the cults of Isis, Mithras, Cybele and Attis, and
the Syrian deities, as practiced by those who were not their nationals, had no effect on the fu-
nerary practice of the Graeco-Roman world," that is, that "there was in these religions no ele-
ment making for [identifiable] burial [practices]" (Nock 1932, pp. 293,305).
However, this study has demonstrated that the iconography of the decoration of the portrait
mummies-with an emphasis on the transformation of the deceased into a divine being pos-
sessing a royal and solar character-is thoroughly consistent with traditional native Egyptian
religious tenets and that, in particular, there are developed and distinct traits within this cate-
gory of burials that identify the patrons of the portrait mummies as adherents of the cult of Isis.
The intimate association (perhaps even familial relationship) with respect to which these indi-
viduals considered themselves involved with the cult deities is succinctly expressed in visual
terms by three panel portraits in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu (Inv.
74.AP.20-22). One of the portraits is of an individual devotee, the others are of Serapis and
Isis. Whether these panels are reconstructed as a triptych in which the devotee's painting is
flanked by the portraits of Serapis and Isis (Thompson 1978/79, pp. 185-88, figs. 1-3) or, more
credibly within an Egyptian context, as a wooden shrine where the panels bearing images of
Serapis and Isis form the doors and the devotee's portrait is preserved within,' the triad consti-
tutes the divine family into which the devotee has insinuated himself as a substitute for the
child god, Harpocrates.
The elaborately constructed Isiac convictions the patrons espoused fulfilled for them the
religious requirements of their particular social and economic group and indicates that there is
actually little support for the notion that the local custom of funerary portraits was adopted by
"Greeks and Romans resident in Egypt ... with only the vaguest conception of its ancient
Egyptian religious significance" (Morgan 1976b, p. 23). An analysis of available data provides
a clearer description of the patron group who commissioned these portraits and mummies.

1.This reconstruction has been suggested by Parlasca (pers. comm., April 22. 1993).
65
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66 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

ONOMASTICS
Increasingly, the use of names to establish ethnicity in the Roman period has come to be
viewed as based upon unreliable criteria. From the Ptolemaic period, it is known that "foreign"
names came to be adopted within a more and more homogeneous sector of society, 2 indicating
that during this period there appears to have existed an attitude of "complete indifference to
ethnic origin" (Johnson 1987, p. 143). For whatever reasons, 3 however, other individuals peti-
tioned to change their given names (and sometimes even their ethnic sounding patronymics).4
This lack of a coherent policy during the Ptolemaic period contributed toward the complex cir-
cumstances of the Roman era in which "the Romans found no simple way of dividing Greeks
and Egyptians," so that all residents with the exception of the citizens of the three Greek cities
of Egypt (Alexandria, Ptolemais, and Naukratis) were categorized as "Egyptians" (Bagnall
1988, pp. 21-22). Nevertheless, the percentage of seemingly Greek names among the "few
cases" (Petrie 1889, p. 20) of inscriptions on mummy portraits and portrait mummies has led at
least one scholar to claim that "nearly all subjects of mummy portraits who are identified in
accompanying inscriptions" (Thompson 1982, p. 11) were Greek.

RELATIONSHIP OF NAMES TO THE ISIS CULT 5

Texts, some indicating names, were inscribed directly onto portraits, for example,
EPMIONH "Hermione," on portrait mummy Girton College, No Number. Other texts appear as
part of the decorative scheme of the mummy, for example, where the name is embossed in
stucco onto the casing, as was done for "Thermoutharin," Red-shrouded Mummy No. 16.
Alternatively, an inscription could appear embossed onto a cartonnage strip that was attached
to the mummy as in the case of "Demos" (CG 33237; see Parlasca 1966, p. 79, no. 1). One in-
scription bearing a name was not an intentional part of the body decoration but was added per-
haps as a "maker's memorandum." 6 This inscriptional memorandum is written in black ink on
the right side of the preserved head casing of a partly preserved red-shrouded portrait mummy
(J. Paul Getty Museum, Inv. 81.AP.42). It has been read as "Isidora" (Thompson 1982, p. 32),
presumably the subject's name.
The entries in Parlasca's three volume series (1969, 1977, 1980) have augmented, by an
additional seven, his original list of twenty-two names (one of which was not legible) derived
from texts associated with mummy portraits. 7 The inscription of "Isidora" on a red-shrouded
portrait mummy (J. Paul Getty Museum, Inv. 81.AP.42), the inclusion in this group of the name
TaHathor from a red portrait shroud (Museum of Art and Archeology, University of Missouri,
Inv. 61.66.3; Parlasca 1963, pp. 264-68), and the name "Tiapos," which was on a decayed

2. Although evidence (Peremans 1970, p. 30) indicates that in the second to first centuries B.C. there were
slightly more immigrants who took Egyptian names than Egyptians who adopted Greek names.
3. The idea that name changes were desired to improve status or to ease passage from an oppressed to a privi-
leged class during the Ptolemaic period has been challenged by Janet H. Johnson (1984, pp. 118-19), who
cites A. E. Samuel that "there was neither necessity, pressure nor even a tendency for non-Greeks to change
their names to Greek."
4. For the case of Eudaimon, who petitioned to change his parents' names from "Thatres" to "Didyme" and
"Psois" to "Heron," see Martin 1956, pp. 87-88.
5. Willy Clarysse is acknowledged for generously sharing his compendium of texts and names from mummy
portraits and related material.
6. Such as was written inside two cartonnage masks discovered by Petrie (1889, p. 15, pl. 9, 1, 2) at Hawara.
7. For the original list of names, see Parlasca 1966, pp. 78-82.
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PATRONAGE 67

portrait excavated by Petrie (1889, p. 20) at Hawara, brings the total number of inscriptions on
portraits and related mummies and shrouds to thirty-two (four of which are not readable and
one of which contains only painter's notes, not a name). The twenty-seven known names, in-
cluding some with patronymics, are:
1. Demos 8. Dion 15. Artemidoros 8 22. Sarapon
2. Eutyches 9. Baaladar 16. Dioskoros 23. Eudaimon
3. Eirene 10. Apollon 17. Sarapas 24. TasheretwdjaHor
4. Klaudiane 11. Ammonius 18. Hermione 25. TaHathor
5. Asklepiades 12. Demetrios 19. Isarous 26. Isidora
6. Tauntho 13. Thermoutharin 20. Serapi(odora) 27. Tiapos
7. Markos Antinos 14. Artemidoros 21. Didyme
With the exceptions of three inscriptions in Demotic (those of Eirene, TasheretwdjaHor, and
TaHathor) and one in Aramaic (that of Baaladar), all of the texts are written in Greek.
In addition to the use of the Greek language, Petrie (1889, p. 20) states that "the names
indicate also how great was the foreign element" among the patron group, listing those names
which he considered to be of Greek descent, although he was quick to add that "some other
names are distinctly Egyptian in origin." Petrie erroneously grouped the names Artemidoros
and Demetrios among his list of names that he thought to "betoken Greek parentage." He
might have placed others among that group as well.
A careful analysis of the twenty-six names, however, shows that they do not actually ex-
hibit a tendency toward pure Greek names but can be assigned to that category of names that
"are largely of the sort common among Hellenized natives [i.e., Egyptians], reflecting
Egyptian deities embodied in Greek theophoric names" (Bagnall 1976, p. 12). Moreover, the
use of direct equivalents for the names of Egyptian gods or goddesses and the use of Greek
names that are variants of Egyptian names compounded with the name of a god or goddess
signify that the individual was "created by" (jr n) or was "a gift of' (p1 dj or t dj) such and
such a deity. Two names certainly have an Egyptian origin and were directly translated into
their Greek equivalents: (1) Thermoutharin, for the Egyptian goddess Renenutet, a grain deity 9
and the tutelary goddess of the Egyptian pharaoh (Broekhuis 1971, pp. 3-4), who gained favor
as a fertility goddess similar to Isis and was identified with Isis 10; and (2) Dioskoros, for the
Egyptian name Pa-ntr (Quaegebeur 1978, p. 250). The cult of the Dioskoroi was associated
with the cult of Isis (Heyob 1975, p. 24, n. 139). The success of the cult of the twin gods may
also have influenced the popularity of the personal name Didymos (fem. Didyme), which was
directly translated from the common Egyptian name for "Twin," htr (Quaegebeur 1978, p.
250); the feminine form appears on a panel portrait." The name "Hermione," written on the
portrait of a rhombic-wrapped mummy (Girton College, No Number) means "gift of Hermes."

8. Presumed to have been the son of Artemidoros, no. 14 (Parlasca 1966, p. 79, no. 4).
9. The assimilation of Demeter-Isis-Thermouthis is discussed in Griffiths 1970, p. 446.
10. For an oracular question addressed "to Isis under her cult title Thermouthis," see H. Bell 1975, p. 107, ad-
dendum to p. 66.
11. A portrait (Fitzwilliam Museum, Inv. E. 5.1981) is inscribed "Didyme" according to Parlasca (1966, p. 81,
no. 16) and accepted as such by Bourriau (1983, p. 151, no. 726), although Bourriau notes that the subject
sports "a boyish hairstyle." The hairstyle, as well as the white chiton, and lack of jewelry other than a pen-
dant amulet, suggests that the subject may indeed be a male and the inscription warrants a close inspection
to see if it might not read "Didymos." For a bilingual inscription for "Didyme-Thatres," the feminine equiva-
lent of Didymos, see Thieme and Pestman 1978a, pp. 142-43.
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68 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

The god Hermes is a Greek equivalent for either the Egyptian god Thoth 12 or Anubis. 1 3 In the
Graeco-Roman world, Anubis was associated with the Isis cult since the family triad at that
time was more apt to "include Isis, Serapis, and Anubis than Isis, Serapis, and Harpocrates"
(see Heyob 1975, p. 77). The name "Eudaimon" is associated with "Agathos Daimon," identi-
fied with, among other Egyptian gods, Harpocrates and Serapis (Quaegebeur 1975, p. 264).
The name Isidora, on the other hand, is merely the Greek equivalent of the late Egyptian
name T,-dj[t] :st, "she whom the goddess Isis gave" (Ranke 1935, p. 372). The goddess Isis
was syncretized during the Hellenistic period with many other Greek and Roman goddesses:
Artemisl 4 and Demeter' 5 among them. The substitution of these names for hers, either singly or
in compound names (i.e., Artemidoros [masc.] = Isidora [fem.]), would have been cultically
appropriate.
Names are unsatisfactory indicators of ethnicity, but the popularity of cults is "strongly rep-
resented in onomastics" (Quaegebeur 1978, p. 249). The position of the patrons as members of
the Isis cult is strongly suggested by the relevance to the cult of many of the names that have
survived. It is particularly significant that the text identifying TasheretwdjaHor also indicates
that she was married to a priest of Serapis (Corcoran 1988e, pp. 204-05).

SEX, PROFESSION, AND ECONOMIC STATUS

The elaborateness and expense of a burial and associated grave goods in ancient Egypt
was not specifically related to the sex of the deceased, although the pomp with which a woman
was interred most often depended on the social and economic status of her surviving male rel-
atives. Parity in the opulence of the funerary outfits of men and women appears to have sur-
vived into the Roman period, since the lavishly embellished portrait mummies are fairly
equally divided in number between male and female.
The Roman historian Pliny astutely surmised that the wealthy patrons of painters and artists
"left behind them portraits that represent[ed] their money not themselves" (Rackham 1952, p.
263). The expense of an Egyptian funerary outfit-the cost of the paintings, the elaborate
wrappings, the gilding-would have been prohibitive to all but the wealthy sector of society.
Some scholars have thought they recognized, from details in the portraits, the professions of
the members of the patron group: teachers, soldiers, athletes, priests, and priestesses. The fol-
lowing analyses of the data cited to support these identifications call into question the validity
of such identifications.

TEACHERS?
The only individual among the portrait mummies 16 who has been considered to have been
identified by profession based on an inscription on the mummy itself is the female mummy in

12. For the assimilation of Hermes and Thoth and their dual association with Isis, see Morenz 1973, pp. 270,
336, n. 21.
13. For the assimilation of Hermes with Anubis in the role as psychopompos, see Morenz 1975a, pp. 512-13.
14. For the syncretistic association of Isis with Artemis, see Heyob 1975, pp. 72-73.
15. For the syncretistic association of Isis with Demeter, see Griffiths 1970, pp. 502-03, where he states that the
two were "identified as early as the fifth century B.C."
16. Petrie (1911, pp. 8-9, pl. 10, 3) mentions a second "teacher," from his restored inscription on a rhombic-
wrapped mummy, but the mummy cannot now be located. The inscriptions concerning the man "Diogenes,"
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PATRONAGE 69

the collection of Girton College (No Number). The Greek inscription, which is written in white
ink across the portrait, reads:
EPMIONH IPAMMATIKH
The inscription was read by Petrie (1911, pp. 8-9) as, "Hermione the GrammatikE, or
teacher of the classics." Petrie conjectured that the woman was a governess, and that her name
and position had been added to her portrait so that later family members could correctly iden-
tify her. This interpretation was accepted by Mary Swindler (1929, p. 323), who self-deprecat-
ingly saw in the "joyless" face of Hermione the image of a "type [which] seems to be self-per-
petuating in the academic world."
It seems that if Hermione had served as a governess, she would perhaps better be charac-
terized as the "Jane Eyre" of the Roman age, as her body was found buried together with a
male mummy (Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Inv. AE 1425), which sports a portrait of a strikingly
virile and handsome face! It is unlikely, however, that a family would have paid the funeral
costs for an employee,' 7 and more likely that Hermione was not a governess but rather was the
mistress of a household. The term "grammatiki" was probably not a professional designation
but rather attested to the fact that Hermione was "literate."' 8
"A woman [in Roman Egypt] who was able to write was proud of it and would often seize
the opportunity to state the fact, whether it was germane to the situation or not" (Lewis 1983,
p. 62). As Hermione's portrait was painted directly onto her linen funerary wrappings, it is un-
likely that she herself wrote the dedicatory inscription. Perhaps, however, her family knew of
her pride in her accomplishment, or similar to another citizen of Hawara who inscribed his own
epitaph ("Alive I wrote it, and here I lie" having left a blank space for a survivor to write his
age at death) (Petrie 1889, p. 37, no. 5, pl. 7), Hermione had specified the content of her
posthumous inscription.

SOLDIERS?
Depicted in military regalia, "Sagum [a long, military cloak] und Balteus [belt], Mantel
und Schwertriemen," ten portraits of adult males have been identified by Parlasca (1966, pp.
84-85, n. 170) as military officers.19 To be included also in this group is a painted shroud,
Luxor Museum of Art, Inv. J. 194/ Q. 1512 (Parlasca 1979, p. 186, fig. 154, color pl. 15).2 0
Parlasca (1966, pp. 84-85) states that military portraits begin to appear in the Trajanic period
(A.D. 98-117) and continued through the late Antonine period (ca. A.D. 180). He notes that at
this time, "keine nennenswerten Truppeneinheiten im Fayum stationert waren" but that

who was identified as a "tailor" (Petrie 1889, p. 37), do not belong to a portrait mummy (see Thieme and
Pestman 1978b, pp. 229-30).
17. As was also implied in the case of a panel portrait traditionally accepted as being that of a slave. The trans-
lation of the inscription on the portrait (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Inv. 18.9.2) that was
printed on the museum's label as "the slave of a Jew whose father's name was Greek" has however been
corrected to identify the subject as a freedman, not a slave (see Bagnall and Worp 1981, pp. 23-24).
18. So interpreted by Turner (1968, p. 77) and accepted by Bourriau and Bashford (1980, p. 168).
19. The portraits are Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Inv. 1924.80; Staatliche Museen,
Antikenabteilung, Berlin, Inv. 31161/2, 31161/3, 31161/6; Egyptian Museum, CG 33257; British Museum,
Inv. 65345; Eton College, Windsor, Inv. 1252; Manchester Museum, Inv. 789a; and (lacking the military
belt) Staatliche Museen, Antikenabteilung, Berlin, Inv. 31161/5, and Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Inv. 4290/I
la5771.
20. The shroud suffered water damage due to flooding while it was in storage and was unavailable for inspec-
tion in 1984-85.
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70 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

"allerdings wurden die Polizeiaufgaben teilweise von Centurionen wahrgenommen," implying

that the subjects of these paintings were Roman centurions. 21
Whereas only Roman citizens could serve in the legions (Lewis 1983, p. 20), "the auxil-
iaries of the Roman army in Egypt came mostly from the Hellenic or Hellenized populace"
(Bagnall 1977, p. 71). Moreover, it was during the reign of Hadrian, perhaps in an effort "to
fill gaps in defensive manpower" caused by "the drain of troops to the east for Trajan's war
against Parthia" (ibid., p. 77) that there began to be a "shift toward local recruitment of sol-
diers, and from the middle of the second century veterans settling in Egypt tended more and
more to be men from the country towns making their way through enlistment and military ser-
vice into the world of Roman privilege" (Lewis 1983, p. 21). The date for the floruit of the
soldier portraits corresponds precisely to the induction of Hellenized Egyptians into the mili-
tary service during the Hadrianic period. The chronological evidence supports the proposal that
rather than these being paintings of Roman soldiers, the soldier portraits could well have been
commissioned by the new, native, officer class.
However, it is more likely that these paintings are not to be literally accepted as represen-
tations of soldiers. The royal figure of the emperor in military regalia and contemporary im-
ages of Horus and Anubis as warrior gods could have provided models for adult males who
wished to depict themselves in a costume that connoted both royalty and a divine heroic stature
(see fn. 31, below).

NUDE MALES: ATHLETES OR INITIATES?

A portrait of a young male, excavated by Petrie at Hawara (National Gallery, London, Inv.
1268; see Parlasca 1969, pp. 40-41, pl. 13, 3), depicts a youth with bare shoulders. Parlasca
has explained how, in the poorly preserved portrait of another young man (University College,
Department of Egyptology, London, Inv. 19609), the appearance of the lack of clothing is due
to the unfortunate state of preservation of the painting and panel; in other cases the vestments
might be hidden by the linen wrappings framing the face. However, the portrait in the
National Gallery (Inv. 1268) is well preserved and the lack of vestments appears to have been
intentional.
The man so depicted might have been an athlete. Athletes who competed in Greek or
Roman events did so either in the nude or in partial nudity (Bonfante 1989, p. 563). That an
individual would choose to have himself so depicted would have reflected pride in accom-
plishment since, in Roman Egypt, runners, boxers, wrestlers, and other athletes "were no
longer amateurs but professionals" (Lewis 1983, p. 103) and their professional status was ac-
companied by material wealth and perquisites. Lewis (ibid., pp. 149-50) states that a
"professional career in sports could lead to even greater fame and fortune than a career in the
arts. Star athletes were rewarded with rich purses, honorary citizenship, and lifelong incomes."
These honors, granted to a professional athlete, "were sometimes extended to his heirs after
his death." Among the other honors and privileges bestowed upon athletes were "exemption
from taxation and compulsory public services." "Star athletes were elected to the Guild of
Victorious Crowning Traveling Athletes under the patronage of Herakles, an empire-wide as-
sociation" (ibid., p. 104). The percentage of adult men who are depicted with bare shoulders in

21. Parlasca reiterates his opinion in Parlasca, Berger, and Pintaudi 1985, p. 96.
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PATRONAGE 71

the mummy portraits, however, is perhaps too high 22 to presume that their apparent nudity re-
flected a professional status.
Bonfante (1989, pp. 552, 569) has suggested that athletic nudity in the Greek sphere was
originally "a part of the initiation rites of youths," which took place "in a ritual, religious con-
text [and then] developed a special social and civic meaning. It became a costume, a uniform
... mark[ing] men's status as citizens of the polis and as Greeks." Montserrat (1993, pp. 215-
25, pls. 22-23) has suggested that males depicted in the mummy portraits can be divided into
distinct age categories by the presence or absence of facial hair, particularly that the absence
of facial hair (presumably combined with youthful features) is the mark of a prepubescent
Greek male: an ephebe. Bonfante (1989, p. 552) refers to "the nudity of the ephebe as the
'costume' of the citizen in Athens" reflecting the transitional stage of male beauty prior to vir-
tual manhood. The occurrence of nudity and lack of facial hair on males depicted in the
mummy portraits, however, does not always coincide. As tantalizing as it would be to see in
that combination an indication of the Greek citizenship and cultural heritage of the individuals
so represented, the evidence does not support such an idea.
It is suggested here that nudity as depicted in the mummy portraits is related to a cultic
function of the portraits in an Egyptian context. In a description of the investiture of a priest in
the Twenty-first Dynasty-a ceremony that Sauneron (1980, p. 50) has compared to the
phases of the initiation of Lucius, the hero of Apuleius' second century A.D. novel and an initi-
ate into the Isis cult-a neophyte Egyptian priest "emerged from the waters of Nun" (pr n .j m
nnw) and "set aside his clothing" (sflh n -j mnht)23 before approaching the holy of holies. It has
also been shown that "baptism" scenes depicting royal figures (Hatshepsut and Amenhotep
III) as naked children were the antecedents for the iconography of "initiation" scenes on the
body field of portrait mummies (see The "Baptism of Pharaoh,"pp. 59-60, above). As an
alternative, therefore, to reading the undraped appearance of male subjects in mummy
portraits as a reference to their professional or civic status, the allusion should rather be seen to
the rebirth that the individuals had experienced as a result of initiation into the Isiac cult.

PRIESTS?
In the portrait of a mature male (National Gallery, Inv. 2912; Parlasca 1969, p. 82, pl. 51,
2), the subject wears in his hair a gold diadem in the center of which is a seven-pointed star.
The star diadem in this portrait has been interpreted as the insignia of a "high priest" of the
sun-cult, identified in Egypt with the cult of the god Serapis (Parlasca 1966, pp. 85, 87; see also
Lewis 1983, p. 233, pl. 3).
The man's luxuriantly curly hair, however, contradicts statements that Egyptian priests
were required to shave their heads (Parlasca 1966, p. 88).24 The only other depictions of
Egyptian priests that show them with long hair are explained by the fact that their hair had
been allowed to grow as a sign of grief; however, this is a very unsatisfactory explanation for
the depiction of long hair in such a formal portrait (Parlasca 1966, pp. 88-89).
On the basis of the depiction on their foreheads of a diadem with a seven-pointed star-
each ray of which stands for one of the seven planets of the universe over which Serapis reigns

22. Four examples are illustrated in Parlasca 1969, pp. 40, 41, 71, 67. A detailed study of all the portraits would
undoubtedly reveal more.
23. The hieroglyphic text is published in Legrain 1914, p. 73.
24. Lewis (1983, p. 92) states that, due to their shaven heads, "the Egyptian clergy were visibly and physically
distinguished from the rest of the population."
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72 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

as Kosmokrator--Goette (1989, pp. 173-86, pls. 13-20) has identified the men shown in a
group of statues and the man in the portrait (National Gallery, Inv. 2912) as priests or
"novices" of the Serapis cult. Goette comes closest to an explanation for the long hair, youth-
fulness, and similarity of physiognomic features of these individuals when he refers to the
possibility of these portraits having been made after the untimely deaths of these men before
they were "ordained." This death should not, however, within an Egyptian context, be assumed
to have been a real one, but rather a metaphoric death experienced by the initiate before ad-
mittance to the cult. The similarity of features is also no coincidence if these images are not
assumed to be actual portraits but only idealized representations. Furthermore, an explanation
for their luxuriant locks of hair--completely inconsistent with known representations of
Egyptian priests (men shown as priests appear in the decorated body registers of the portrait
mummies themselves and are depicted with shaven heads, see Red-shrouded Mummies Nos.
14 or 15, as they are in two contemporary bronze statuettes, Mus6e du Louvre, Inv. Br 4394
and Br 4165)--needs no longer to be sought.
An alternative interpretation is that an individual so depicted is not shown as a "priest" but
chose rather to be depicted in imitation of the god Serapis himself. Confirmation for this identi-
fication comes from the separated corkscrew locks (Parlasca 1966, pp. 87-88) that fall over
the forehead in imitation of the hairstyle typically seen on statues of Serapis.
Moreover, variations on the gilt star ornament appear on other mummy portraits (Parlasca
1966, p. 90) and in other depictions of men and women, 25 indicating that the emblem was as-
sociated in a general sense with the solar cult (Parlasca 1966, p. 85). The solar symbolism
therefore identifies these adult men not as priests of the cult of Isis/Serapis, but in the guise of
the god Serapis himself.

PRIESTESSES?
The cult of Isis is connected with her popularity among women. Confirmation of the active
participation of women in the cult comes from inscriptional 26 and visual evidence. Women are
represented in painting and statuary with the costume, hairstyle, and attributes of Isis.
Two female subjects of mummy portraits 27 with long flowing hair and holding a sistrum
have been identified by Parlasca on the basis of these elements as "priestesses" of Isis. A
horned crown, which is an attribute of Isis borrowed from Hathor, is modeled in gilt stucco
above the portrait of Stucco Mummy No. 19; this portrait mummy should also be included in a
consideration of the subjects of these two panel portraits.
Although the knotted costume once thought to identify women as Isis "priestesses" is
known to be simply a variant of women's popular dress (Bianchi 1980a, pp. 22-23), both
women shown in the panel portraits also wear a diagonal sash decorated with gilt ornaments.
The designs on the sash of the portrait in the Walters Art Gallery (Inv. 32.4) are illegible;
Parlasca (1969, pp. 66, 48) has tentatively identified the designs on the other as floral. Both
designs, however, might have originally been intended to simulate the crowns and astral sym-
bols that decorate a sash that is part of the garment scheme of a headless statue (Berlin

25. Goette (1989, p. 179, pl. 20) notes a statue of a woman holding a folded crown with a seven-pointed star
emblem.
26. The extent of women's participation in the Isis cult (chiefly, however, as it was practiced outside of Egypt)
is documented in dedicatory texts (see Mora 1990).
27. Waiters Art Gallery, Inv. 32.4 (Parlasca 1969, p. 66, pl. 34, 2), and an unregistered portrait, formerly in the
collection of Maurice Nahman of Cairo (ibid., p. 48, pl. 20, 1).
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PATRONAGE 73

igyptisches Museen, Inv. 19581) or of another statue (Graeco-Roman Museum, Inv. 22404).28
These sashes, embellished with crowns and astral images, recall the impressive costume of the
goddess Isis as described by Apuleius' Lucius: "Along the embroidered border and in the very
body of the material there gleamed stars here and there, and in their midst a half-moon
breathed a flame of fire" (Griffiths 1975, pp. 72-75 and discussion on pp. 130-31). Isiac at-
tributes-in addition to the garment scheme of the tripartite knotted garment and astral sash-
are the sistrum and the situla. It is, however, the combination of insignia that confirms an as-
sociation with the cult.
Within a Graeco-Roman context, Walters (1988) and Eingartner (1991) have assumed that
such depictions of women are in imitation of cult statues of Isis, but that such images merely
designate the individuals as cult members, not necessarily priestesses, and certainly not as
mortal women who have become assimilated with the goddess. Within an Egyptian context,
however, the representation of a woman in the guise of Isis suggests (as in the similar circum-
stance of males in the guise of Serapis) that the individual represented is a devotee shown in
an aspect of assimilation with her patron goddess (see A Cultic Functionfor the Portraits?,pp.
74-76, below).
Such an assimilation may be indicated in Stucco Mummy No. 19, the portrait mummy of a
young woman (see pl. 19). She is dressed in a narrow tunic with a fringed mantle knotted at
the breast. In her hand she grasps sheaves of wheat (an allusion to Isis' identification with the
vegetation goddess Renenutet/Thermouthis). Modeled in gilt stucco with inlaid gem, above her
painted portrait, as if the woman herself were wearing it, is a miniature version of the homed
crown of Isis (borrowed from Hathor). The design of this crown recalls once again the descrip-
tion of Isis as she appeared to Lucius wherein the goddess wears a diadem in the center of
which "a flat disk above the forehead shone with a clear light in the manner of a mirror or in-
deed like the moon, while on its right and left it was embraced by coils of uprising snakes
[perhaps a translation or misinterpretation of Hathor's bovine horns, but see Stucco Mummy
No. 22, Portrait and Frame]; from above it was adorned also with outstretched ears of corn"
(Griffiths 1975, pp. 72-73).
The individual so outfitted for death was evidently, in life, a wealthy devotee of the Isis
cult. The abundance of jewelry represented in stucco and gilt is given material weight by the
number of real gems inlaid in her mummiform casing. David Wilmott suggested that these in-
laid stones might actually have come from the deceased's own jewelry which had been
brought by relatives to the embalmer's workshop to enrich the deceased's funerary outfit. Of
particular significance is the orange/red stone in the bottom left side of the portrait frame. The
intaglio impression of this stone is a head of Harpocrates. The image provides extraordinary
support for the statement by Pliny the Elder of the contemporary popularity of rings with the
representation of Harpocrates and figures of other Egyptian deities (Rackham 1952, pp. 33-
35).
The appeal of the triad of deities-Osiris/Serapis, Isis, and Harpocrates (in all his manifes-
tations)-might well explain the success of the cult as a family cult and the identification of
mortal family members with their respective divine counterparts. Adult males were assimi-

28. For a description and photograph of the sash on the statue in the Berlin igyptisches Museen (Inv. 19581),
see Kilkosy 1983, p. 59, pl. 3, 3; for more information on this example and the similarly draped figure in the
Graeco-Roman Museum (Inv. 22404), see Eingartner 1991, pp. 138-39, pls. 55-56.
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74 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

lated with Osiris/Serapis, adult women with Isis, and children 29 (acolytes or pre-initiates), of
both sexes, with Harpocrates.

A CULTIC FUNCTION FOR THE PORTRAITS? 30

USE OF PORTRAITS PRIOR TO DEATH OF INDIVIDUAL REPRESENTED

Parlasca rejects the possibility that the nudity of males portrayed in the portraits could be
an attempt at heroization, or that the women depicted with the attributes of the Isis cult might
have been painted in an aspect of the goddess herself, because the portraits appeared to him to
have been painted from life thus precluding their use to indicate a posthumous deification
(Parlasca 1969, pp. 41, 66; Parlasca, Berger, and Pintaudi 1985, p. 128). It must be noted here,
however, that the inherently Egyptian sense of time as a cyclical process need not have pre-
cluded the use of portraits to heroize an individual before death nor to indicate assimilation
with a god while that person was still alive. For confirmation, funerary texts that cannot have
been designed solely for use by the dead but were also useful for one while still upon the earth
should be looked to (Wente, pp. 178, 161). The grammatical constructs of these formulas indi-
cate that
what is involved in the offering formulas of the Book of Gates and the Quererets as well as the
similarly structured "knowledge" formulas in the Book of Amduat are identifications of a living
person with beings in various states and stages who dwell in the netherworld as witnesses to and
participants in the sun-god's voyage of renewal. It was not a matter of the officiant having to
wait until his death to receive such benefits (ibid., p. 175).
Some egyptologists would, however, maintain that "there is no good reason to think that
living people in ancient Egypt were ever believed to be able to assume nonhuman forms" (M.
Smith 1979, p. 30). Junge (1979, p. 107) did not believe that an individual (such as Lucius) be-
came a god nor that he would have been accepted as such by others, but that the celebratory
procession in which he took part was only a pageant or reenactment. 31 Roman authors and
early Christian writers expressed a similar skepticism in regard to the repetitive rituals of
Egyptian religion (Heyob 1975, pp. 55-57). In a cynical assessment of the annual festival of
the recovery of the body of Osiris, for example, Ovid spoke of the god "who was never suffi-
ciently sought for." It cannot be known for certain if, for the initiates "intimately bound up with
these rites, this was not mere play-acting," that is, whether the cult devotees truly believed in
the miracle of transubstantiation, but "to describe such activities either in pharaonic Egypt or at
the Isis temple in Kenchreai as cultic schauspiel ... is perhaps impugning the religious sensitiv-
ity and sincerity of those involved" (Wente 1971, p. 179).
If the initiation ceremony in which Apuleius' Lucius participated reveals "that a living per-
son might become the likeness of the sun-god" (ibid.), then the attributes with which he was
equipped-garlands and a torch-might also not be strictly limited to a funerary interpretation

29. For the active participation of children in the Isis cult, see Griffiths 1975, pp. 142-43; see also Lustration and
the Isis Cult, pp. 60-61, above.
30. The conclusions in this section were presented by the author at the symposium, "Life in a Multi-Cultural
Society: Egypt from Cambyses to Constantine and Beyond," the University of Chicago, Chicago, September
4-8, 1990, and subsequently published in Corcoran 1992.
31. The description of a man playing the part of a "soldier" and another dressed as a "gladiator" in the Isis pro-
cession (Griffiths 1975, pp. 78-79 and discussion on pp. 173-74) implies that individuals dressed in costumes
for the ceremonial events (see Soldiers?, pp. 69-70, above).
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PATRONAGE 75

(contra Parlasca 1966, pp. 71-72). Although most embellishments to portraits-the gilding of
lips, the gilt crowns, the hands which hold garlands or vessels-have been interpreted as "last-
minute additions" (Thompson 1982, p. 9) to the portraits because of their presumed inherent
funerary nature, there is the possibility that these embellishments were made while the portrait
was yet in the house to commemorate a cultic ritual: the initiation of the living individual into
the Isis cult and the resultant assimilation with a cosmic deity.
That the earlier examples of mummy portraits were probably painted and used in some
fashion before being incorporated into funerary wrappings is variously ascertained: the panels
were all cut down from an original squared shape, some panels show the remains of painted
borders, some show signs of wear in areas that must have been covered during a prior use, and
some portraits have been recovered that preserve the remains of wooden frames, particularly
the portrait discovered by Petrie (1889, p. 20, pl. 12) at Hawara that was preserved within its
original wood "Oxford"-type frame. 32 That the worse among them were hung in the home
during the subject's lifetime, however, indicates that the motive for display was never aes-
thetic contemplation.

ABBREVIATED IMAGES AND THE bj'kr n R

An aedicula (CG 33269; see pl. 32), which features a portrait, and three panels (J. Paul
Getty Museum, Inv. 74.AP.20-22) offer support for the use of painted portraits in a votive con-
text within a domestic setting. In a discussion of the panels (Inv. 74.AP.20-22) from a classical
perspective, Thompson (1978/79, p. 185, n. 3) refers the reader to the practice, within a
Graeco-Roman context, of Roman ancestor veneration. However, it is not necessary to look
outside the context of Egyptian tradition to find an explanation of their use in a domestic set-
ting. The existence of inscribed stelae and anthropoid limestone busts from the New Kingdom
indicates that "the worship of elders/ancestors definitely formed part of an ancestor cult in an-
cient Egypt" (Demaree 1983, p. 290).
The depiction of the head and torso of the individual shown in the aedicula (CG 33269)
and the cultic attributes and possible food offerings represented at the front of the base recall
the native Egyptian tradition of carved limestone busts that have been discovered at Deir el-
Medineh (Friedman 1985, pp. 82-97, pl. 5, 1) and were popular throughout New Kingdom
Egypt (Keith-Bennett 1981, p. 45). The function of the busts is the subject of speculation, and
so, too, must be the conclusions on the use of the portraits prior to their funerary function.
Nevertheless, "mummy tickets" appear to have been attached to some of these limestone
busts, 33 the busts are thought to have been set up in the home, and through an analogy to the
inscribed stelae, the busts have been considered as manifestations of the ? jkjr n R ' (Friedman
1985, pp. 82-97).
The term [?h jkr] is non-existent in the Pyramid Texts, rare in the Coffin Texts, but found in
abundance in the Book of the Dead. In the last, >b jkr assumes a predominantly solar meaning.
The t[ jkr is principally one who enjoys a place in the solar bark of Re, who rides in and tows
the solar bark and is its crew member (ibid., p. 85).

32. Parlasca (1966, pp. 64-67) speculates as to whether the examples that have been found which were not cut
down, that is, which are preserved within their original frames, might not have been made especially for in-
clusion in the burial.
33. The designation "mummy tickets" is B. Bruyere's. Parlasca (pers. comm., July 14, 1994) has suggested that
these should more accurately be called "mummy labels" since they are not receipts for transport but simply
identify the individual by name.
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76 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

In this sense, the cultic function of the painted portraits and the anthropoid limestone bust
were synonymous since the goal of both was the assimilation of the individual represented into
a divine, solar being. Moreover, that wrapped portrait mummies were kept in the home and
presented with food offerings (Anderson 1989, p. 159)34 suggests a continuance of pharaonic
customs in the similarity in the posthumous care and treatment of portrait mummies and of the
>hjkr n R Iancestor busts within a domestic setting.
The subject of the aedicula (CG 33269) was identified by Edgar (1907, pp. 49-52) as fe-
male. Although a comparison of the scene depicted on the aedicula might be made to
Pompeiian frescoes wherein women hold writing tablets and/or pens, 35 and to the epithet on the
portrait mummy of Hermione (Girton College, No Number), an unusual feature of the aedicula
is that the individual represented is depicted with a nude torso. If the subject here is a female,
she is the only female so represented in the portrait series. As it was suggested above (Nude
Males: Athletes or Initiates?, pp. 70-71, above), the nude torso might depict a cult initiate at
the moment of emergence from ritual immersion and the concomitant rebirth of that individual
in a divine form.
Kaiser's (1990, pp. 269-85, pls. 61-67) intuitive response to the intermittent sequence of
abbreviated statuary from pharaonic Egypt-which includes such famous examples as the re-
serve heads of the Old Kingdom and the wooden bust of Tutankhamun-is that this was a con-
tinuous canonical image tradition associated with cultic rebirth. The painted portraits and
mummies that incorporated them, which were produced in Roman Egypt, constitute the final
phase of this indigenous tradition.

PHYSICAL EVIDENCE
Although initially available only through the unwrapping and consequent destruction of the
decorative bandaging and casings, scientific techniques have now made available evidence
concerning mummies through non-invasive, non-destructive means. X-rays, and the more sen-
sitive computed tomography (CT) scans, conducted on portrait mummies have confirmed
Petrie's (1889, p. 20) suspicions that no costly amulets or jewelry were included among the
elaborately wrapped and decorated Roman portrait mummies. The only object found to have
been included in more than one portrait mummy is a hard leather (or metal) disc placed under
the tongue (Gray and Slow 1968, p. 32; see further Cuenca 1978, pp. 61, 75, n. 2). The purpose
of this object-whether added for aesthetic reasons by the embalmer to enhance the profile of
the jaw or to aid in the religious ritual of the "opening of the mouth"-has not been deter-
mined. Clay seals stamped with an intaglio impression of "Hercules with a Lion" and "a royal
head in Greek style" were found on the mummies in the grave of "Aline" (Germer,
Kischkewitz, and Ltining 1993, p. 188). An uninscribed bronze disc was placed over the foot
cover of Stucco Mummy No. 19.
Computed tomography (CT) scans also disclosed that "two narrow carved wooden beams
had been placed in the wrappings in close approximation to the body" (Marx and D'Auria
1986, p. 326) of the adult portrait mummy (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Inv. 11.2891) and

34. The story relates how a forlorn widower embalmed his deceased wife in the Egyptian style, kept her body
in his home, and shared his meals with her. Griffiths (1978, p. 433 ff.) first noted the allusion in the novel to
the custom of keeping portrait mummies in the home and identified the mummy described in the tale as
having been an actual portrait mummy with painted likeness.
35. For the two famous images of "literate" females from Pompeii, see Kraus 1975, p. 166, pls. 2 13-14.
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PATRONAGE 77

that the body of another mummy (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Inv. 11.2892) had also been
"placed on a large section of wood ... which ran the entire length of the mummy." The boards
were probably included to support the bodies, "possibly to facilitate the wrapping process,"
particularly as the smaller of the two bodies was "severely compressed" and disarticulated.
The brain of the adult male was not removed and the brain of the smaller mummy "was not ex-
tracted by the more refined and esthetically pleasing transsphenoidal route but through large
fractures made in the cranium" (ibid.).
Both the rough treatment of the bodies of portrait mummies during embalmment (see
Dawson and Gray 1968, p. xii; also Germer, Kischkewitz, and Liining 1993, pp. 192, 195) and
the rough treatment of the mummies at burial (Petrie 1889, p. 15; 1911, pp. 2-3) are in contrast
to the care given to their wrapping and decoration. Petrie (1889, p. 16) suggested the explana-
tion might lie in the concept that the object of decoration was "not piety to the dead, but plea-
sure to the living." The answer lies rather in the traditional Egyptian belief in the importance
of the proper execution of the ritual of embalming, which ensured, of itself, "la survie de l'Yme
et la resurrection du corps" (Sauneron 1952b, p. xviii). 36
Physical evidence from the mummy of Hermione, a female rhombic-wrapped mummy
(Girton College, No Number) indicates that her teeth showed "no signs of tooth attrition"
(Bourriau and Bashford 1980, p. 168), the common problem among Egyptians who ate bread
made with flour contaminated with mineral particles (Leek 1972, p. 132). From this, Bourriau
(Bourriau and Bashford 1980, p. 169) concluded that "Hermione came from a wealthy family
who could afford ... [to] have given her bread made from the finest flour during her lifetime."
As it is known, however, from dental studies of the royal mummies, that even members of the
royal family suffered severe dental attrition, the excellent condition of Hermione's teeth might
rather be correlated to her young age (between sixteen and twenty-five [ibid., pp. 168-69]) at
the time of her death (Harris, Storey, and Ponitz 1980, pp. 329, 332).
The computed tomography (CT) scan analysis of the adult male portrait mummy (Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston, Inv. 11.2891) revealed that the feet of the man were "heavily callused."
The feature was unusual as "he was the only mummy [in the museum collection] that demon-
strated this finding" (Marx and D'Auria 1986, p. 326).
Sandals were a part of the burial equipment in Egypt during the predynastic period and
were provided ever after as part of the grave goods, either as the functional or decorative ob-
jects themselves, or depicted in pictures (Ruihlmann 1971, p. 76). The want of sandals was an
indication of poverty in the Middle Kingdom as illustrated by the statement in "The
Admonitions of Ipuwer":
Lo, poor men have become men of wealth.
He who could not afford sandals owns riches. 37
Considering the frequent depiction of sandals on cartonnage footcases of the Roman era, it
is indeed surprising that a man who was able to afford an elaborate burial outfit and portrait
would have walked about barefoot.38

36. Cf. Wente 1982, p. 22: "The rites performed upon the mummy together with the recitation of beatifications
enabled the deceased to assume a spiritual existence in the afterlife, and perhaps the fate of the mummy
was of secondary importance."
37. Cited by Ruihlmann (1971, p. 76); English translation by Miriam Lichtheim (1973, p. 151).
38. For a discussion of sandals and their connection with the Isis cult, see Griffiths 1975, p. 136.
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78 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

CONCLUSIONS
It has been shown that "though as individuals the subjects of the portraits are for the most
part anonymous, as a group they form a recognizable element in the society of Roman Egypt"
(Shore 1972, p. 17). It is futile to classify the subjects of the portraits in ethnic groups, as
"Romans," "Greeks," or "Egyptians." For their part, "Romans" seem only to have made up one
percent of the population of Roman Egypt (Steenken 1987, p. 14), certainly not enough to jus-
tify the numbers and geographic diversity of portrait burials. The ethnic or racial distinctions
between "Greeks" and "Hellenized Egyptians" appear, moreover, by this period to have
blurred (Shore 1972, p. 17). The patrons of the portrait mummies can be characterized as
members of the wealthy sector of society of Roman Egypt that was at the time ethnically di-
verse, but culturally homogeneous, maintaining a strong indigenous tradition that critically
"absorbed, modified and rejected foreign influences" (Ritner 1986, p. 243). The reassignment
of the portrait mummies to the Egyptian sphere, however, raises an important question,
"Where and how were those 'Greek and Roman' settlers in Roman Egypt buried?" Some must
have become assimilated to this sector of society. The persistence of native burial customs
might have been partially due to the intermarriage of foreign men with native Egyptian women
who transmitted the traditions to their children (Pomeroy 1984, pp. 122-23). Other foreigners
were either shipped home or buried (or cremated) in Egypt according to their own native fu-
nerary traditions. 39
Although Wipszycka's "in-depth analysis of literary sources for the fourth-sixth centuries
...has attacked the communis opinio that the lower classes converted much more quickly to
Christianity, while the elite remained predominantly pagan for a much longer time" (Belmer
1993, p. 12), the archeological and documentary evidence presented here, from the first four
centuries A.D., confirms the traditional scholarly interpretation that "paganism seems to have
survived predominantly, if not exclusively among the upper class Egyptians" (Steenken 1987,
p. 142). Moreover, the social and economic gap between the affluent and the poor estranged
the lower classes from the native temples and gods (cf. Barnes 1978, pp. 17-18) which would
have expedited their eventual conversion to the Christian faith.
In Egyptian tradition, the pivotal role in the maintenance of cosmic order and equilibrium
[maat] was always performed by the pharaoh (see The "Bound Prisoner" Motif, pp. 53-55,
above). The emperors who ruled Roman Egypt were for the most part "absentee landlord[s]"
(H. Bell 1977, p. 76). Whereas an ordinary man might establish order within his own sphere of
influence, only a pharaoh, as a god incarnate, could restore order in the universe, as well as in
his private domain (Derchain 1962, p. 69). The solar aspect of the decoration of the portrait
mummies in relation to the concept of divine kingship emphasizes the responsibility of the king
as the initiator and maintainer of cosmic harmony. The adoption of royal and divine regalia in
the funerary equipment of the wealthy could be interpreted as a visual and iconographic
statement of their preoccupation witthe status of world order that culminated in a personal
attempt to occupy the role which they felt was performed inadequately by the emperors at
Rome. This usurpation or "extension" of royal privileges had historical precedence in ancient
Egypt and was grounded in the idea that the king was always considered as "a corporate per-
sonality which embodied his subjects" (Griffiths 1980, p. 230). The willingness to accord a fic-
tional royalty to a non-royal individual during the Roman period is certainly evident in the

39. The cemeteries around Alexandria have provided evidence for non-Egyptian burial practices (see Parlasca
1985, p. 101).
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PATRONAGE 79

statues of Antinous who is shown with royal PATRONAGE

attributes "obgleich er nie Konig war" (Kikosy 7
1983, p. 58).
The alienation and anxieties experienced by the native majority in the religious and politi-
cal vortex of the first four centuries of Roman rule in Egypt would appear then to have been
mirrored by the native elite. The wealthy patrons of the portrait mummies coped with the
"quest for salvation" (Lichtheim 1980, p. 4) by placing their hope in a very traditional ancient
Egyptian idea about the afterlife, that "funerary furnishings remained the vehicle of salvation"
(Morenz 1973, p. 210).
The inevitable result of the edict of Theodosius II in A.D. 392, which prohibited any form of
pagan ritual, was not simply therefore the suspension of funerary and cultic rites, but rather the
edict exacted "a thorough revision of the total religious picture in Egypt. But Egyptian religion
was altogether too integral a part of national culture to have permitted such a radical change"
(Wente 1982, p. 24), and the restrictivity and resistivity that had provided the foundation for
the tenacious longevity of ancient Egyptian civilization became, paradoxically, the very source
of its ultimate demise. 40
As the custodians of ancient Egyptian culture and religion, the patrons of the portrait
mummies preserved the balance between "an ethical life and ritual burial" (ibid., p. 26). From
the historical perspective of the rise of Christianity in fourth century Egypt and its emphasis on
moral, not ritual, piety, the richly symbolic portrait mummies can be characterized as the last
native documents, not of a "dying paganism" but of an historically fated civilization in which
the interdependency of the temple and funerary cults (Egyptian religion and rites) and the very
existence of the cosmos (the gods and the land of Egypt) 41 had been inextricably linked for
thousands of years.

40. Cf. Bagnall 1988, p. 24: "Egyptian [culturel, which was extremely resistant and yet, by that fact, less able to
resist in the long run."
41. This relationship is convincingly argued by Finnestad ( 1985, pp. 148-57).
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CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

The following catalog is composed of the twenty-two intact portrait mummies and one
stucco shroud from museum collections in the Arab Republic of Egypt, all of which were
examined firsthand between October 1984 and June 1985. During the summer of 1993 all
measurements and data were rechecked for the examples in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. In
April 1995 measurements were obtained for Stucco Mummy No. 21, which had been
previously in accessible.
The photographs of Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 2, Red-shrouded Mummies Nos. 12
and 16, and Stucco Mummies Nos. 20 and 21 are from Edgar 1905a. The photograph of Stucco
Mummy No. 22 appears by courtesy of the Deutsches Archaiologisches Institut, Abteilung
Kairo. All other photographs are the author's and appear with the permission of the Directors
and High Committees of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, the Graeco-Roman Museum,
Alexandria, the Coptic Museum, Cairo, and the Museum of Karanis/Kom Oshim. The line-
drawings are by William Schenck. The drawings, provided as an aid to the reader, are not fac-
simile drawings but were produced from the author's photographs, freehand sketches, and
notes.
These mummies are divided into three categories according to body decoration. The first
eleven examples are rhombic-wrapped mummies (Rhombic-wrapped Mummies Nos. 1-11).
The next six examples are red-shrouded mummies (Red-shrouded Mummies Nos. 12-17). The
final six examples are stuccoed mummies (Stucco Mummies Nos. 18-23).
All references in the descriptions to "left" and "right" are to the subject's "left" or "right."
All measurements are in the American system, unless indicated otherwise. All translations
from foreign languages are the author's.

81
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMIES NOS. 1-11

RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 1

ILLUSTRATION
Plate 1

PRESENT LOCATION
Collection: Egyptian Museum
Inventory Number: CG 33214
City: Cairo

PROVENIENCE
Fayoum (Edgar 1905a, p. 68)

DATE OF PORTRAIT
"From the point of view of style, the portrait is very similar to those of the children of 'Aline' in
Berlin ... and to the portrait ... in London; but the quality is better. It was, for these reasons,
painted in the second quarter of the first century" (Parlasca 1977, p. 31).

DATE OF BODY WRAPPING

First half of the first century A.D. (gilt buttons but no footcase, deep rhombi, portrait on linen)

MALE OR FEMALE
"A baby boy," according to Parlasca (1977, p. 30). "A boy," according to Edgar (1905a, pp. 68-69).
The child wears a white chiton and no jewelry. The portrait, which is badly peeling and flaking, is
probably that of a male.

MEASUREMENTS
Body Height: 33.00 inches (83.00 cm [Edgar 1905a, p. 68])
Width: 9.00 inches (22.00 cm [ibid., p. 68])
Depth: 8.00 inches
Portrait Y/N?: Yes
Length: 9.00 inches
Width: 7.00 inches
Portrait Frame Y/N?: No
Width: N/A

82
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. I 8

83

RHOMBI
*Layers in Rhombic Pattern: 1 plus 1 cross
Length of Rhombi: 2.00 inches
Width of Rhombi: 2.50 inches
Width of Bandages: 1.00 inch

CHEST S TRIP
YIN?: No
Width: N/A

INLAID STONES
YIN?: No
Diameter: N/A

GILT BUTTONS
YIN?: Yes, four
Diameter: Three are 1.00 inch, the fourth is 0.50 inch

FOOTCASE
YIN?: No
Underside Height: N/A
Width: N/A
Front Edge Height: N/A

DIAMETER OF ROSETTE!WADJET-EYE
N/A

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF BOUND FIGURES

Height: N/A
Width: N/A

LENGTH/WIDTH OF CARTONNAGE FEET

Length: N/A
Width: N/A

INSCRIPTION
YIN?: No
Location of Inscription: N/A
Demotic/Greek: N/A
Text: N/A

*Number of Layers of Linen Bandages in Rhombic Pattern

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84 4CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

DESCRIPTION OF RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 1

REFERENCES FOR DESCRIPTION

Edgar 1905a, pp. 68-69, pl. 33
Parlasca 1977, pp. 30-31, pl. 62/2
Personal observation by author, 1984-85, 1993

FOOT COVER
There are no traces of a cartonnage foot covering. The feet were probably originally wrapped in
linen bandages in the rhombic patterning of the body, but the covering has become completely un-
raveled. Edgar describes "remains of stuffing visible at feet." The "stuffing" resembles raffia or
hemp that would have been built up to form a base for the bandages covering the feet. For the use
of wadded bandages to form a neat shape for the exterior wrappings of the head, see Germer,
Kischkewitz, and Lining 1993, p. 190, fig. 6.

BODY COVERING
The body of the mummy is loosely wrapped in wide coarse linen bandages arranged overall in a
diamond or rhombic pattern. The rhombic wrappings are intact, but bandages that crisscross over
these wrappings are, as Edgar states, "all loose." Each shallow rhombus is one layer deep with an
additional cross over the top layer. The rhombi form a vertical row of six rhombi that appears cen-
tered up the full length of the mummy. Edgar describes "the usual gilded studs in the middle of the
lozenges." To be precise, there are now only four stucco buttons, each of which is attached to a
square of cartonnage. Of these, one each was inserted within the second rhombus and in the last
three rhombi that form the vertical row of six rhombi up the central length of the mummy. The top
three of these buttons are approximately one inch in diameter. The lowest button is slightly smaller,
about one-half inch in diameter.
A linen sheet that was wrapped around the back and halfway up the sides of the mummy is pre -
served beneath tapes that wrap around the entire body.

CHEST STRIP
There is no evidence for a cartonnage chest strip.

PORTRAIT AND FRAME

The portrait of the child was painted on a coarse piece of linen that covers the head. Of the ban-
dages at the head that might once have formed an octagonal type frame, there are "scarcely any
left round portrait," according to Edgar. At present, there is only a single bandage at the head that
crosses horizontally over the top of this painted cloth. At the shoulder line the bandages form the
base of an octagon around the bottom of the painted cloth. Although Parlasca refers to the state of
preservation of the portrait as "good," Edgar described "the portrait itself in very bad condition";
the painted cloth is torn, paint is peeling and flaking overall, and there is loss of the portrait field
from the left side of the head above the left eye.
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 2

ILLUSTRATION
Plate 2

PRESENT LOCATION
Collection: Egyptian Museum
Inventory Number: CG 33222
City: Cairo

PROVENIENCE
Fayoum (Edgar 1905a, p. 83)

DATE OF PORTRAIT
"The best comparison of the hairstyle is to that of the portraits of Plotina, corresponding to the
fashion of the Trajanic period. The portrait is then datable to around A.D. 110-120" (Parlasca 1977,
p. 34).

DATE OF BODY WRAPPING

Early second century (gilt buttons, chest strip, and footcase)

MALE OR FEMALE
Female

MEASUREMENTS
Body Height: 61.00 inches (1.62 m [Edgar 1905a, p. 83])
Width: 14.00 inches (37.00 cm [ibid.])
Depth: 9.00 inches
Portrait Y/N?: Yes
Length: 12.25 inches
Width: 7.00 inches (across the middle)
Portrait Frame Y/N?: No
Width: N/A
RHOMBI
*Layers in Rhombic Pattern: 6 plus 1 cross
Length of Rhombi: 4.00 inches
Width of Rhombi: 5.00 inches
Width of Bandages: 0.50 inch

*Number of Layers of Linen Bandages in Rhombic Pattern

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86 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

CHEST S TRIP
Y/N?: Yes
Width: Entire band is approximately 2.00 inches wide with a double layer
of bandages (each 0.50 inch wide) along the top and bottom of the
strip.

INLAID STONES
Y/N?: Yes
Diameter: 0.625 inch (oblong gems), 1.00 inch (green gem in center)

GILT BUTTONS
Y/N?: Yes
Diameter: 0.375 inch

FOOTCASE
Y/N?: Yes
Underside Height: 12.50 inches
Depth: 9.25 inches
Front Edge Height: 3.00 inches

DIAMETER OF ROSETTE/WADJET-EYE
1.50 inches

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF BOUND FIGURES

Height: (Covered)
Width: 2.50 inches

LENGTH/WIDTH OF CARTONNAGE FEET

Length: 4.00 inches
Width: 3.00 inches

INSCRIPTION
Y/N?: No
Location of Inscription: N/A
Demotic/Greek: N/A
Text: N/A

DESCRIPTION OF RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 2

REFERENCES FOR DESCRIPTION
Edgar 1905a, pp. 83-84, pl. 34
Parlasca 1977, p. 34, pl. 65/1
Personal observation by author, 1984-85, 1993

FOOT COVER
The footcase was an added element, separate from the mummy wrappings. The footcase was built
over a base made from mud and straw, plastered over the wrapped feet of the deceased, and held
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 2 87

in place by the rhombic wrappings that cover the ankles. The footcase was made of a "pulp with
thick layer of stucco," according to Edgar, as can be seen where the casing is broken open along the
left-hand side, and was gessoed and painted. The colors, which must have faded, now appear
mostly pink and green although Edgar referred to them as red and blue. The linen cloth that covers
the back and sides of the mummy is also wrapped around the bottom half of the underside of the
footcase. This plain cloth wrapping conceals the lower half of the painted scene that decorates the
underside of the footcase.
On the upper side of the footcase are feet modeled in three-dimensional relief. They are
painted a pinkish flesh color. The toenails are detailed and are painted gold. The feet are shod in
sandals, which are modeled in stucco. The sandals have a thin horizontal strap that crosses the
width of the foot above the toes, and a thin vertical strap that runs between the big toe and second
toe and extends the length of the foot. The sandals are painted red. At the point where the horizon-
tal and vertical straps intersect, there is a raised stucco dot which is gilt.
The deceased appears to be standing on a red disc that represents the upper side of the soles of
her sandals. The red disc is bordered by a strip of yellow, within which is a row of black dots that
represent the stitched sides of the soles. A checkerboard patternm-in red, green, black, white, and
blue-surrounds the yellow-bordered red disc and fills in the remaining area of the top of the foot-
case. There is a confusion of this pattern on the left side of the footcase. Along this side of the case,
the pattern is obscured by a light blue cast and looks as if a new overall pattern was painted on top
of the original. The bluish coloring was initially thought to be water damage, but on close inspec-
tion it seems that there were two separate patterns one painted above the other; Edgar describes
the footcase as being "moldy."
Along the sides of the footcase is a "metope-like band," according to Edgar. The vertical
stripes, outlined in black, alternate in colors of green, white, and pink (Edgar's "blue, red, blue with
yellow intervals, a white line down each band and a black one down the yellow"). Near the front of
the right side of the footcase, bordered by vertical stripes, is a large pink and white rosette on a
green background. Along the left side of the footcase (which could have been overpainted) are two
large decorative elements (although Edgar notes only the "rosette" design). Near the front of the
left side, bordered by vertical stripes, is a large circle with a small circle in the center (originally a
rosette). At the back is a diamond shape within a square. This design is partially covered by the
sheet of plain cloth that covers the mummy from the back. The diamond is blue and has horizontal
black stripes. The upper triangular-shaped corner is black; the lower comer is gold.
There is a loss of cartonnage at the center and left side of the front edge of the footcase. There
are remains of a continuation of the vertical stripes in pink and green from the sides. Edgar's de-
scription specified three decorative elements along the front edge of the footcase: "in the middle a
lotus flower with small bud on each side; blue, pink, and green on a white ground [and] next, on
each side, a mystic eye; black, white, blue, and green on a lilac ground." Only the right edge of the
lotus design and the wadjet -eye on the right side yet remain. For a discussion of these elements, see
Amuletic Designs, pp. 51-52, above.
The underside of the footcase is badly faded. Black stains on the plain linen sheet that wraps
around the lower half of the footcase indicate that the cloth may have been soaked with resins or
funerary oils. Visible are the outlines of the upper bodies of two bound figures placed within a ge -
ometric setting. Each figure is shown in profile facing inward. Although Edgar refers to the one
figure as "the one on the right ... his head is to the right." It should have read: his head is to the left.
The figure on the right wears a shoulder-length wig, with horizontal striations, and a dark pointed
beard. He holds his arms together behind his head, elbows pointed directly upward in a contortive
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88 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

position. Edgar describes this figure as "an Asiatic ... flesh red, hair and beard blue." The flesh
now appears pink. Edgar describes the figure on the left side as "completely obliterated." Visible is
a head in profile, facing inward, wearing a pointed beard and shoulder-length wig with horizontal
striations. His forward arm is held crooked at his side.
The figures are on a "yellow background," according to Edgar, of rectangular shape, edged in
black lines. Between the two figures is a blue vertical strip or band with yellow border that one
would expect to have contained an inscription. Edgar describes this strip as having had a "pattern
[that was] obliterated." This interior design, however, does not resemble a mere "pattern" (such as
the vine spray or tendril on Red-shrouded Mummies Nos. 14 or 15) as much as it does an inscrip-
tion or attempt to simulate an inscription. Above the figures is, according to Edgar, "a horizontal
blue band with one white line and one line of white dots along the middle." This blue band, with its
down-turned comers is a pt symbol, the Egyptian hieroglyphic sign for "sky." The white dots repre-
sent the stars of heaven. At the outer edges of the scene is a metope border of large blocks that al-
ternate pinkish-red and blue (Edgar's "long rectangles, red and blue alternately, with small white
circle in center of each; divided from each other by black lines on a white ground"). For a discus-
sion of this motif, see The "Bound Prisoner" Motif, pp. 53-55, above.

BODY COVERING
The body of the mummy is carefully wrapped in uncolored linen bandages arranged overall in a di-
amond or rhombic pattern. Each rhombus is six layers deep with an additional cross over the top
layer. The rhombi are arranged in neat horizontal rows. The wrappings form approximately twenty
rows of rhombic shapes that are centered up the full length of the mummy with the bandages form-
ing a trapezoid at each shoulder. At the bases of the rhombic shapes were inserted stucco buttons
attached to a flat piece of cartonnage. These buttons have a reddish-pink ground color to which was
applied a dab of gilt. With few exceptions, the buttons protrude above the level of the rhombic
wrappings.
Although Edgar describes a stucco button "in the center of each lozenge," there appears to be a
distinct pattern to the arrangement of the buttons. Across the top half of the mummy, there are three
buttons across the last horizontal row of rhombi, two (between the three above) in the nineteenth
row, three in the eighteenth row, two in the seventeenth, and so on until the mid-section of the
mummy. Across the lower half of the mummy, there are two buttons across the eleventh row of
rhombi, one (between the two above) in the tenth row, two in the ninth row, one in the eighth, and
so on.
The sides of the mummy are caked with sand and small rocks, which is not unusual since por -
trait mummies were not placed into coffins but were put into direct contact with the soil (Petrie
1911, p. 2). In a raking light, from the manner in which the wrappings protrude, it appears that the
hands were placed over the pubic region before the body was wrapped.
Around the back of the mummy and covering the sides is a plain sheet of linen. At the back of
the head, one end of this cloth is folded under, the other end neatly folded over it, as a package
might be wrapped.

CHEST S TRIP
The band which runs across the chest area is made of a solid strip of cartonnage secured along its
top and bottom length by double rows of plain tape ("white [inner bandages] and light greenish
[outer bandages]," according to Edgar). The cartonnage is a pinkish color, which served as an un-
dercoating for gilding. The strip contains a row of inlaid "gems" that alternate with raised carton-
nage studs. The cartonnage studs are incised with a crossed line and are gilt. The "gems" are either
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 2 89

stone or glass. In the center of the chest strip is a large round green gem. To each side of the center
are five gems (separated by raised gilt studs). The gems, from the ight edge to the center, are: (1)
green gem, (2) gold stud, (3) light blue(?) gem, (4) gold stud, (5) green gem, (6) gold stud, (7)
clear yellowish gem, (8) gold stud, (9) purplish blue gem, and (10) gold stud. The gems, from the
left edge to the center, are: (1) green gem, (2) gold stud, (3) purple gem, (4) gold stud, (5) green
gem, (6) gold stud, (7) opaque white gem, (8) gold stud, (9) lapis blue gem, and (10) gold stud.
The inlays are therefore arranged in a complementary color pattern to each side of the central
green gem.

PORTRAIT AND FRAME

Nine layers of bandages are overlaid to form an octagonal frame around the relatively large por-
trait panel. In her portrait, the deceased is shown wearing multiple necklaces ("necklace in three
rows," according to Edgar). One of the necklaces is a strand of pearls. The other two are gold with
inlaid stones. The stones in her necklaces are colored green, gold, pink, and purple. The colors of
these stones correspond to the colors used in the chest band. In fact-as was suggested by David
Wilmott-the inlaid stones on the decorated mummy could be from the deceased's own jewelry,
the relatives of the deceased having offered them to the embalming studio for the decoration of her
mummy (cf. Stucco Mummy No. 19).
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 3

ILLUSTRATION
Plate 3

PRESENT LOCATION
Collection: Egyptian Museum
Inventory Number: CG 33223
City: Cairo

PROVENIENCE
"Fayoum," according to Edgar (1905a, p. 84). "Accessioned in 1893; presumably comes from
Hawara, it is a question of one of two portraits from mummies which were accessioned in that year
with the indication of that provenience," according to Parlasca (1969, p. 29).

DATE OF PORTRAIT
"The hairdo is that of the style of Nero," and "with its skillful effect of chiaroscuro, it is typical of
that period also from the point of view of style. The portrait is therefore datable to the years from
A.D. 60 to 70" (Parlasca 1969, p. 29). The panel is split down the center and down the left and right
sides. There is a loss of panel near the lower right comer and there is paint loss overall.

DATE OF BODY WRAPPING

Late first, early second century A.D. (cf. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 4, gilt buttons, footcase,
chest strip)

MALE OR FEMALE
Female

MEASUREMENTS
Body Height: 61.00 inches (1.55 m [Edgar 1905a, p. 84])
Width: 17.00 inches at shoulders. (48.00 cm [ibid.])
Depth: 9.75 inches
Portrait Y/N?: Yes
Length: 12.50 inches
Width: 8.75 inches (at bottom)
Portrait Frame Y/N?: No
Width: N/A

90
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 3 91

RHOMBI
*Layers in Rhombic Pattern: 6 plus 1 cross
Length of Rhombi: 4.00 inches
Width of Rhombi: 6.00 inches
Width of Bandages: 0.625 inch

CHEST STRIP
Y/N?: Yes
Width: Approximately 1.50 inches (including tapes)

INLAID STONES
Y/N?: No
Diameter: N/A

GILT BUTTONS
Y/N?: Yes
Diameter: 0.50 inch

FOOTCASE
Y/N?: Yes, traces (measurements approximate)
Underside Height: 10.00 inches
Width: 9.00 inches
Front Edge Height: 4.00 inches

DIAMETER OF ROSETTE/WADJET-EYE
1.50 inches

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF BOUND FIGURES

Height: Missing
Width: Missing

LENGTH/WIDTH OF CARTONNAGE FEET

Length: Missing
Width: Approximately 4.00 inches

INSCRIPTION
Y/N?: No
Location of Inscription: N/A
Demotic/Greek: N/A
Text: N/A

*Number of Layers of Linen Bandages in Rhombic Pattern

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92 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

DESCRIPTION OF RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 3

REFERENCES FOR DESCRIPTION
Edgar 1905a, pp. 84-85, pl. 34
Parlasca 1969, p. 29, pl. 4/2
Personal observation by author, 1984-85, 1993

FOOT COVER
The footcase was an added element, separate from the mummy wrappings, which was placed on
the mummy and held in position by the rhombic wrappings. It was made of thin cartonnage that was
gessoed and painted (Edgar describes it as "of cartonnage, canvas and stucco"). The cartonnage is
"almost all broken away," according to Edgar, with a trace piece at the right and a fragment re -
maining along the left side. The small piece at top right was painted in a band of pink, gold, and
black (the gold having perhaps been part of a gilt foot). The larger fragment at the left side that
curves over the top contains part of a rosette design and the beginning of a metope border of verti-
cal stripes in blue, edged in black, on a white background. The rosette is pink with two concentric
circles drawn in black that are intersected by four diagonal lines (creating an eight-petaled flower).
At the center of the flower is a green circle outlined in black.
Although the mummy is exhibited upright, it is possible to see that there is no longer anything
remaining of the underside of the footcase.

BODY COVERING
The body of the mummy, "of same type" ... "as no. 33222" (Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 2) ac-
cording to Edgar, is carefully wrapped in linen bandages five-eighths inch wide arranged overall in
a diamond or rhombic pattern. The bandages are all plain, but there appears to be a slightly darker
brown color bandage that was used for the second and fourth levels of each rhombus.
At the top of each shoulder is a gilt button. Below these, the bandages form a triangle at each
shoulder. Within the inner corner of the triangle at the right is a gilt stucco button (cf. Rhombic-
wrapped Mummy No. 6, although there these upper buttons were placed directly above the end
buttons of the chest strip). Across the chest are multiple layers of horizontal bands that cross over
the rhombic wrappings. At the right and left outer corners of these tapes are two stucco buttons, at-
tached to cartonnage, which "probably also [had] been a row of them across breast," according to
Edgar. The rhombi are arranged in neat rows. Each rhombus is generally six layers deep with an
additional cross over the top layer. Gilt stucco buttons, attached to painted cartonnage squares, are
inserted within these rhombi up the full length of the mummy.
The wrappings form twenty horizontal rows of diamond or rhombic shapes. At the base of these
rhombic shapes was inserted a stucco button attached to a flat piece of cartonnage. These buttons
and squares, similar to those used to form the row at the top of the head and the chest strip, were
painted red. Each button was gilded. The buttons are well prerserved overall.
The pattern of buttons (and therefore the rhombic pattern itself) is neatly arranged. There is a
straight vertical row of ten rhombi-nine with buttons-up the middle of the mummy. Buttons are
inserted in all the rhombi to the sides of this central vertical row. The pattern is even and symmetri-
cal overall, although it is set slightly off-center toward the right side (it twists slightly to the left as
it comes up from the feet). There are numerous bandages above the footcase, which hold it in place
and form multiple layers of horizontal/diagonal bands at the base.
There is a dark stain down the middle of the mummy that begins just below the portrait and
continues halfway down the body. This might have been caused by funerary oils, although as it was
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 3 93

not mentioned by Edgar, it could have occurred more recently. Several bandages along the upper
right side and lower left side are lying loose. The right side of the mummy, from the shoulder to the
middle of the body, and the lower left side of the mummy are caked with rocky sand (cf. Rhombic-
wrapped Mummy No. 2).
Around the back of the mummy and halfway up the sides is a plain sheet of linen. The cloth
was molded around the shoulders and the head of the wrapped mummy to cover all sides of the
octagonal portrait frame and was held in position by tapes that wind around the body.

CHEST STRIP
Only two stucco buttons at each end remain of the band that ran across the chest area. Each button
is attached to a square of cartonnage. The buttons and cartonnage were painted red, then the but-
tons were gilded. The buttons are one-half inch in diameter. Layers of horizontal bands across the
chest at this point would have bordered the strip at top and bottom as on Rhombic-wrapped
Mummies Nos. 2 and 4 and Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15.

PORTRAIT AND FRAME

At the head, the bandages are overlaid (approximately nine layers deep) to form an octagonal
frame around the portrait panel. The panel is split down the center and along the left and right
sides. There is a loss of the panel near the lower right comer. There is paint loss at the forehead,
left cheek, right cheek, near the left ear, and at the center of the neck (there is also wood loss
here).
At either side of center, along the top of the octagonal tape frame, are two gilt stucco buttons
each attached to a square of cartonnage, one at right and two at left (one covered by tapes)
(Edgar's "studs at top of head"). Whether these buttons originally formed part of two diagonal
bands is not clear.
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 4

ILLUSTRATION
Plate 4

PRESENT LOCATION
Collection: Egyptian Museum
Inventory Number: CG 33224
City: Cairo

PROVENIENCE
Unknown. Perhaps Hawara on the basis of the octagonal rhombic frame around the portrait

DATE OF PORTRAIT
"On the basis of the style of the hair, the portrait is datable to the time of Hadrian" (ca. A.D. 130)
(Parlasca 1977, p. 76).

DATE OF BODY WRAPPING

Early second century A.D. (gilt buttons and footcase)

MALE OR FEMALE
Male

MEASUREMENTS
Body Height: 66.50 inches (1.75 m [Edgar 1905a, p. 85])
Width: 17.50 inches (47.00 cm [ibid.])
Depth: 11.00 inches
Portrait Y/N?: Yes
Length: 12.00 inches
Width: 8.25 inches (across bottom)
Portrait Frame Y/N?: No
Width: N/A

RHOMBI
*Layers in Rhombic Pattern: 5 plus 1 cross
Length of Rhombi: 6.50 inches
Width of Rhombi: 5.25 inches
Width of Bandages: 0.50 inch

*Number of Layers of Linen Bandages in Rhombic Pattern

94
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 4 95

CHEST STRIP
Y/N?: Yes
Width: Approximately 1.50 inches, including upper and lower tapes

INLAID STONES
Y/N?: No
Diameter: N/A

GILT BUTTONS
Y/N?: Yes
Diameter: 0.50 inch

FOOTCASE
Y/N?: Yes, but fragmentary, thus dimensions not available
Underside Height: Fragmentary
Width: Fragmentary
Front Edge Height: Fragmentary

DIAMETER OF ROSETTE/WADJET-EYE
Missing

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF BOUND FIGURES

Height: Missing
Width: Missing

LENGTH/WIDTH OF CARTONNAGE FEET

Length: Fragmentary
Width: Fragmentary

INSCRIPTION
Y/N?: No
Location of Inscription: N/A
Demotic/Greek: N/A
Text: N/A

DESCRIPTION OF RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 4

REFERENCES FOR DESCRIPTION
Edgar 1905a, p. 85, pl. 34
Parlasca 1969, p. 76, pl. 44/2
Personal observation by author, 1984-85, 1993

FOOT COVER
The footcase was an added element, separate from the mummy wrappings. It was made of carton-
nage, which was gessoed and painted. The footcase is mostly destroyed, with only traces remaining
in place all along the underside and along the left side. The loss of the footcase exposes the hap-
hazard wrapping of the feet. The feet were swathed in a crumpled piece of coarse linen cloth over
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96 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

which is diagonally crossed a strip of two and one-quarter inch wide coarse linen. There are pieces
of straw (cf. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 1) and a piece of crumpled red linen sticking out of
the space between this cloth and the fragments of the footcase.
On a fragment on the upper part of the left side are traces of the drawing of the left foot that
was painted and gilded. A black line near the top of the gold area possibly represents a sandal
strap. The red area around the gilt foot is the underside of the sandal sole as on Rhombic-wrapped
Mummy No. 2. Surrounding the red area is a large black, white, and red checkerboard pattern.
Along the left side of the footcase fragment is a "metope border," according to Edgar. The vertical
stripes, outlined in black, alternate in colors of white (yellow?) and red. The plain cloth that wraps
around the back of the mummy is also wrapped around the bottom half of the underside of the base.
Above the level of the cloth, only crumbled traces are visible of the footcase on the underside al-
though in the right corner are preserved wide vertical stripes of light blue edged in black, a thin
white stripe edged in black, and the beginnings of a design in red.

BODY COVERING
The body of the mummy is carefully wrapped in layers of linen bandages arranged in neat rows of
diamond or rhombic shapes. Each rhombus is five layers deep with an additional cross over the top
layer. Colored tapes are used within the geometric designs. Edgar also noticed "a good deal of
black among the bandages" but concluded that "no regular pattern can be followed." Although
these dark fabrics have suffered from disintegration so that they could be mistaken for stains, the
dark/light sequence is not random but forms a definite pattern. Each rhombus consists of a black or
dark layer at the base, several layers of plain fabric, and a black or dark fabric for the uppermost
layer. The triangular shapes formed by the bandages at the shoulders each have a diagonal strip of
black fabric at the center. At about two-thirds up the length of the mummy (between rows thirteen
and fourteen) is a horizontal bandage that crosses over the top of the rhombic wrappings.
The wrappings form approximately twenty horizontal rows of diamond or rhombic shapes. At
the bases of these rhombic shapes were inserted stucco buttons attached to a flat piece of carton-
nage. These buttons and cartonnage squares, similar to those used to form the chest strip above,
were painted red. Each button was gilded.
Although Edgar describes a stucco stud "in the center of each lozenge," there appears to be a
distinct pattern to the arrangement of the buttons. It is from this pattern in fact that the method used
to wrap the mummy can be seen. The pattern of buttons (and therefore the rhombic pattern itself)
appears to be neatly arranged at the lower half of the mummy. Beginning at the top of the footcase,
there is a rhombus placed squarely in the middle of the mummy, with a button in the center. Above
this rhombus is a row of rhombi with a rhombus to each side of the one below, each with a button in
the center. Above this row is a row with a rhombus above the first one and a rhombus to each side
of that, each with a button in the center. Above this row is a row parallel to the second row. After
that is a row parallel to the third row. At about mid-section, the pattern of vertical rows of rhombi
with buttons up the length of the mummy is more distinct than the pattern formed by the horizontal
rows of one button across, then two, then one, etc. In fact, the horizontal pattern begins to twist off-
center toward the right just above the mid-section of the mummy.
The mummy was therefore probably wrapped from the bottom up. This idea is also supported
by the numerous bandages that held the footcase in place and form multiple layers of diagonal and
horizontal bandages at the base above the footcase. These bandages seem to originate at the base
then continue upward to form part of the rhombic pattern.
The body is caked overall with sand and pebbles (cf. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 2), espe -
cially at the back of the head and within those rhombi that have collapsed or sunken in. Edgar notes
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 4 97

that the bandages are also "worn in places, especially on left side [read right side] of head and of
body."
Around the back of the mummy and up the sides is a plain sheet of linen. This cloth was also
molded around the shoulders and the head of the wrapped mummy to cover all but the octagonal
frame around the top.

CHEST STRIP
The band which runs across the chest area is made of a row of twelve stucco buttons, each attached
to a rectangular (1.25 x 0.625 inches) piece of cartonnage. The buttons are approximately one-half
inch in diameter. The buttons and cartonnage squares were painted red. Each button was gilded.
The second button in from the right-hand edge is broken in half.
Edgar describes "a plain band on each side" of the chest strip (actually there are double bands
along the top and bottom edges). Similar strips border the chest bands on Rhombic-wrapped
Mummy No. 2 and Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15.

PORTRAIT AND FRAME

At the head, approximately nine layers of bandages are overlaid to form an octagonal frame
around the portrait panel. Edgar describes the top of the frame as composed of "black tapes."
Traces indicate that these bandages were actually plain tapes that had been covered with, or inter-
spersed with, black cloth. He also noted that the portrait panel had suffered damage (cracking in
vertical fissures) on the left-hand [read right-hand] side.
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 5

ILLUSTRATION
Plate 5

PRESENT LOCATION
Collection: Egyptian Museum
Inventory Number: CG 33225
City: Cairo

PROVENIENCE
Hawara (Petrie excavation, 1888)

DATE OF PORTRAIT
"It is included, only with reservation, among the group of portraits of infants from the first century"
(Parlasca 1969, p. 38).

DATE OF BODY WRAPPING

Middle to late first century A.D. (colored linen wrappings, no gilt buttons or footcase)

MALE OR FEMALE

A "young boy," according to Edgar (1905a, p. 86) and Parlasca (1969, p. 38). Parlasca states that,
"the presence of jewelry, attested in other portraits of young boys, does not constitute secure proof
for identifying the portrait as that of a little girl." Although many portraits dated by Parlasca to the
fourth century show boys as Isis acolytes wearing a gold amuletic pendant on a black cord, this
child wears elaborate jewelry consisting of earrings and a gold torque with pearls and emeralds.
Moreover, the garment is a scarlet chiton, the color choice of women. These factors suggest that
this portrait is that of a little girl.

MEASUREMENTS
Body Height: 32.00 inches (88.00 cm [Edgar 1905a, p. 85])
Width: 8.50 inches (22.00 cm [ibid.])
Depth: 7.50 inches
Portrait Y/N?: Yes
Length: 8.00 inches
Width: 5.00 inches
Portrait Frame Y/N?: No
Width: N/A

98
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO.5 9

99

RHOMBI
*Layers in Rhombic Pattern: 5 plus 1 cross
Length of Rhombi: 2.50 inches
Width of Rhombi: 3.50 inches
Width of Bandages: 0.375 inch

CHEST STRIP
YIN?: Yes. Double layer of plain tapes in a horizontal line across the
chest
Width: 0.375 inch

INLAID STONES
Y/N?: No
Diameter: N/A

GILT BUTTONS
YIN?: No
Diameter: N/A

FOOTCASE
YIN?:* No
Underside Height: N/A
Width: N/A
Front Edge Height: N/A

DIAMETER OF ROSETTE!WADJET -EYE

N/A

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF BOUND FIGURES

Height: N/A
Width: N/A

LENGTH/WIDTH OF CARTONNAGE FEET

Length: N/A
Width: N/A

INSCRIPTION
Y/N?; No
Location of Inscription: N/A
Demotic/Greek: N/A
Text: N/A

*Number of Layers of Linen Bandages in Rhombic Pattern

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too 00
CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

DESCRIPTION OF RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 5

REFERENCES FOR DESCRIPTION
Edgar 1905a, pp. 85-86, pl. 35
Parlasca 1969, p. 398, pl. 12/1
Personal observation by author, 1984-85, 1993

FOOT COVER
There is no evidence for an added cartonnage footcase. The feet are wrapped in the same rhombic
pattern "like rest of body," according to Edgar, with one rhombus positioned squarely between the
feet.
The underside of the footcase is completely covered by a plain cloth. This small cloth is folded
(or lapped inward) at the sides and is held in position by the linen cloth that wraps around from the
back and sides of the mummy and runs along the bottom quarter of this plain piece.

BODY COVERING
The body of the mummy was wrapped with extreme care in linen bandages arranged overall in a
diamond or rhombic pattern. Each rhombus is five layers deep with an additional cross over the top
layer. Colored tapes are used within the geometric rhombic designs. Edgar noted that "many of the
tapes are black and these are arranged with a certain amount of regularity, every rhombus being
edged with black and black spaces occurring every here and there." Since there are traces of black
cloth on the outer layers and on many of the interior levels of all the rhombi, it is possible that the
tapes of this mummy were originally completely covered in black fabric overall. The wrappings
form approximately nineteen horizontal rows of diamond or rhombic shapes from the front edge of
the footcase to the shoulder line. The rhombic pattern is very neatly arranged overall on the
mummy, but the wrappings appear to have been started from the bottom up. Beginning at the feet,
there is a rhombus placed squarely in the center. From this central rhombus upward is a vertical
line of eight rhombi that continue to the shoulder line, although the patterning here twists slightly
off-center to the right. Unlike other examples that exhibit a trapezoid or triangular shape at the
shoulders (cf. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 2), these bandages form a complete rhombic pattern
at the shoulder line.
There are no gilt stucco button inserts ("without studs," according to Edgar) within the rhombi.
There are no horizontal bandages that cross over the rhombic wrappings and around the back sheet.
Around the back of the mummy and covering the sides is a plain sheet of coarse linen. Edgar
describes this as "sheets glued on as on no. 33224" (Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 4). This cloth
is molded up around the shoulders and folded, similar to a package, around the head of the
wrapped mummy to cover all but the octagonal frame around the top. This back sheet covers the
underside of the wrappings of the feet and holds in position a small piece of linen that completely
covers the bottom of the footcase.
CHEST S TRIP
Across the chest, directly below the octagonal panel frame, are multi-layered horizontal bandages
(approximately three-eighths of an inch wide) that cross over the rhombic wrappings. These ban-
dages mimic the form of a cartonnage chest strip (a pseudo chest strip).

PORTRAIT AND FRAME

At the head, the bandages are overlaid (approximately seven layers deep) to form an octagonal
frame around the portrait panel.
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 6

ILLUSTRATION
Plate 6

PRESENT LOCATION
Collection: Egyptian Museum
Inventory Number: CG 33226
City: Cairo

PROVENIENCE
Fayoum (Edgar 1905a, p. 86). Probably Hawara on the basis of the octagonal frame

DATE OF PORTRAIT
"The style of the portrait is characterized by the accentuated painterly effects obtained by the use
of reflections of light, which are consistent with a date in the time of Nero [ca. A.D. 54-68]; the
hairstyle is perhaps to be considered as a variant of those in style at that time" (Parlasca 1969, p.
30).

DATE OF BODY WRAPPING

Late first century A.D. (gilt buttons, no footcase)

MALE OR FEMALE
Female. On the basis of the size of the mummy, this was an adolescent.

MEASUREMENTS
Body Height: 41.00 inches (1.10 m [Parlasca 1969, p. 30])
Width: 12.00 inches (31.00 cm [ibid.])
Depth: 10.00 inches
Portrait Y/N?: Yes
Length: 8.50 inches
Width: 6.00 inches
Portrait Frame Y/N?: No
Width: N/A
RHOMBI
*Layers in Rhombic Pattern: 6 plus 1 cross
Length of Rhombi: 3.00 inches
Width of Rhombi: 5.00 inches
Width of Bandages: 0.50 inch (average)

*Number of Layers of Linen Bandages in Rhombic Pattern

101
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102 2CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

CHEST S TRIP
Y/N?: Yes
Width: Approximately 2.00 inches

INLAID STONES
Y/N?: No
Diameter: N/A

GILT BUTTONS
Y/N?: Yes
Diameter: Approximately 0.50 inch (chest strip buttons: 0.75 inch)

FOOTCASE
Y/N?: No
Underside Height: N/A
Width: N/A
Front Edge Height: N/A

DIAMETER OF ROSETTE/WADJET-EYE
N/A

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF BOUND FIGURES

Height: N/A
Width: N/A

LENGTH/WIDTH OF CARTONNAGE FEET

Length: N/A
Width: N/A

INSCRIPTION
Y/N?: No
Location of Inscription: N/A
Demotic/Greek: N/A
Text: N/A

DESCRIPTION OF RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 6

REFERENCES FOR DESCRIPTION
Edgar 1905a, pp. 86-87, pl. 35
Parlasca 1969, p. 30, pl. 4/4
Personal observation by author, 1984-85, 1993

FOOT COVER
There is no evidence for an added, cartonnage footcase. The feet are carefully wrapped with linen
bandages in a rhombic pattern "in the same way as the mummy," according to Edgar, with one
rhombus positioned squarely in the center between the feet and trapezoidal shapes to each side.
There are three buttons at the feet. These stucco buttons, each attached to a cartonnage square,
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 6 103

similar to those used to form the chest strip and body decorations (described below), were painted
red. Each button was gilded. One gilt button was placed within the central rhombus and one each
was placed within each of the trapezoidal shapes (the right button is higher than the left).
A small coarse linen cloth comes up from the back to obscure completely the underside of the
wrappings of the feet and is secured by the horizontal tapes that cross over the ankles. Through
holes in this linen sheet can be seen additional layers of plain coarse linen.

BODY COVERING
The body of the mummy is carefully, but somewhat loosely, wrapped in layers of linen bandages of
various widths, arranged overall in a diamond or rhombic pattern that Edgar refers to here as "a
system of sunken lozenges." Each rhombus is six layers deep with an additional cross over the top
layer. Colored bandages were used within the geometric designs. Edgar notes that there are "traces
of light red color on many of the tapes" which cover the body. The pattern appears to be that every
other tape is light red in color. Edgar's note that "several of them [the tapes] are black" may refer
to the deteriorated dark brown linen cloth underneath the numerous horizontal bandages that cross
over the top of the rhombic bandages at the mid-point of the body of the mummy and above the
footcase.
The wrappings form twelve horizontal rows of diamond or rhombic shapes. The bandages form
a triangle at each shoulder. Within each of these triangular shapes at the shoulders and at the base
of each of eight rhombi of the body field is inserted a gilt stucco button attached to a square piece
of cartonnage. These buttons and cartonnage squares, similar to those used to form the chest strip
(described below), were painted red. Each button was gilded.
The pattern of buttons (and the rhombic pattern itself) appears to be neatly arranged at the
feet. The pattern over the body, however, irregularly twists off-center. A vertical row of rhombi
(four with buttons) runs up the center of the mummy. There is no button in Row One, the first row
(nearest the feet); there is no button in Row Two; there is a button to the left between Rows Two
and Three; there is a button in Row Three; there are no buttons in Rows Four, Five, or Six; there is
a button in Row Seven; there are buttons to each side of Row Eight; there is a button in Row Nine;
there are no buttons in Rows Ten and Eleven; there is a button to the left between Rows Eleven
and Twelve; and there is a button in Row Twelve. Most of these buttons are somewhat sunken be-
low the surface of the wrappings.
Edgar states that "round the back are sheets of fine and coarse cloth inserted between the vari -
ous layers of tape." At the back, and molded halfway up the left side of the mummy, is a plain
sheet of linen that was also molded around the back of the shoulders and head of the mummy.
Edgar adds, however, "final sheet round back wanting," which might refer to the lack of the sheet
to cover up the right side of the mummy where the tapes are quite loose and worn. This discrepancy
could not be checked as the mummy is exhibited lying on its back. Miscellaneous crisscross ban-
dages are tied around the body to secure the back sheets in position.
CHEST S TRIP
The band which runs across the chest area is made of a row of eight stucco buttons, each attached
to a square of cartonnage. The buttons that are inserted in the shoulder triangles (described above)
are directly above the last buttons at each end of the chest strip. The buttons are approximately
three-quarters of an inch in diameter. The buttons and cartonnage squares are painted red. Each
button was gilded. Several of these buttons have begun to decompose. Above and below the chest
strip is an inner tape of yellowed-brown coarse linen with a thin (three-eighths of an inch), plain
tape over it.
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104 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

PORTRAIT AND FRAME

At the head, the bandages are loosely overlaid (approximately five layers deep) to form an octag-
onal frame around the portrait panel. The left half of a linen strip across the top of the frame is
painted red and the tape forming the fourth level of the frame (at her left side) is also red. The top
of the head of the mummy is caked with sand in which are embedded small agates (cf. Rhombic-
wrapped Mummy No. 2).
Although the lower part of the portrait is almost covered with tapes, a red chiton with black
clavi is visible. The woman is depicted wearing a gold necklace with a green pendant.
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 7

ILLUSTRATION
Plate 7

PRESENT LOCATION
Collection: Egyptian Museum
Inventory Number: CG 33227
City: Cairo

PROVENIENCE
Hawara (Petrie excavation, 1888)

DATE OF PORTRAIT
The date given for this portrait by Parlasca is based on the dating of a mummy now in Oxford
(Parlasca 1969, pp. 63-64, n. 134) because the two have identical woven frames. "On the basis of
the hairstyle," Parlasca (1969, p. 42) dates the Oxford example "to the time of Trajan" (ca. A.D.
117).

DATE OF BODY WRAPPING

Early second century A.D. (careful, tight, deep rhombi, woven portrait frame, colored linen in
frame, gilt buttons overall)

MALE OR FEMALE
"A boy," according to Edgar (1905a, p. 87). "A young boy," according to Parlasca (1969, p. 41).
The child has somewhat effeminate features, but the attributes are those of an Isis acolyte (a gold
pendant amulet case on a black cord and a sidelock) and the white chiton points to the color of
choice for males.

MEASUREMENTS
Body Height: 48.00 inches (1.22 m [Edgar 1905a, p. 87])
Width: 13.00 inches (37 cm [ibid.])
Depth: 10.00 inches
Portrait Y/N?: Yes
Length: 10.00 inches
Width: 1.50 inches
Portrait Frame Y/N? Yes
Width: 5.50 inches

105
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106 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

RHOMBI
*Layers in Rhombic Pattern: 4 plus 1 cross
Length of Rhombi: Approximately 5.00 inches
Width of Rhombi: Approximately 3.00 inches
Width of Bandages: 0.375 inch

CHEST STRIP
Y/N?: No
Width: N/A

INLAID STONES
Y/N?: No
Diameter: N/A

GILT BUTTONS
Y/N?: Yes
Diameter: 0.50 inch

FOOTCASE
Y/N?: No
Underside Height. N/A
Width: N/A
Front Edge Height: N/A

DIAMETER OF ROSETTE/WADJET-EYE
N/A

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF BOUND FIGURES

Height: N/A
Width: N/A

LENGTH/WIDTH OF CARTONNAGE FEET

Length: N/A
Width: N/A

INSCRIPTION
Y/N?: No
Location of Inscription: N/A
Demotic/Greek: N/A
Text: N/A

*Number of Layers of Linen Bandages in Rhombic Pattern

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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 7 107

DESCRIPTION OF RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 7

REFERENCES FOR DESCRIPTION
Edgar 1905a, p. 87, pl. 35
Parlasca 1969, pp. 41-42, pl. 15/4
Personal observation by author, 1984-85, 1993

FOOT COVER
There is no evidence for an added cartonnage footcase. The feet were wrapped in linen bandages
in small tight rhombi "in the same way as the body," according to Edgar. Separating the feet, and
squarely positioned at the center of the upper side, is a neat rhombus. On the underside of the feet,
the rhombic pattern of the bandages appears as rows of squares, each four layers deep with one
cross over, as in the rhombic shapes. A plain cloth that wraps around the back of the mummy is also
wrapped about the lower part of the underside of the foot coverings and obscures the bottommost
row of squares. Although the entire mummy is carefully wrapped, the orderly alignment of square
and rhombic shapes at the feet indicate that the wrapping of the mummy began at the feet.

BODY COVERING
The body of the mummy is carefully wrapped in layers of linen bandages, of equal coarseness and
uniform width, arranged overall in a diamond or rhombic pattern. Each rhombus is four layers deep
with an additional cross over the top layer. The bandages are all plain and form no color pattern as
they do on the woven frame (see below).
The wrappings form approximately twenty-six horizontal rows of diamond or rhombic shapes
and form rhombi at the shoulder line (cf. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 5). At the base of the
rhombic shapes, up the full length of the mummy, was inserted a stucco button attached to a flat
piece of cartonnage. These buttons and squares, similar to that used in the center of the portrait
frame, were painted a pinkish red. A gilt square was applied to each button.
The pattern of the buttons (and therefore the rhombic pattern itself) is neatly arranged. A gilt
stucco button was inserted within each rhombus in the three central vertical rows up the full length
of the mummy. The central vertical row, ending below the portrait, contained only twelve buttons.
The vertical row to each side of the central row contained thirteen buttons. Edgar describes a "good
many studs wanting" (there are, for example, six missing from the right side).
Edgar describes the "bandages in fairly good condition," but "coverings rotted away from left
side of head." There are traces of a dark resin (funerary oil?) all along the right side of the mummy
where the plain back cloths are attached to the rhombic wrappings.
Around the back of the mummy and one-third up the sides are plain sheets of linen. Edgar de -
scribes this as "back is covered by sheets glued on." These cloths are molded up around the shoul-
ders and head and, at the shoulder height, are securely tucked under the head cloth covering which
itself is secured around the portrait beneath the chevron frame. This back sheet also covers the
bottom squares of the wrappings of the underside of the footcase.

CHEST S TRIP
There is no evidence of a cartonnage chest strip.

PORTRAIT AND FRAME

Above the shoulders, a plain cloth was molded around the back and sides of the head. On top of this
cloth, around the portrait panel, was applied a horseshoe-shaped frame of braided colored linen.
The pattern of the bandages along each side that makes up the frame alternates lengths of several
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108 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

inches of plain tapes with four short intervals (five layers) of purple (Edgar describes this color as
"black") linen, to form a "chevron." according to Edgar, or "fishtail," according to Parlasca, design.
The pattern forms a purple diamond (Edgar's "black lozenge") at the center top of the frame into
which was inserted a stucco button. The button was painted a pinkish red then gilded. A plain strip
of linen was glued to the inside edge of the frame and was folded under (similar to the portrait
openings of red-shrouded mummies) to form a neat border for the portrait panel. Just below the
portrait, the bandages form the base of an octagon.
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 8

ILLUSTRATION
Plate 8

PRESENT LOCATION
Collection: Egyptian Museum
Inventory Number: JE 42790
City: Cairo

PROVENIENCE
Hawara, excavated by G. Lefebvre ca. 1910 (Parlasca 1969, p. 67)

DATE OF PORTRAIT
"This portrait, from the painterly technique, ... should be dated to the same period" (i.e., late
Flavian, ca. A.D. 96, see Parlasca 1969, p. 67-68).

DATE OF BODY WRAPPING

Probably late first century A.D. (colored rhombi, gilt button chest strip, gilt buttons, but no footcase)

MALE OR FEMALE
Male

MEASUREMENTS
Body Height: 71.00 inches (1.80 cm [Parlasca 1969, p. 67)
Width: 17.00 inches (across shoulders)
Depth: Approximately 12.00 inches
Portrait Y/N?: Yes
Length: 11.00 inches (25.70 cm [Parlasca 1969, p. 67])
Width: 7.00 inches (17.00 cm [ibid., p. 67])
Portrait Frame Y/N?: No
Width: N/A

RHOMBI
Layers in Rhombic Pattern*: 4 plus 1 cross
Length of Rhombi: 7.00 inches
Width of Rhombi: 5.00 inches
Width of Bandages: 0.75 inch

*Number of Layers of Linen Bandages in Rhombic Pattern

109
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110 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

CHEST S TRIP
Y/N?: Yes
Width: 2.00 inches including inner and outer tapes

INLAID STONES
Y/N?: No
Diameter: N/A

GILT BUTTONS
Y/N?: Yes
Diameter: 0.625 inch

FOOTCASE
Y/N?: No
Underside Height: N/A
Width: N/A
Front Edge Height: N/A

DIAMETER OF ROSETTE/WADJET-EYE
N/A

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF BOUND FIGURES

Height: N/A
Width: N/A

LENGTH/WIDTH OF CARTONNAGE FEET

Length: N/A
Width: N/A

INSCRIPTION
Y/N?: No
Location of Inscription: N/A
Demotic/Greek: N/A
Text: N/A

DESCRIPTION OF RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 8

REFERENCES FOR DESCRIPTION
Parlasca 1969, p. 67, pl. 35/2
Personal observation by author, 1984-85, 1993
This mummy is not in Edgar's catalog because it was accessioned after the catalog was pub -
lished.

FOOT COVER
There is no evidence of an added cartonnage footcase. Although additional bandages create a
chevron pattern above the ankles of the mummy, the feet themselves are wrapped with linen ban-
dages in the same rhombic patterning as the body. One rhombus is positioned squarely between the
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 8 III

two feet in the center of the upper side (button missing?). The wrappings of the underside of the
foot covering are messy, perhaps having suffered (in antiquity?) when the mummy was standing
upright. For damage done to portrait mummies while in the home, see Petrie 1889, p. 15; idem
1911, pp. 2-3.

BODY COVERING
The body of the mummy is carefully wrapped in layers of linen bandages arranged overall in a di-
amond or rhombic pattern. Each rhombus is four layers deep with an additional (gilt) bandage
crossed over the top layer. Colored tapes were used within the geometric designs. The upper
rhombi contain a reddish-brown strip near the middle level of the design and all the rhombi are
outlined with a reddish-brown layer for the top cross bandages. In addition to this color pattern, the
rhombi were overlaid with gilt strips (although these are now intact for only the upper half of the
mummy; much from the lower half is missing). Across the ankle area, at the base of the mummy, is
a horizontal bandage that crosses over the top of the rhombic bandages and ties in a knot, left of
center.
The wrappings form approximately twenty-one horizontal rows of diamond or rhombic shapes.
The bandages form trapezoid patterns at each of the shoulders. Within each of these trapezoid
shapes, in the rhombus next to them and in rhombi up the full length of the mummy, was inserted a
gilt stucco button attached to a square piece of cartonnage. These buttons and cartonnage squares,
similar to those used to form the chest strip (described below), were painted red. Each button was
gilded by the addition of a square of gold leaf.
The buttons are arranged in a pattern. Similar to Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 4, the pattern
of buttons (and therefore the rhombic pattern itself) appears to be neatly arranged at the lower half
of the mummy and twists slightly toward the right near the top. Beginning at the upper side of the
footcase, there is a rhombus placed squarely between the feet. This rhombus is followed by a
chevron design of multiple plain tapes. Above this chevron design is a rhombus with a button in the
middle. Above this rhombus is a horizontal row with a rhombus to each side of the rhombus below.
Above this row of two rhombi is a row with a rhombus above the first one. Above this rhombus is a
row parallel to the second row. After that is a row parallel to the third row. At about the mid-section
of the mummy, the pattern changes to a two button-three button scheme to accommodate the width
of the body. The pattern forms vertical rows of rhombi with buttons up the length of the mummy
that is, however, more distinct than the pattern formed by the horizontal rows of one button across,
then two, then one, etc. The chevron pattern of bandages at the base of the mummy above the
footcase also supports the idea that this mummy, similar to Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 4, was
probably wrapped from the bottom up.
There is a loss of three buttons along the mid-section of the left-hand side of the mummy. Just
at the point where the pattern of buttons switches from one-two to two-three, there are three rows
with single buttons in the center. There does not appear to be a trace of missing buttons to either
side of the button in the middle row, and this change in the number of buttons signals the overall
pattern change.
The right side of the mummy, along the upper edge of the plain back shroud and all along the
back shroud itself, is stained by dark resins.
Around the back of the mummy and halfway up the sides is a plain sheet of linen. This cloth is
molded up around the shoulders and the head of the wrapped mummy to cover all but the octagonal
frame around the portrait. The cloth covers only the very bottom of the underside of the feet. The
edges of this cloth, where it meets the rhombic bandages, are stained with resin.
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112 12CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

CHEST S TRIP
Across the chest is a chest strip with gilt stucco buttons that is edged at top and bottom by multiple
layers of horizontal tapes, the top of each of which is gilt. The band which runs across the chest
area is actually made of a row of fourteen stucco buttons, each attached to a square of cartonnage.
The buttons are five-eighths of an inch in diameter. The buttons and cartonnage are painted red.
Each button was gilded by the addition of a square of gold leaf. Above and below this chest strip is
a band of gilt linen that covers two layers of plain tape.

PORTRAIT AND FRAME

At the head, the bandages are overlaid six layers deep to form an octagonal frame around the por-
trait panel. At the top of this frame are two one-half inch strips of gilt linen that intersect at the up-
per comers and continue for about four inches behind the head. These gilt tapes might have origi-
nally framed the portrait.
Two-thirds down its length, the portrait panel is split completely across its width. It is also split
from the left edge to its center below the left eye and at the left edge (for approximately three
inches) at the neck. It does not appear that the individual depicted is clothed (see Nude Males:
Athletes or Initiates?, pp. 70-71, above).
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 9

ILLUSTRATION
Plate 9

PRESENT LOCATION
Collection: Egyptian Museum
Inventory Number: Inv. prov. 30/9/14/8
City: Cairo

PROVENIENCE
Hawara (Petrie excavation, 1911)

DATE OF PORTRAIT
On account of "the singularly large eyes, the size of which seems to recall examples from the mid-
dle of the first century [ca. A.D. 50]; this portrait is to be attributed to the same period" (Parlasca
1969, p. 43).

DATE OF BODY WRAPPING

From the middle of the first century A.D. to the early second century A.D. (gilt buttons, footcase)

MALE OR FEMALE
"A young girl(?)," according to Parlasca (1969, p. 43). The attribution is uncertain because it is not
possible to distinguish a particular hairstyle nor are there any identifiable features such as clothing
(the wrappings of the octagonal frame cover the portrait up to the neck) or jewelry. This lack of
feminine attributes, however, points to the mummy being that of a boy.

MEASUREMENTS
Body Height: 39.00 inches
Width: 11.00 inches
Depth: 8.50 inches
Portrait Y/N?: Yes
Length: 7.00 inches (17.5 cm [Parlasca 1969, p. 43])
Width: 6.00 inches (14.5 cm [ibid.])
Portrait Frame Y/N?: No
Width: N/A

RHOMBI
*Layers in Rhombic Pattern: 2 plus 1 cross
Length of Rhombi: 3.00 inches
Width of Rhombi: 4.00 inches
Width of Bandages: 0.75 inch

*Number of Layers of Linen Bandages in Rhombic Pattern

113
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114 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

CHEST S TRIP
Y/N?: Yes, multiple layers of horizontally placed 0.75 inch tapes that
wrap around the entire mummy
Width: 1.75 inch

INLAID STONES
Y/N?: No
Diameter: N/A

GILT BUTTONS
Y/N?: Yes
Diameter: Approximately 0.375 inch

FOOTCASE
Y/N?: Yes, but covered by linen wrappings up to one-half its height
Underside Height: 9.75 inches
Width: 6.00 inches
Front Edge Height: Approximately 2.00 inches

DIAMETER OF ROSETTE/WADJET-EYE
(Lotus) 1.25 x 1.00 inch

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF BOUND FIGURES

Height: Approximately 6.00 inches
Width: 1.75 inches

LENGTH/WIDTH OF CARTONNAGE FEET

Length: 3.00 inches
Width: 2.25 inches

INSCRIPTION
Y/N?: No
Location of Inscription: N/A
Demotic/Greek: N/A
Text: N/A

DESCRIPTION OF RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 9

REFERENCES FOR DESCRIPTION
Parlasca 1969, p. 43, pl. 16/5
Personal observation by author, 1984-85, 1993
This mummy is not in Edgar's catalog because it was accessioned after the catalog was pub -
lished.

FOOT COVER
The footcase was an added element, separate from the mummy wrappings. It was made of a thin
layer of fibrous cartonnage (as can be seen where the casing is crushed and broken open along the
front edge) that was gessoed and painted. The colors are mostly hot pink, white, green, and black.
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 9 115

The footcase is held in place by the rhombic wrappings that cover the ankles. These wrappings
conceal the bottom half of the painted scene that decorates the underside of the footcase.
The feet are modeled on the upper side of the footcase in three-dimensional relief and are
completely gilt. They are shod in sandals that are modeled in stucco. The sandals have a thin hori-
zontal strap that crosses the width of the foot at the base of the toes. A thin vertical strap, which
runs between the big toe and second toe, intersects the horizontal strap, extends beyond this inter-
section to the middle of the foot, and ends in a raised stud. These sandal straps are painted dark
purple.
The deceased appears to be standing on a dark purple/violet disc that represents the upper side
of the soles of the sandals. Beyond this is a checkerboard pattern that fills out the top of the foot-
case. The colors of this design-black, light green, pink, and white-form a diagonal pattern within
the checkerboard pattern.
Along the sides of the footcase is a band of vertical stripes on a white background. The stripes,
outlined in black, alternate in colors of pink and blue-green. Near the front of the sides of the foot-
case, bordered by vertical stripes, is a large eight-petaled rosette (preserved as pink with a red
center on the left side, red with a hot pink center on the right side).
There is a loss of cartonnage from the center to the left side of the front edge of the footcase.
Along this front edge is a continuation of the vertical-striped band of pink and blue-green with three
large decorative elements. In the middle is a white lotus flower on a green ground (without buds);
to each side, on a pink ground, was a wadjet-eye with a green brow and marking lines and black
pupil. The wadjet-eye on the left side is missing.
The underside of the footcase depicts the scene of bound figures. The bottom half of the scene
is obscured by the bandages that secure the foot casing. Black stains on these cloths are probably
from resins or funerary oils.
Each of the figures is shown naked and in profile facing inward. The figure on the right is
painted red. His hair, painted green, is long and straight, ending in a flip. He has a full-face and a
pointed beard (a "Syrian" type, according to Edgar). The elbows of this figure are bound together
behind his back; his arms are held forward and his hands, held at his chest, clench a looped black
rope (cf. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 2, where one prisoner has his arms above his head, the
other has his arms at his side). Visible beneath his elbows is one of the figure's feet that must be
tied behind his back. The figure on the left is painted hot pink. His hair, also painted green, is worn
in a shoulder-length "bag wig" style. He has a green chin beard that is cut flat across the bottom.
The elbows of this figure are bound together behind his back so that they point upward. His arms
hang straight down behind him. His wrists are bound; his hands are cupped and hang down. Black
lines (ropes?) behind the figure imply that his feet were tied up behind his back. On both figures,
the folds of the stomach are indicated by a curved black line and the navel is drawn in the center of
the figure (frontal), but the genitals are not indicated.
The two bound figures are placed within a geometric setting. The figures are on a white rectan -
gular background edged in black lines. They are separated by a green vertical band that one might
expect to have contained an inscription, but it is blank. Above the figures is a blue-green band with
corners turned slightly downward in the form of a pt symbol, the Egyptian hieroglyphic sign for
"sky" (cf. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 2), but there are no designs (i.e., stars) within it. At the
outer edges of the scene is a metope border of blocks (cf. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 2) out-
lined in black that alternate green and pink (with a white line in the center of each), divided from
one another by a black line on a white ground. For a discussion of this motif, see The "Bound
Prisoner"Motif, pp. 53-55, above.
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116 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

BODY COVERING
The body of the mummy is wrapped in layers of linen bandages arranged overall in a diamond or
rhombic pattern. The bandages form a trapezoid at each shoulder. The wrapping is careful but
somewhat loose, an effect exaggerated by the width (approximately one inch) of the bandages
used. Each rhombus is two layers deep with an additional cross over the top layer. The bandages
are all plain in color.
The wrappings form approximately eleven horizontal rows of diamond or rhombic shapes. At
the base of some of these rhombic shapes was inserted a stucco button attached to a flat piece of
cartonnage. These buttons and cartonnage squares, similar to those used to form the chest strip
(described below), were painted red. Each button was gilded.
The pattern over the body is generally irregular and seems to shift slightly to the left with an
emphasis on a diagonal design. The pattern of buttons (and the rhombic pattern itself) appears,
however, to be neatly arranged at the feet. A rhombus is positioned squarely in the center of the
base of the mummy above the footcase. In the row above this are two rhombi, with buttons, to the
left and right of the central rhombus below. Above this is a row with a button in a central rhombus
parallel to the first rhombus. At this point, the pattern begins to twist slightly off-center and the but-
tons are erratically preserved. Halfway up the mummy the pattern returns to an evenly spaced
three-two design. One button is placed above the central button of the chest strip. Some of the but-
tons have sunken below the surface of the rhombi.
Across the base (ankles) of the body wrappings, above the footcase, is a horizontal row of five
stucco buttons, each attached to a cartonnage square. These buttons and cartonnage squares, simi-
lar to those used to form the chest strip and body decorations, were painted red. Each button was
gilded. There must be a loss of buttons at the right end of this strip because the strip does not extend
to the end of the right side of the mummy.
For the entire length of the mummy horizontal bandages cross over the top of the rhombic ban-
dages, wrap around the back sheet, and cross above and below the chest strip. At about the mid-
point of the length of the mummy is a dark brown bandage that crosses diagonally over the rhombic
wrappings and back sheet.
Around the back of the mummy and halfway up the sides is a plain sheet of linen. This sheet is
molded around the shoulders and back of the head of the mummy and also covers the lower half of
the underside of the footcase.

CHEST S TRIP
Across the chest is an interrupted horizontal line of three stucco buttons, each attached to a square
of cartonnage. There are two buttons on the right side. The third button is directly in the middle.
There are probably a number of buttons missing from what would have formed a single row (or
chest strip) similar to the band at the base of the mummy (above the ankles). The buttons are ap-
proximately one-half inch in diameter. The buttons and cartonnage squares were painted red. Each
button was gilded. Under and above this group of buttons are horizontal ties that cross over the
rhombic wrappings and back sheet.

PORTRAIT ,AND FRAME

At the head, the bandages are overlaid (approximately four layers deep) to form an octagonal
frame around the portrait panel.
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 10

ILLUSTRATION
Plate 10

PRESENT LOCATION
Collection: Graeco-Roman Museum
Inventory Number: 7311
City: Alexandria

PROVENIENCE
None listed in museum records. Probably Hawara on the basis of the octagonal frame. The exhibit
label that reads "Mummy of a Roman soldier with encaustic painting. 2nd c. A.D. Found by Petrie
in Fayoum" was probably printed for Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 11, which was on exhibit prior
to this.

DATE OF PORTRAIT
"Judging by the style [of the portrait], it is datable to the late Antonine period" (ca. A.D. 180)
(Parlasca 1977, p. 61).

DATE OF BODY WRAPPING

The first quarter of the second century A.D. (gilt buttons, footcase)

MALE OR FEMALE
Male ("A Syrian," according to the museum records)

MEASUREMENTS
Body Height: 64.25 inches (1.74 m, museum records)
Width: 16.875 inches (across shoulders)
Depth: 11.50 inches
Portrait Y/N?: Yes
Length: 13.00 inches
Width: 7.50 inches
Portrait Frame Y/N?: No
Width: N/A

RHOMBI
*Layers in Rhombic Pattern: 6 plus 1 cross
Length of Rhombi: 4.00 inches
Width of Rhombi: 7.00 inches
Width of Bandages: 0.50 inch

*Number of Layers of Linen Bandages in Rhombic Pattern

117
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118 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

CHEST S TRIP
Y/N?: Yes, modified
Width: 1.625 inch

INLAID STONES
Y/N?: No
Diameter: N/A

GILT BUTTONS
Y/N?: Yes
Diameter: 0.50 inch

FOOTCASE
Y/N?: Yes, but fragmentary, thus dimensions not available
Underside Height: Fragmentary
Width: Fragmentary
Front Edge Height: Missing

DIAMETER OF ROSETTE/WADJET-EYE
Missing

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF BOUND FIGURES

Height: Missing
Width: Missing

LENGTH/WIDTH OF CARTONNAGE FEET

Length: Missing
Width: Missing

INSCRIPTION
Y/N?: No
Location of Inscription: N/A
Demotic/Greek: N/A
Text: N/A

DESCRIPTION OF RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 10

REFERENCES FOR DESCRIPTION
Parlasca 1977, p. 61, pl. 91/2
Personal observation by author, 1984-85

FOOT COVER
The footcase, an added element that is separate from the mummy wrappings and made of thin car-
tonnage that was gessoed and painted, is destroyed except for two fragments in place at the top and
another fragment at the back of the right side. The loss of the footcase exposes the mummified toes
of the body and reveals the haphazard technique for wrapping the feet. The feet were swathed in
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 10 119

coarse linen bandages. A base of mud, straw, and linen bandages was built up around the feet to
accommodate the cartonnage footcase (cf. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 1).
The fragments at the top of the footcase are painted gold, pink, and red. From the larger frag-
ment at right, the feet on the upper side of the footcase appear to have been modeled in three-di-
mensional stucco. They were painted a pink flesh color and wore modeled sandals that were gilt.
The fragment at the back of the right side of the footcase is painted in three-eighths inch verti-
cal stripes. The stripes are white, dark green(?), and white and are outlined in black.
The plain cloths that wrap around the back and sides of the mummy are also wrapped around
the bottom half of the underside of the feet. Nothing, however, remains of the underside of the
footcase.

BODY COVERING
The body of the mummy is carefully wrapped in layers of linen bandages arranged overall in a di-
amond or rhombic pattern. The depth of the layers of these rhombi varies from five to seven layers
deep with one additional cross over the top layer. The bandages are all plain in color, although they
are darkened and discolored overall.
The wrappings form approximately twenty horizontal rows of diamond or rhombic shapes
across the body field and form a trapezoid at each shoulder. At the base of these rhombic shapes,
and within each of the trapezoids at the shoulders, was inserted a stucco button attached to a flat
piece of cartonnage. These buttons and cartonnage squares, similar to those used to form the chest
strip (described below), were painted red. Each button was gilded. The buttons are one-half inch in
diameter. Most of the buttons have sunk well below the surface level of the wrappings.
There is a pattern to the arrangement of the buttons (and therefore to the rhombic pattern it-
self). Beginning at the top of the footcase, there is a triangle placed squarely in the middle of the
mummy, above which is a rhombic shape within which is a button. Above this is a row with a
rhombus to each side of the one below, each with a button in the center. Above this is a row with a
rhombus above the first one with a button within. Above this row is a row with rhombi (and but-
tons) parallel to the second row. After that is a row with a rhombus (with button) parallel to that in
the first and third rows, but with a button also added to the rhombus at each side of that. The pattern
is therefore one button across, then two, then one, then two, then three, then two, then three, etc. At
about the middle of the mummy, however, the horizontal pattern begins to twist slightly off-center.
The mummy was therefore probably wrapped from the bottom up.
That the mummy was wrapped beginning at the feet is supported by the numerous bandages
which held the footcase in place and form multiple layers of horizontal and diagonal bandages at
the base of the footcase. These bandages seem to originate at the base then continue upward to
form part of the rhombic pattern.
Around the back of the mummy and covering the sides is a plain sheet of linen. This cloth is
molded up around the shoulders and head of the mummy to cover all but the octagonal frame.
Slightly off to the right of center at the top of the head a line of stitching indicates where two pieces
of cloth were attached together. The cloth and wrappings would also have covered the bottom half
of the underside of the footcase (although this section of the footcase is no longer extant).

CHEST S TRIP
Across the middle of the chest, just below the bottom layer of bandages of the portrait frame, is a
six inch row of six stucco buttons, each attached to a separate square of cartonnage. The buttons
are one-half inch in diameter. The buttons and cartonnage squares were painted red. Each button
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120 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

was gilded. This group of buttons is loosely inserted underneath the linen wrappings. The row of
buttons probably did not originally extend to the shoulders.

PORTRAIT AND FRAME

At the head, the bandages are overlaid (in eight layers) to form an octagonal frame around the
portrait panel. The bandages at the top of the frame are darkened (cf. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy
No. 4).
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 11

ILLUSTRATION
Plate 11

PRESENT LOCATION
Collection: Graeco-Roman Museum
Inventory Number: 7312
City: Alexandria

PROVENIENCE
[Er-]Rubayyat, according to museum records. According to Parlasca (1977, p. 59), however, it is
probably to be assigned to Hawara (because it is said to be from an excavation of Petrie who never
worked at er-Rubayyat and because of the horseshoe-shaped frame).

DATE OF PORTRAIT
"The style of the portrait suggests a date in the middle of the 3rd c., nevertheless, horseshoe-shaped
frames are no longer documented at Hawara after the 2nd c. Therefore, this must probably be a
rather summary work from the middle of the 2nd c." (Parlasca 1977, p. 59) (ca. A.D. 150).

DATE OF BODY WRAPPING

First quarter of the second century A.D. (careful tight deep colored rhombi, portrait frame, gilt but-
tons, footcase)

MALE OR FEMALE
Male

MEASUREMENTS
Body Height: 58.50 inches (1.52 m, museum records)
Width: 14.00 inches
Depth: 10.75 inches
Portrait Y/N?: Yes
Length: 10.25 inches
Width: 5.75 inches plus 1.25 on each side under frame
Portrait Frame Y/N?: Yes
Width: 1.25 inches

121
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122 122"'CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

RHOMBI
*aesin Rhombic Pattern: 4 plus 1 cross
Length of Rhombi: 2.75 inches
Width of Rhombi: 4.00 inches
Width of Bandages: 0.50 inch

CHEST STRIP
YIN?: Yes
Width: 1.25 inches

INLAID STONES
YIN?: No
Diameter: N/A

GILT BUTTONS
YIN?: Yes
Diameter: 0.375 inch

FOOTCASE
YIN?: Yes
Underside Height: 11.75 inches
Width: 8.75 inches
Front Edge Height: Approximately 4.00 inches

DIAMETER OF ROSETFE/WADJET-EYE
2.00 inches

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF BOUND FIGURES

Height: Approximately 5.00 inches
Width: Approximately 2.00 inches

LENGTH/WIDTH OF CARTON AGE FEET

Length: 4.00 inches
Width: 3.50 inches

INSCRIPTION
YIN?: No
Location of Inscription: N/A
Demotic/Greek: N/A
Text: N/A

*Numilber of Layers of Linen Bandages in Rhombic Pattern

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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 11 123

DESCRIPTION OF RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO. 11

REFERENCES FOR DESCRIPTION
Parlasca 1977, p. 59, pl. 88/4
Personal observation by author, 1984-85

FOOT COVER
The footcase was an added element, separate from the mummy wrappings. It is cracked and broken
but intact overall. It was made of gessoed and painted linen cartonnage. The linen cloth that covers
the back and sides of the mummy was also wrapped around the bottom half of the underside of the
footcase. This cloth wrapping conceals the lower half of the painted scene which decorates the un-
derside of the footcase.
The feet are modeled on the upper side of the footcase in three-dimensional relief. The stucco
modeling of the feet, however, is cracked and suffers loss. Those toes which are extant are painted
a pinkish flesh color. It is not possible to discern the outline of sandals.
The deceased appears to be standing on a red disc which represents the upper side of the soles
of sandals. The red disc is surrounded by a checkerboard pattern that fills in the remaining area of
the top of the footcase. The colors of the footcase are faded an overall reddish-brown.
Along the sides of the footcase is a metope-like band. The broad (three-eighths of an inch)
vertical stripes, outlined in black, are a faded bluish-green with a white background. Near the front
of each side of the footcase is a two inch square rosette. The rosette, on a light blue background,
has red petals and a green center.
Along the front edge is a continuation of the vertical-striped band found along the sides. In the
middle of the front edge of the footcase is a lotus flower with a small bud at each side. The ele-
ment, on a white background, is two inches square. The base of the flower and buds is pink; the
petals of the lotus are green. Although the area is damaged, there appear to be traces of a green
wadjet-eye near the left corner of the front edge.
The underside of the footcase depicts the scene of bound figures. The lower half of the footcase
is obscured by the plain linen cloth and bandages that wrap around the back and sides of the
mummy. It is not, therefore, possible to tell the exact manner (perhaps a second set of figures, see
The "Bound Prisoner"Motif, p. 53, fn. 18) in which the scene continued beneath these wrappings.
There is a line across the middle of the footcase that divides it in half just above the top of the
cloth. Above this line are two complete images of bound figures. The figures are shown clothed and
in profile facing inward. The figure on the right is painted a reddish pink. He wears stepped shoul-
der-length black hair and a long full-face beard. The figure holds his arms before him with elbows
touching and hands pointed out to each side. The arms are bound across the shoulders and at the el-
bows. The figure is clothed in a draped kilt of dark blue, but his legs are exposed. His left leg is
bent up at the knee and his foot is tied to his left hand. His right leg is bent at the knee before him.
His right leg is tied at the knee to the ankle of his left leg; the ankle of his right leg is tied to the
knee of his left leg.
The figure on the left is worn and faded. The body is painted a pinkish flesh color. He wears
stepped chin-length black hair and a full-face pointed beard (a "Syrian?," cf. Rhombic-wrapped
Mummy No. 9). This figure appears to be naked except for a sash that falls from his left shoulder to
just above his right hip. He holds his right arm at his side, crooked at the elbow, hand to chest. It is
not possible to discern the position of his left arm. The figure is in a crouching position similar to his
counterpart. His right leg is bent up at the knee and his foot is tied to his right thigh. His left leg is
bent at the knee before him. His left leg is tied at the ankle to the knee of his right leg.
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124 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

The two bound figures are placed within a geometric setting. They are on a white rectangular
background edged in black lines. At the outer edges of the scene is a metope border of blocks that
alternate three thin vertical stripes with one square block. The squares alternate in color, blue then
red. Above the figures is a blue band with corners turned slightly downward in the form of a pt
symbol, the Egyptian hieroglyphic sign for "sky," on which is a horizontal row of white "stars" with
red centers (cf. Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 2). Beneath the bound figures, acting as a ground-
line, is a faded block metope border outlined in black. The figures are separated by a vertical band.
The band, which one might expect to have contained an inscription, is light blue with a faint vine
pattern in black. The band continues beneath the groundline and indicates that the scene itself con-
tinues below. It is, however, obscured by the linen wrappings that secure the footcase in position.
For a discussion of this scene, see The "Bound Prisoner" Motif, pp. 53-55, above.

BODY COVERING
The body of the mummy is carefully wrapped in layers of linen bandages arranged overall in a di-
amond or rhombic pattern. Each rhombus is four layers deep with an additional cross over the top
layer. Colored tapes are used within the geometric designs. Each rhombus consists of a black ban-
dage for the first and third layers (cf. Rhombic-wrapped Mummies Nos. 4 and 5).
The wrappings form approximately thirty horizontal rows of diamond or rhombic shapes across
the body field and form a trapezoid at each shoulder. At the base of some of the rhombic shapes of
the body field was inserted a stucco button attached to a flat piece of cartonnage. These buttons and
cartonnage squares, similar to those of the chest strip (described below), were painted red. Each
button was gilded by the addition of a square of gold leaf. The buttons on this mummy are three-
eighths of an inch in diameter and are three-eighths of an inch high. They protrude higher above
the level of the wrappings than the buttons commonly used to decorate rhombic mummies. Several
of the top layers of bandages are broken and loose.
There is a pattern to the arrangement of the buttons (and therefore to the rhombic pattern it-
self). Beginning at the top of the footcase, there is a triangle placed squarely in the middle of the
mummy, above which is a rhombic shape within which is a button. Above this is a row with a
rhombus to each side of the one below, each with a button in the center. Above this is a row with a
rhombus above the first one and a rhombus to each side of that, each with a button in the center.
Above this row is a row parallel to the second row. After that is a row parallel to the third row. The
pattern is therefore, one button across, then two, then three, then two, then three, etc. At about the
middle of the mummy, the horizontal pattern begins to twist slightly off-center to the right. The
mummy was therefore probably wrapped from the bottom up.
That the mummy was wrapped from the bottom up is supported by the numerous bandages
which hold the footcase in place and form multiple layers of horizontal and diagonal bandages at
the base above the footcase. These bandages seem to originate at the base and then continue up-
ward to form part of the rhombic pattern.
Around the back of the mummy and covering the sides is a plain sheet of linen. This cloth is
molded up around the shoulders and the head of the wrapped mummy to cover all but the gilt
horseshoe-shaped frame around the portrait panel. This back sheet also covers the bottom half of
the underside of the footcase.
The body is long and cylindrically thin. It does not present as much of an image of the outline
of a body as many other wrapped mummies and it might contain disarticulated bones (cf. British
Museum, Inv. 13595, a rhombic-wrapped portrait mummy that was wrapped "when the body was in
an advanced state of decomposition" [Dawson and Gray 1968, p. 31]).
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RHOMBIC-WRAPPED MUMMY NO.1] 125

CHEST S TRIP
The band which runs across the chest area was made of a row of eleven stucco buttons, attached to
a twelve inch strip of cartonnage. Only three stucco buttons, slightly right of center, are now extant.
These buttons are three-eighths of an inch in diameter. The buttons and cartonnage strip were
painted red. Each button was gilded. The cartonnage chest strip is bound along the top and bottom
edges by a plain strip of linen.

PORTRAIT AND FRAME

At the head, the bandages are overlaid around the edges of the portrait panel to form an octagonal
frame. These bandages also hold in position a horseshoe-shaped frame that was attached to the sur-
face of the panel. The frame is similar to that on Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14. Edgar describes
that frame as being made of "carved bone or ivory" (although Parlasca refers to the material of
these frames as cartonnage), incised with a leaf and berry or "grapevine" pattern then gilded, a de -
scription which also fits this example.
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RED-SHROUDED MUMMIES NOS. 12-17

RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 12

ILLUSTRATION
Plate 12

PRESENT LOCATION
Collection: Egyptian Museum
Inventory Number: CG 33217
City: Cairo

PROVENIENCE
EI-Hibeh (Grenfell and Hunt excavation, 1903)

DATE OF PORTRAIT
"Last years of reign of Trajan [ca. A.D. 117]" (Parlasca 1969, p. 54)

DATE OF BODY WRAPPING

First quarter of the second century A.D.

MALE OR FEMALE
Female

MEASUREMENTS
Body Height: 60.00 inches (1.58 m [Edgar 1905a, p. 73])
Width: 15.00 inches (41.00 cm [ibid.])
Depth: Approximately 12.00 inches
Portrait Y/N?: Yes
Length: 11.00 inches
Width: 7.00 inches
Portrait Frame Y/N: A gold frame is painted directly onto the linen that surrounds por-
trait
Width: Approximately 1.00 inch

RHOMBI
N/A
CHEST STRIP
YIN?: No
Width: N/A

126
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RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 12 127

INLAID STONES
Y/N?: No
Diameter: N/A

GILT BUTTONS
Y/N?: No
Diameter: N/A

FOOTCASE
Y/N?: No
Underside Height: N/A
Width: N/A
Front Edge Height: N/A

DIAMETER OF ROSETTE/WADJET-EYE
N/A

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF BOUND FIGURES

Height: N/A
Width: N/A

LENGTH/WIDTH OF CARTONNAGE FEET

Length: N/A
Width: N/A

INSCRIPTION
Y/N?: No
Location of Inscription: N/A
Demotic/Greek: N/A
Text: N/A

DESCRIPTION OF RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 12

REFERENCES FOR DESCRIPTION

Edgar 1905a, pp. 73-74, pl. 32
Parlasca 1969, p. 54, pl. 24/3
Personal observation by author, 1984-85, 1993

FOOT COVER
Feet, painted pink, are represented above the actual wrapped feet on the bottom of the solid linen
cloth that covers the entire body field wrappings. The feet are shown wearing black and gilt sandals
with delicate black lacings embellished at the toe strap and the ankle strap with diamond-shaped
gilt appliques. Edgar describes gold "anklets," but these appear only as gilt squares. Squares of gold
have been applied to the toenails. A vertical row of large gold diamond shapes was applied be-
tween the two feet.
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128 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

BODY COVERING
The body was wrapped in linen bandages that can be discerned beneath the solid linen cloth that
completely envelops the body (they are exposed in those areas, especially along the right side and
at the right shoulder, where the cover sheet has shredded). The cover shroud is painted red overall
(this red can be seen along the side edges and about the footcase). There are large damaged areas
of shroud at the center of the left side of the body, the right shoulder area, and along the top right
edge of the body.
In a smooth transition from the portrait, the clothed figure of the deceased continues in paint,
without a plaster underlayer, for the full length of the body shroud. The woman is dressed in a dark
red chiton. Wide black clavi (which do not continue from, nor do they match in width, the clavi on
her dress in the portrait) are edged in yellow/gold. A star-like pattern in yellow/gold is painted
down the center of the clavi. A diagonally draped band, decorated with gold diamond (or star)-
shapes, marks the hem of a dark red himation and is draped across the lower half of the chiton. A
similar band edges the border of the chiton at the hem. Two narrow white bands that Edgar de-
scribes as having "gilded lozenges and fringed ends" hang down against the lower part of the chiton
from beneath the center of the bottom hem of the himation.
A claw-like right hand projects from the drapery. On it is a gold bracelet with a square green(?)
stone set in the center. There is a gold ring on the third(?) finger. In this right hand, the deceased
holds a floral wreath, painted pink and gilded. Her left hand projects from the drapery at quite a
distance beneath the right hand. There is a gold ring with a set stone on the third finger of this hand
and also a ring on the fourth finger. Edgar describes the left hand as holding "a light-colored bunch
of stalks with some gilding." These "stalks" are sheaves of wheat (symbols of the vegetation aspect
of Isis/Renenutet) that are also held by the women depicted on Red-shrouded Mummy No. 13 and
Stucco Mummy No. 19.
The details of the body field are difficult to discern because of the thick layer of dust that now
obscures them. However, Edgar's photograph confirms a striking similarity in the treatment of the
body fields (especially the unnatural length of the women's arms) between this portrait mummy
and the red-shrouded portrait mummy in the Stiftung Niedersachsen in Hannover on loan to the
Pelizaeus Museum, Hildesheim (see table 2, Other Red-shrouded Mummies, No. 16). This
similarity, in addition to the liberal use of appliqueed gilt squares, suggests an el-Hibeh
provenience for the Hannover mummy (cf. Fitzwilliam Museum, Inv. E. 63.1903; table 2, Red-
shrouded Mummies [Portraits Published by Parlasca], No. 14).

PORTRAIT AND FRAME

To expose the portrait, the linen cover shroud was folded back ("doubled-over," according to
Edgar) to form an oval opening. The edge of the linen surrounding the portrait is gilt as if it were a
frame. This gilding might have been considered a complement to the gilding that was applied to the
background of the portrait itself. In the center of a gilt wreath, applied directly to the portrait, is a
geometric design that may represent modified maat- feathers.
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RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 13

ILLUSTRATION
Plate 13

PRESENT LOCATION
Collection: Egyptian Museum
Inventory Number: CG 33218
City: Cairo

PROVENIENCE
Fayoum (Edgar 1905a, p. 74)

DATE OF PORTRAIT
"Last years of Trajan [ca. A.D. 117]" (Parlasca 1969, p. 62)

DATE OF BODY WRAPPING

First quarter of the second century A.D.

MALE OR FEMALE
Female

MEASUREMENTS
Body Height: 70.00 inches (1.78 m [Edgar 1905a, p. 74])
Width: 19.00 inches (47.00 cm [ibid.])
Depth: Approximately 12.00 inches
Portrait Y/N?: Yes
Length: 16.00 inches
Width: 10.00 inches
Portrait Frame Y/N: 1%
Width: N/A

RHOMBI
N/A

CHEST S TRIP
Y/N?: No
Width: N/A

INLAID STONES
YIN?: No
Diameter: N/A

-129
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130 0CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

GILT BUTTONS
Y/N?: No
Diameter: N/A

FOOTCASE
Y/N?: No
Underside Height: N/A
Width: N/A
Front Edge Height: N/A

DIAMETER OF ROSETTE/WADJET-EYE
N/A

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF BOUND FIGURES

Height: N/A
Width: N/A

LENGTH/WIDTH OF CARTONNAGE FEET

Length: N/A
Width: N/A

INSCRIPTION
Y/N?: No
Location of Inscription: N/A
Demotic/Greek: N/A
Text: N/A

DESCRIPTION OF RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 13

REFERENCES FOR DESCRIPTION
Edgar 1905a, p. 74, pl. 33
Parlasca 1969, pp. 61-62, pl. 30/5
Personal observation by author, 1984-85, 1993

FOOT COVER
Feet, painted pink, are depicted on a gray background at the bottom of the wrappings at the location
of the actual feet. On the painted feet are depicted the tops of delicate laced black sandals.

BODY COVERING
Edgar describes the body as being "covered with sheets of cloth glued together," or as he notes,
perhaps "sewed" together that would have been similar to the manner in which the linen shrouds of
Stucco Mummies Nos. 20 and 21 were attached. Although the linen that covers the front of the
mummy appears to be one large piece, it might be joined along the undersides to another large
piece from the back. As the mummy is exhibited horizontally, lying on its back, it was not possible
to verify this configuration.
In areas of the body field where there are holes in the shroud (particularly along the upper half
of the right-hand side of the body), coarse linen ties (Edgar calls them "tape bandages"), approxi-
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RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 13 131

mately one and one-quarter inches in width, are visible underneath the top layer (cf. Red-shrouded
Mummy No. 12). On the tapes that are exposed are traces of dark resin (cf. Red-shrouded Mummy
No. 14). For an entire mummy encased in resin, see Red-shrouded Mummy No. 17. These tape
bandages crisscross horizontally and diagonally for the entfire length of the mummy as they are no-
ticeable beneath the full length of the painted shroud.
The clothed body of the deceased, in a smooth transition from the panel portrait, is continued in
paint over a red undercoating for the length of the wrapped mummy. As Edgar noted, the tempera
paint is badly faded and appears to be covered with a gray film that makes all the details difficult
to discern (cf. Red-shrouded Mummy No. 12). The woman wears a dark red chiton with black clavi
(Edgar describes it as "purple with black stripes?"). From the elbow down, her exposed right arm
projects from her drapery and is crooked at the elbow. In her right hand, the index finger of which
is extended, she holds something that Edgar describes as "wreath?" Although the object is indis-
tinct, it is painted the pink color associated with floral wreaths, and as one expects to find this ob-
ject held in this way, the suggestion is undoubtedly correct. The left hand, fingers extended, is visi-
ble through the folds of the drapery. Edgar describes the left hand as holding "a bunch of stalks"
(cf. Red-shrouded Mummy No. 12 and Stucco Mummy No. 19), but these are no longer discernible.
The bracelets that Edgar describes as "indistinct" are indeed so.

PORTRAIT AND FRAME

To expose the portrait, the linen cover shroud was folded under ("doubled-over," according to
Edgar) to form an oval opening. At the back of the head, the painted top layer is neatly folded
(similar to the side of a package). A coarser weave linen, unpainted, is visible underneath the top,
painted, layer of linen where the folds of this top layer do not completely overlap.
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RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 14

ILLUSTRATIONS
Plate 14, figures 3-8

PRESENT LOCATION
Collection: Egyptian Museum
Inventory Number: CG 33219
City: Cairo

PROVENIENCE
Unknown. "On account of the frame in the shape of a horseshoe its provenience is probably
Hawara, from which site come all other examples of this type for which the provenience is known"
(Parlasca 1970, p. 71).

DATE OF PORTRAIT
"Last years of the reign of Trajan or the first years of the reign of Hadrian [ca. A.D. 115-120]"
(Parlasca 1970, p. 71)

DATE OF BODY WRAPPING

First quarter of the second century A.D.

MALE OR FEMALE
Male

MEASUREMENTS
Body Height: 69.50 inches (1.80 m [Edgar 1905a, p. 75])
Width: 17.00 inches (45.00 cm [ibid.])
Depth: 9.50 inches
Portrait Y/N?: Yes
Length: 9.00 inches
Width: 6.75 inches
Portrait Frame Y/N: Yes
Width: 0.625 inches

RHOMBI
N/A

CHEST S TRIP
Y/N?: Yes, simulated by a single gold stripe
Width: 0.625 inches

132
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RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 14 133

INLAID STONES
Y/N?: No
Diameter: N/A

GILT BUTTONS
Y/N?: No
Diameter: N/A

FOOTCASE
Y/N?: Yes
Underside Height: 9.00 inches
Width: 9.00 inches
Front Edge Height: 4.50 inches

DIAMETER OF ROSETTE/WADJET-EYE
1.50 inches

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF BOUND FIGURES

Height: Not available
Width: Not available

LENGTH/WIDTH OF CARTONNAGE FEET

Length: 5.50 inches
Width: 3.50 inches

INSCRIPTION
Y/N?: No
Location of Inscription: N/A
Demotic/Greek: N/A
Text: N/A

DESCRIPTION OF RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 14

REFERENCES FOR DESCRIPTION
Edgar 1905a, pp. 75-78, pl. 33
Parlasca 1970, p. 71, pl. 39/3
Personal observation by author, 1984-85, 1993

FOOT COVER
The footcase was an added element. It is made of thin plaster over coarse linen. On the upper side
of the footcase, feet are modeled in relief and are gilt. They wear plain black sandals that are rep-
resented by two bisecting lines.
The footcase is covered with a layer of dust that obscures the painted details which are barely
visible on the left side. The deceased appears to be standing on a red disc, which represents the un-
derside of the soles of the sandals. A checkerboard pattern in black, white, and pink surrounds the
red disc and fills the remaining area of the top of the footcase. This basketry pattern is edged by a
white strip.
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134 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

The footcase was torn at the front right corner suffering some loss. Coarse linen wrappings that
covered the mummified feet are visible where the casing is broken open. Along both sides of the
footcase-although the left side is badly faded and obscured by dust-is a border of vertical stripes
in pink, blue/green, and white. Down the center of each pink and blue/green stripe is a white verti-
cal line. Between the stripes, two large decorative elements are visible along the right side: a
rosette at the front, which is sketchily rendered as a pink circle outlined in black with four intersect-
ing black lines that form a star pattern within, and a pink diamond or lozenge-shape within a green
square behind the rosette. Within the lozenge-shapes is a floral-like pattern of four "petals" radiat-
ing from a central circle. At the center of the front edge of the footcase, on a white background, is a
large pink and blue lotus flower with a pink bud at each side. To each side of this central design is a
green wadjet-eye (Edgar's "mystic eye") on a pink background. For these designs on the footcase,
see Amuletic Designs, pp. 51-52, above.
Since the mummy was exhibited upright, it was not possible to examine or measure the design
painted on the underside of the footcase that would be expected to depict, as indeed described by
Edgar, the scene of bound figures. Edgar describes the two figures as "two bearded Syrian cap-
tives." According to Edgar, their flesh is light red and their hair is pale. The background is yellow.
The figures are separated by a pair of black lines having a tendril pattern in the center. There is a
blue band at the top (the sky border). At the outer edges of the scene is a block metope border. For
a discussion of this scene, see The "Bound Prisoner" Motif, pp. 53-55, above.

BODY COVERING
The body was wrapped in layers of coarse plain linen that are visible where the top layer of cloth is
peeling back along the right side of the head and along the sides of the body, especially along the
left side. At the sides of the body wrapping is painted a mesh pattern composed of alternating rows
of blue and yellow zigzag lines with "white dots at the apices," according to Edgar. The pattern was
meant to simulate a beadwork cover that was used to cover wrapped mummies from the Twenty-
fifth Dynasty onward (see Taylor 1988, p. 175).
A sheet of linen covers the front of the wrapped body and is painted red. There is a two inch
triangular shaped piece of cloth lost from the area of the lowered wing of Nephthys (Register Six)
beneath which can be seen linen cloths that are covered with shiny resin (cf. Red-shrouded
Mummy No. 13). For an entire mummy encased in resin, see Red-shrouded Mummy No. 17.
The body covering is divided into six horizontal registers. The figures of the mythological
scenes depicted in these registers are outlined in black and painted in tempera. The colors are pre -
dominantly white, light blue, hot pink, and yellow on a red background. Details that were rendered
in white paint are now especially difficult to see. Although the body field is treated overall in a
manner similar to that of Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15, the scenes were not painted by the same
artist. The figures of this mummy are more elegantly rendered. The body proportions of figures are
more naturalistic and more sensitively modeled and interior details are more elaborate.
The registers are divided by a horizontal band at the top and at the bottom. The upper band is
blue with white cross-lined stars and forms the "sky" of a register. The bottom band is yellow with
a "metope," according to Edgar, pattern of large rectangles separated by black vertical lines that
form the bottom of a register. The figures of each register stand on a separate black groundline.

REGISTER ONE (Fig. 3)

Just above the footcase is a strip of linen that appears to have been gessoed, but left unpainted.
Above this are two rows of alternating yellow and black zigzag lines with white dots at the apices
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RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 14 135

that simulate beadwork patterning similar to that depicted along the sides of the shroud (described
above).
1 7S 77V r711;:Z7 -,K--/AV K Z-7IS

i K'

Figure 3. Detail of Register One, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14

Register One is seven and one-half inches in length. It depicts a procession of standard bearers.
Two standing male figures at right face inward to meet two standing male figures at left, also fac-
ing inward. The actual configuration, however, might be two rows of two standard bearers facing
forward. The flesh of the figures is painted yellow and they each wear a short blue skull cap or wig
tied with a white fillet with loose ends. The figures wear a white sheath garment that is bisected
vertically and falls in diagonal folds to each side. Each of the first two men (the inner two) holds,
erect before him, a black pole atop which is a standard of a standing jackal in profile (perhaps the
Wepwawets of the North and South). Each of the second two men (the outer two) holds before him
a pole with a standard. The standard on the left is a hawk in profile. The standard on the right is an
ibis drawn in profile with a white body, black head, and legs.

REGISTER Two (Fig. 4)

Register Two is seven and one-half inches in length. The scene depicted is the mythical journey to
Abydos in which the mummy of the deceased is ferried in a boat. The high prow and stem of the
boat are each in the form of a papyrus umbel on an upright yellow stem. Atop each of the blossoms
is a falcon in profile facing inward. The falcon at the stern of the boat wears the red crown, al-
though Edgar describes the crown as "indistinct." Just under the high prow and stern of the boat are
blue areas representing water.
It is certainly the jackal-headed Anubis ("Anubis [?]," according to Edgar) who, facing forward
(cf. Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15, Register Two), guides the boat at the prow by working a punt-
ing-pole so that the lower end of the pole is placed before him. Anubis wears a white upper gar-
ment and a knee-length kilt. Atop his shoulder-length yellow wig is the red crown, painted blue. At
the stern of the boat, facing forward, stands the falcon-headed Horus. His head is white with black
markings and his flesh is blue/black. Atop his yellow wig is a yellow disc. Horus wears a white, an-
kle-length garment. He holds two yellow oars, one in each hand, erect before him. Each oar is sur-
mounted by a falcon head wearing a wig atop which is a yellow disc.
At the center of the boat is a yellow shrine or kiosk. The kiosk has an open front door above
which is a triple cornice with winged sun discs at their centers and a curved roof. The base of the
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136 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

kiosk is blue with a row of white dots between two white lines. Within the kiosk is a wrapped
mummy (Osiris or the deceased?), painted yellow, standing in profile facing forward. The mummy
has a human face with a shaven (yellow) head. The mummy carries a was-scepter in clenched
hands which project from the bandages at his chest. The lower half of the mummy is obscured by
drapery with diagonal fold lines that covers the opening of the kiosk. For a discussion of this scene,
see The UnderworldDoor, pp. 52-53, above.

Figure 4. Detail of Register Two, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14

At each side of the kiosk stands a goddess with flesh painted yellow: Isis at the stem and
Nephthys at the prow. Each wears her unique hieroglyphic headdress, painted yellow, and an an-
kle-length white sheath. In her lowered, near hand each goddess holds "an erect white rod, the end
of which curves over top of shrine," according to Edgar. The far arm of each goddess is raised,
crooked at the elbow either, as Edgar suggests, "in adoration," or to steady the rod.

REGISTER THREE (Fig. 5)

Register Three is seven inches in length. It depicts the jackal-headed Anubis (or jackal-masked
priest as Anubis) who stands, facing left, behind a lion bier, lustrating a wrapped mummy lying on
the bier. The Anubis figure wears a shoulder-length white wig, atop which is a yellow disc, and an
ankle-length white sheath that falls from just above the waist. His flesh is black. In his far hand he
raises a white cup-shaped vessel. His near hand rests on the body of the mummy. The mummy,
depicted as wrapped in yellow rhombic-wrapped bandages (Edgar's "yellow with black markings")
that are not depicted as cross-hatchingsrbut rather as multiple layers of V-shaped diagonal lines,
has the profile face of a three-dimensional (cartonnage) funerary mask.
The mummy is lying on a bed that has the yellow head of a lion (wearing a blue shoulder -
length wig atop which is a blue double-plumed yellow disc crown with a T-shaped base), a yellow
lion's tail at the foot, and yellow lion's legs. The tail of the lion curls upward in a semicircle and its
tip touches the toes of the feet of the mummy on the bier. The platform of the bed is blue with a
row of white dots that simulates a pt symbol, the Egyptian hieroglyphic sign for "sky." The front
and back paws of the lion's legs rest on blue cup-shaped supports. Underneath the bier are four
blue flowerpot-shaped vessels that represent canopic jars.
At the head of the lion bed, facing inward toward the bier, stands the goddess Nephthys. Her
flesh is yellow. She wears a blue shoulder-length wig and an ankle-length white sheath garment.
Atop her head is her unique, identifying, hieroglyphic headdress in yellow. At the foot of the lion
bier stands Isis, who is clothed in an identical way but wears her unique headdress. Each goddess
holds a blue cup-shaped vessel (which resembles Gardiner Sign List R 7, a bowl for incense) in an
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RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 14 137

upraised near hand, and in the lowered far hand each holds an end of what appears to be a fringed
white cloth (Edgar's "long white arc"), which is stretched above the head of Anubis and the lion
bier. For a discussion of this scene, see HistoricalBackground to the Cultic Use of Red Wrappings,
pp. 57-58, above.
I 1
~izzzzz- k Tkr-k- 7
k

Figure 5. Detail of Register Three, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14

REGISTER FOUR (Fig. 6)

The fourth register is seven and one-half inches in length and depicts the judgment scene of the
weighing of the heart. In the center of the register is a large scale, which is supported by a central
column in the same design as the base of the offering tables in the register above (calyx-topped
column) and rests on a "lung-shaped" base (Edgar's "heart-shaped base"). At the top of the scale is
a seated baboon, facing left in profile, an image of the god Thoth (Edgar describes this as "a small
indistinct figure"). Each of the white semicircular weighing pans is empty. Each pan is attached to
an end of the lotus-tipped beam by three white strings.

Figure 6. Detail of Register Four, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14

At the left-hand pan stands the jackal-headed Anubis, facing outward. He holds a string of the
pan with his lowered far hand and gestures, behind him, toward the balance beam with an upraised
near hand. His flesh is blue/black. He wears a shoulder-length yellow wig with black stripes and an
above-the-knee, white sheath. At the left stands the hawk-headed Horus, facing outward, who
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138 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

holds a string of the pan with his lowered far hand and gestures, behind him, toward the beam with
his upraised near hand. Atop his head is a yellow disc with a white uraeus (as on the falcon-headed
ends of the broad collar in Register Six, and on the figure of Sokar-Re in Register Five). Horus'
face is white with black markings; his flesh is blue. He wears a blue wig with white stripes. His
garment is white above the waist, the lower part being a vertically striped kilt with a diagonally cut
blue sash at the waist.
To the right, facing inward toward Horus, is an ibis-headed Thoth. Thoth wears a yellow shoul -
der-length wig with black vertical stripes, a double-plumed atef-crown (Edgar's "tall cap and
plumes") and a white sheath. His head is black and his flesh is blue. In his upraised near hand he
holds a black pen with a sharp tip (Edgar's "arrow or pen") and in his lowered hand he holds a pa-
pyrus roll (Edgar's "white roll") in order to record the results of the test.
At the far left, facing inward toward Anubis, is a standing mummiform figure. The mummy has
a human face in profile, painted yellow, with a blue shoulder-length wig. The body is wrapped in
yellow [bandages] without cross-hatching but with an elaborate design (broad collar?) at the shoul-
der. A piece of blue cloth hangs from the chest. It is knotted at top and falls down the length of the
front of the mummiform figure (Edgar's "blue flap"). The mummy is, as Edgar describes, "of ordi-
nary type," which is to say that it is typical for Roman period representations of the mummiform
sons of Horus but may here represent the deceased awaiting the result of his judgment.

REGISTER FIVE (Fig. 7)

Register Five is seven and one-half inches in length (from the blue or "sky" band to the bottom of
the yellow metope band). The scene depicts the lustration of the deceased by the gods Horus and
Thoth. In the center stands a male figure with shaven (yellow) head whose arms fall slightly away
from his body. Only the black drapery lines of a [shendot]-kilt and a broad collar are visible. He is
flanked by Thoth, on the left, wearing a double-plumed atef-crown on a T-shaped platform ("tall
cap and plumes," according to Edgar), and Horus, on the right, who wears the pshent or double

Figure 7. Detail of Register Five, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14

crown (the red crown, painted blue, is clearly visible, but the white crown, painted yellow, is much
smaller). The gods have blue flesh and wear shendot-kilts and perhaps an upper torso garment.
They are identifiable by the beaks of their profiles although Edgar states that "the heads of both are
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RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 14 139

obliterated." Each deity raises his arms above his head to pour water over the deceased. Elongated
vessels, painted white, are barely visible, and only one stream of water, rendered as a white zigzag
line ending in an ankh-symbol, is clearly visible to the right of the central figure.
At the right end of the scene is a seated figure of Osiris. He wears a sheath of yellow with a
carefully drawn beadwork pattern ("black scale pattern," according to Edgar). He holds to his
chest, in his crossed clenched hands that project from the drapery, a white crook and flail. He is
seated on a blue box-like throne that has a pink square with a black star (the star represents the
sma-tawy motif customarily found on thrones at this location). The throne has a blue looped back.
The throne is on a rectangular blue pedestal or plinth decorated with a running pattern of white flo-
ral (lotus and papyrus?) buds. In front of Osiris is an offering table ("the leg is in the form of a col-
umn with calyx capital, with [blue] lotus flower and [white] bud on each side," according to Edgar).
The table supports a yellow hs-vase (Edgar's "tall vessel") and four loaves of bread (Edgar's
"round objects") at the back. Other objects at the front of the table are illegible but might be four
additional bread loaves.
At the left end of the scene is a complementary image (see Repertoire of Representational
Scenes, p. 55, above) of the god Sokar-Re (Edgar's "hawk-headed Sokaris"). He is seated on a
throne of identical design and also has an offering table before him. He holds a crook across his far
shoulder and a flail across his near shoulder. He wears a beaded yellow sheath garment identical to
that of Osiris. Atop his head is a yellow disc with white uraeus. For a discussion of this scene, see
The "Baptism" of Pharaoh, pp. 59-60, above.

REGISTER Six (Fig. 8)

The top register has no "sky" border but appears directly below the gilt strip that simulates a chest
band. Register Six is six and one-half inches in length (including the bottom metope band). The
central design is a broad collar of gold composed of various elements-lotus flowers, tear-drop
shapes, triangles, and circles-that are painted blue, green, or pink. The ends of the collar are each
decorated with the profile head of a Horus falcon wearing a yellow disc with uraeus curled about it.
The falcon heads of Horus are both painted white and each wears a black wig with white stripes.

Figure 8. Detail of Register Six, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14

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140 40CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

Within the inner curve, created by the line of the necklace, is a seated figure of the goddess Maat
wearing the "feather of truth" on her head and carrying an ankh in her hand. Edgar describes the
goddess as "a small mummy-figure ... seated to right, holding something above knee; wears blue
plume on head." A curved white line above the inner curve of the necklace cuts through the head of
the goddess.
On the groundline of the register, at the left and right comers created by the outer curve of the
collar, are standing figures of the goddesses Nephthys and Isis, respectively. The goddesses are
identified by their hieroglyphic headdresses. Each wears a pleated white ankle-length garment that
exposes a rounded breast, a broad collar, and bracelets. Each is winged, although only the lowered
near arm is shown with a wing. The wings are in three parts, alternating blue/black, hot pink,
blue/black, and gold. Each winged arm is lowered so that the curve of the lowered wing fills the
space left open by the outer curve of the broad collar necklace. In her winged hand, each goddess
holds a maat-feather and an unidentifiable white object that is pointed toward the ground. Each in-
ner arm is raised and crooked at the elbow.

CHEST S TRIP
A five-eighths of an inch wide gold band is painted across the upper chest area of the body wrap-
ping to simulate a chest strip.

PORTRAIT AND FRAME

Two layers of linen were molded over the headpiece and folded under at the edges to form an ir-
regularly shaped oval opening for the portrait. The opening (with squared bottom comers) resem-
bles the octagonal linen frames around the portraits of rhombic-wrapped mummies from Hawara.
An additional cloth was applied to cover the bandages around the headpiece.
Attached directly to the portrait surface is an arched frame "of carved bone or ivory," according
to Edgar (the material is described by Parlasca as cartonnage). It is incised with a leaf and berry
(grape?) cluster ("vine spray," according to Edgar) pattern and is gilt. The left end of the frame,
cut to a diagonal, extends to the edge of the portrait opening; the right end is also cut at a diagonal
but stops at the top of the right shoulder line of the portrait.
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RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 15

ILLUSTRATIONS
Plate 15, figures 9-15

PRESENT LOCATION
Collection: Egyptian Museum
Inventory Number: CG 33220
City: Cairo

PROVENIENCE
Unknown

DATE OF PORTRAIT
"On account of its stylistic motifs, the portrait must belong to the late Antonine period, more or less
toward A.D. 175" (Parlasca 1970, p. 59).

DATE OF BODY WRAPPING

First quarter of the second century A.D. Although Parlasca dates this to fifty years later than Red-
shrouded Mummy No. 14, Edgar (1905a, p. 78) describes it as being the "same type as no. 33219"
[Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14].

MALE OR FEMALE
Male

MEASUREMENTS
Body Height: 68.50 inches (1.75 m [Edgar 1905a, p. 78])
Width: 17.00 inches (43.00 cm [ibid.])
Depth: 9.00 inches
Portrait Y/N?: Yes
Length: 10.375 inches
Width: 6.625 inches
Portrait Frame Y/N: No
Width: N/A

RHOMBI
N/A

CHEST S TRIP
Y/N?: Yes
Width: Approximately 1.50 inches

141
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142 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

INLAID STONES
Y/N?: No
Diameter: N/A

GILT BUTTONS
Y/N?: Yes
Diameter: 0.50 inch

FOOTCASE
Y/N?: Yes
Underside Height: 10.00 inches
Width: 9.00 inches
Front Edge Height: 4.00 inches

LENGTH/WIDTH OF JACKAL (ON SIDE)

1.25 and 1.50 inches

LENGTH/WIDTH OF WADJET-EYE/L OTUS (AT FRONT)

1.75 and 2.00 inches

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF BOUND FIGURES

Height: Not available
Width: Not available

LENGTH/WIDTH OF CARTONNAGE FEET

Length: Approximately 5.50 inches
Width: Approximately 3.50 inches

INSCRIPTION
Y/N?: No
Location of Inscription: N/A
Demotic/Greek: N/A
Text: N/A

DESCRIPTION OF RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 15

REFERENCES FOR DESCRIPTION
Edgar 1905a, pp. 78-81, pl. 33
Parlasca 1970, p. 59, pl. 88/3
Personal observation by author, 1984-85, 1993

FOOT COVER
The footcase was an added element. It is made of thin plaster over coarse linen. On the upper side,
feet are modeled in three-dimensional relief. Edgar describes the feet as "like those of no. 33219"
(Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14) because both the feet and the plain sandals are gilt. The feet and
toes are outlined in white paint. The deceased appears to be standing on a red disc that represents
the upper soles of his sandals, but the disc is not divided as if for two sandals. The red disc is bor-
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RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 15 143

dered by a strip of pale yellow within which is a row of black dots to simulate the stitched sides of
the soles. A checkerboard pattern of basketry in red, green, black, and white surrounds the yellow-
bordered red disc and fills in the remaining area of the top of the footcase.
Along the sides of the footcase is a "metope pattern," according to Edgar, of vertical stripes
bordered at top by a yellow strip. The right side of the footcase is badly damaged, but there are
trace remains of a jackal design toward the back. On the left side can be seen three large decora-
tive elements. Near the front edge is a pink rosette on a yellowish-green ground. The rosette is
composed of a scalloped circle within which are four intersecting black lines that bisect the circle
into eight parts. In the middle of the side edge is a black jackal figure in profile recumbent on a
yellow corniced pedestal on a white background. The jackal design is drawn vertically so that the
jackal's nose points up in the air. Edgar tentatively identifies two lines at the rear of the jackal as
"a scourge and crook over his back(?)"; this looks to be so but is difficult to confirm because the
area is so near the base. At the back of the strip is another pink rosette (badly damaged).
In the center of the front edge of the footcase is a large pink and blue lotus flower, with a pink
bud at each side, on a yellow ground. To either side of this central design is a plump green wadjet-
eye (Edgar's "mystic eye") on a pink ground. The left wadjet-eye is clearly visible. There is much
loss to the right wadjet-eye. For these designs on the footcase, see Amuletic Designs, pp. 51-52,
above.
As the mummy was exhibited upright, it was not possible to examine the underside of the foot-
case that would be expected to depict, as indeed described by Edgar, the scene of bound figures.
Edgar describes one of the two figures as "a Syrian as on no. 33219; ... light red flesh and blue hair
as on no. 33219" (Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14). He describes the second figure as "of a different
type with pink flesh and stubbly chin; arms and ankles seem to be attached to central pattern by
horizontal chains." The figures are separated by "a vertical green band with black edges." Within
the green band is a vine-spray or tendril pattern. At the outer edges of the scene is a block metope
border "probably red and blue" with "triglyphs composed of two green and one pink band on a yel-
low ground." For a discussion of this motif, see The "Bound Prisoner" Motif, pp. 53-55, above.

BODY COVERING
The body was wrapped in layers of coarse plain linen, patches of which are visible at each shoul-
der.
A sheet of linen completely covers the front of the wrapped body and is painted red. This body
cover is divided into seven horizontal registers. The figures of the mythological scenes depicted in
these registers are outlined in black and painted in tempera colors (predominantly white, dark blue
or black, and yellow) on the light red background. Often the paint falls outside the outlines.
The registers are divided by a horizontal band at the top and at the bottom. The upper band (or
"sky") is blue with "a row of stars, white with red center," and the lower band is divided into a
"metope-like pattern like that of no. 33219" (Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14), according to Edgar,
except that on this mummy large block metopes, outlined in back, are alternately colored red and
blue/green with a*white spot in the center and are separated by seven thin stripes of white and
green (one white, one green, three white, one green, and one white). The first register is bordered
at the bottom by a yellow strip with a black line at the top and bottom and a wavy horizontal black
line in the center. The figures of each register stand upon a separate black groundline.

REGISTER ONE (Fig. 9)

The cloth cover was cut at the left and right corners to allow for dlie upward curve of the foot casing.
Layers of coarse, unpainted linen wrappings can be seen beneath the painted shroud at these
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144 44CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

points. The lower part of the shroud and the footcase are obscured by dust. Just above the footcase
is a band of yellow outlined in black. Within the yellow band is an undulating black line.
The first register begins just above this yellow band. It is seven inches in length. It depicts two
standard bearers before an inscribed obelisk (Edgar describes this as a "funerary monument").
Near the bottom of the obelisk, black lines divide the pillar into two rectangular shapes that are
painted white. The upper pentagonal shape at the top is yellowish-green and contains a hiero-
glyphic inscription in black letters: f (dt, "eternity"). The scene is similar to that on a Twenty-
first Dynasty coffin (British Museum, Inv. 29577), which depicts a cobra within a shrine, flanked by
four underworld deities.

Figure 9. Detail of Register One, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15

Facing the obelisk, to the left and right, stands a male figure with shaven (yellow) head and
wearing the same white sheath garment and broad collar illustrated on the human figures in the
registers above. The figures each carry a pole with a standard at top. The figure on the left carries a
standard with a black jackal in profile facing inward. The figure on the right carries a standard with
a white ibis in profile facing inward. The method of carrying the poles differs from the technique
shown in the scene with the fan-bearers in Register Four (described below). The far arm of each
figure appears to be wrapped about the pole with the clenched hand turned inward in an awkward
position. It is probably meant to represent the arm held stiffly before the bearer and crooked at the
elbow (similar to the position used by flag-bearers in a parade). The near arm is lowered slightly
and curved to steady the pole near the bottom. Although the figures are -shown in profile facing in-
ward at either side of the obelisk, the scene may represent two figures standing before the obelisk
and facing forward.

REGISTER TWO (Fig. 10)

Register Two is six inches in length. The scene depicted is the mythical journey to Abydos in which
the mummy of the deceased (Osiris) is ferried in a boat. The high prow and stern of the boat are
each in the form of a papyrus umbel on an upright stem. Plump wadjet- eyes (Edgar's "mystic eye")
hover above the prow and stern of the boat, right and left eyes respectively. The eye at left is
faded. Underneath the boat and ending short of its high prow and stern is a mound of greenish-blue
"water."
Anubis, perhaps conflated here with the ferryman whose "face is behind him" (see K~ikosy
1976, pp. 189-92), stands at the prow of the boat to guide it through the water by means of a punt-
ing pole. He turns to face the stern of the boat and holds the pole diagonally before him so that the
lower end of the pole is behind him. Anubis wears a shoulder-length reddish wig, a broad collar,
and "short drapery from breast to knees," according to Edgar. He wears neither crown nor disc on
his head. His flesh is black. At the stern of the boat, facing forward, stands the falcon-headed
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RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 15 145

Horus, whose head is white and flesh is yellow. Atop his wig is a yellow disc. Horus wears a gar-
ment "with a scale pattern on upper part," according to Edgar, and a white kilt at the bottom similar
to his outfit in Register Six. He holds two white oars, one in each outstretched hand, erect before
him.

Figure 10. Detail of Register Two, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15

At the center of the boat is a yellow shrine or kiosk (as in Register Five). The kiosk has an
open front door above which is a curved cornice topped by a rounded sloping roof. Within the kiosk
stands a wrapped mummy in profile facing left. The mummy wears a shoulder-length wig, but the
face of the mummy is indistinct due to a puncture in the shroud. The mummy is painted in yellow
with black cross-hatching to simulate rhombic-patterned bandages ("yellow, cross-hatched body,"
according to Edgar). In clenched hands that project only minimally before the waist the mummy
holds a white was-scepter. The lower half of the mummy is obscured by white drapery covering the
opening of the kiosk.
The scene in this register is almost identical to the scene in Register Two of Red-shrouded
Mummy No. 14. For a discussion of this scene, see The Underworld Door, pp. 52-53, above.

REGISTER THREE (Fig. 11)

The third register is six inches in length. The scene is almost identical to Register Three of Red-
shrouded Mummy No. 14. It depicts the jackal-headed Anubis (or jackal-masked priest as Anubis)
who stands, facing left, behind a lion bier, lustrating a wrapped mummy lying on the bier. The
Anubis figure wears a shoulder-length red wig, atop which is a yellow disc, and a white garment.
The garment has elbow-length pleated sleeves and a pleated top. From the chest to his ankles the
garment resembles the sheath worn by the human figures in all other registers. The flesh of the god
is black. In his far hand he raises a cup-shaped vessel. His near hand rests on the body of the
mummy. The mummy is shown wrapped in yellow bandages with black cross-hatching ("yellow
with red spots and black markings," according to Edgar); the "spots" might simply be the under-
painting showing through, although their arrangement is regular enough to represent gilt buttons.
The mummy's bandages are arranged in horizontal rows at the shoulder line (perhaps to represent
a chest strip?) and in a rhombic pattern below the shoulder line. The mummy has the profile of a
three-dimensional mummy mask with a gold (yellow) face and blue wig.
The mummy is lying on a bed that has the yellow head of a lion which faces left. The lion
wears a short blue wig. There is no crown on top of the lion's head. In front of the bed, a long blue
flap hangs from below the lion's neck to just above the front paws. The yellow lion's tail at the foot
of the bed forms an S-curve around the back leg of the bier. The bed has the legs of a lion. The
front and back paws of the lion's legs rest on cup-shaped supports (lotus blossoms?). The platform
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146 CATALOG
46 OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

of the bed is blue, but there are no "stars" visible (as on Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14). There are
no vessels beneath the bier to represent the canopic jars.

Figure 11. Detail of Register Three, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15

At the head of the lion bed, facing inward toward the bier, stands the goddess Isis. Her figure is
darkened and obscure. At the foot of the bier stands Nephthys. This is in contrast to the representa-
tion of this scene on Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14, where positions are reversed: Isis stands at the
foot, Nephthys at the head. Each goddess wears a long wig and her unique hieroglyphic headdress,
although these crowns are somewhat faded. Edgar describes their ankle-length sheaths as resem-
bling "folded wings" because of the multiple diagonal bandings. Each goddess raises her far arm,
crooked at the elbow, with hand upraised. With a lowered near hand, each holds an end of what
appears to be a white cloth canopy (Edgar's "two white lines which form an arch over the central
scene"), which is stretched above the head of Anubis and the lion bier. The figure of Nephthys is
drawn as if the lower half of her body was shown turned in the opposite direction (i.e., there is a
curve at the front of her body that looks similar to the outward curve of her buttocks). This could be
an exaggerated abdomen although it is quite low.
Two pairs of blue vertical lines, outlined in white, descend from the upper "sky" register: one in
front of each one of the goddesses ("beside each," according to Edgar). The bands are blank and
do not contain texts such as one would expect to find within.
For a discussion of this scene, see Historical Background to the Cultic Use of Red Wrappings,
pp. 57-58, above.

REGISTER FOUR (Fig. 12)

Register Four is six and one-half inches in length. It illustrates the adoration of a fetish of Osiris.
The symbol, which is in the center of the vignette, is composed of a bust figure of the mummiform
god that is mounted upon a djed-pillar with four yellow crossbars. The human-headed god wears a
short blue stepped bag wig like the one worn by the ba -figures in Register Six. His yellow (gold)
crown is a disc with a plume at each side that is mounted on a T-shaped base, the same crown that
is worn by a number of deities illustrated on the portrait mummies and also by the lion in the lion-
headed bier of Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14. The god carries a crook and flail in the clenched
hands that project from his yellow rhombic-patterned wrappings. The djed-pillar is yellow. At each
outer corner of the bottom of the base is an upright uraeus in profile.
To the left and right of the Osiris emblem is a cornice-topped pedestal on top of which is a
hawk in profile facing inwiird. A uraeus is drawn in black on the column of the pedestal on the
right. On the column of the pedestal at left is a "wavy black line," according to Edgar, which prob-
ably also was meant to represent a uraeus.
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RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 15 147

71KZ

Figure 12. Detail of Register Four, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15

At the outer left and right corner of the scene stands a male figure. The figures have shaven
(yellow) heads and wear the white pleated sheath-like garment that is worn by the deceased in
Registers 5, 6, and 7, described below. Each of these figures holds before him a pole that is topped
by a small flabellum (or torch?, "a white standard with c-, top," according to Edgar). The pole is
grasped at the top in the hand of the figure's near arm, which is stretched straight out from the
shoulder line, and with the hand of his lowered and bent far arm. The figure at right is faded and
has suffered from abrasion.
There are two pairs of blue vertical bands, outlined in white, that descend from the upper "sky"
border: one to each side of the Osiris fetish. Edgar describes "two vertical bands as on 3," but there
are three bands in Register Five (Edgar's Register 3). The bands are blank and do not contain the
texts that one would expect to find within.
This vignette closely parallels the scene in Register Three of Red-shrouded Mummy No. 16, in
which the gods Horus and Thoth worship a fetish and the lowest registers of Stucco Mummies Nos.
18 and 19. This scene is also related to the scene in Register One of this mummy in which two
standard bearers flank an obelisk. It is also related to Register One of Red-shrouded Mummy No.
14, in which four standard bearers are depicted.

REGISTER FIVE (Fig. 13)

The fifth register is seven inches in length. It depicts the deceased in the company of Anubis and
Horus. Although the three figures are arranged in succession, it is possible that they are meant to be
standing side-by-side. To the right of the trio is a shrine or kiosk that contains a wrapped mummy
(the deceased?). Edgar describes the human figure in this scene as "similar to the middle figure in
2nd frieze" (Register Six), but he neither identifies the figure as.the deceased nor does he assimi-
late the characters in the successive registers. The human figure is shown standing, facing right. He
wears the identical garment as the human figure in Register Six and Register Seven (right).
Behind the figure of the deceased stands the hawk-headed Horus, whose flesh is yellow, head
is white, and wig is blue. A yellow disc is above the wig. He wears a yellow or gold broad collar
and a scaled garment that falls from just below his chest to knee length. His near arm falls at his
side. With his far arm extended behind the shoulders of the deceased, he points ahead toward the
kiosk with his index finger outstretched. This arm is shown at an unnaturally exaggerated length in
order to project beyond the deceased's shoulders. The posture that Horus affects creates the ap-
pearance of a three-quarter view of a torso.
With his far hand the deceased holds the near hand of the jackal-headed Anubis. The flesh of
Anubis is black and his wig is pinkish red. Atop his wig is a yellow disc. He wears a gold (yellow)
broad collar and a garment of scales(?). The kilt has a red and yellow sash that hangs from his
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148 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

waist and curves about the buttocks. From the waist down, Anubis is drawn in a profile view with
his feet pointed toward the left, but his head faces right, as if he had made a one hundred-eighty
degree turn at the waist. With his right arm crooked up at the elbow, he gestures toward the kiosk.

Figure 13. Detail of Register Five, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15

At the right of the scene is a shrine or kiosk on a chamfered (maat-shaped) pedestal base. The
kiosk has an open front door. At the top of the kiosk is a cornice above which is a rounded sloping
roof. Within the shrine is a mummy, wrapped in white. The head of the mummy is a three-dimen-
sional mask, in profile, facing forward (left). In clenched hands that project only minimally from
the waist, the mummy holds a was-scepter. The lower half of the mummy is obscured by drapery
covering the opening in the kiosk.
There are three pairs of vertical blue bands, outlined in white, that are not mentioned by Edgar.
They descend from the upper "sky" border: one before Anubis, one before the deceased, and the
third before Horus. The bands are blank and do not contain the texts one would expect to find
within.
The kiosk in this register appears in the scene in Register Two (the voyage to Abydos) and is
therefore related to the scene in Register Two of Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14.

REGISTER SIX (Fig. 14)

The sixth register is seven and one-half inches in length. The central scene depicts the lustration of
the deceased by the gods Horus and Thoth. Edgar draws a parallel between this and the fifth regis -
ter of Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14, but since he could not identify the deities therein, he did not
note that in this example the figures of the gods are reversed. Here, the ibis-headed Thoth is on the
right and the hawk-headed Horus stands to the left of the deceased.
The deceased stands in the center of the vignette, facing left. His flesh is pink, head is shaven
(yellow). He wears a long white garment that reaches from just below his breast to his ankles. The
garment is bisected by a black vertical line from which diagonal lines fall down the length of the
garment to a curved and fringed hem. The figure also wears a broad collar necklace of gold
(yellow).
Horns, at left, wears the red crown of Lower Egypt, which is painted reddish-yellow. The crown
is balanced on a T-shaped platform. He raises his arms above his head and pours a white zigzagged
stream of water over the deceased from a vessel that seems to be balanced above one of the god's
hands. The vessel, which is actually in the shape of Gardiner's Sign List R 5, a censer for fumiga-
tion, is painted red (to simulate copper?).
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RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 15 149

Figure 14. Detail of Register Six, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15

At right, Thoth wears the white crown of Upper Egypt, also balanced on a T-shaped platform.
The crown is painted yellow. The god raises his arms above his head and pours a white zigzagged
stream of water over the deceased from a vase that seems to be balanced above one of the god's
hands which he holds directly over the deceased's head. The vase, of the same type held by Horus
(above), is painted yellow (to simulate gold or brass?).
The deities wear a two-part yellow/white garment. The top is decorated with a "scale pattern,"
according to Edgar, in black. The bottom half is a pleated kilt with sporran that seems to have a
floor-length tail attached. Between the legs of the deities is a row of diagonal white lines (to repre-
sent a sheer draped undergarment). For a discussion of lustration scenes, see The "Baptism of
Pharaoh," pp. 59-60, and also Nude Males: Athletes or Initiates?, pp. 70-71, above.
To the left and right of the lustration scene is a human-headed bird, or ba (Edgar's "Soul"),
seated on a shrine (or "comrniced pedestal," according to Edgar). Each is painted yellow and wears a
short blue stepped wig. Atop the head of the ba at right is a red disc; atop the ba at left is a yellow
disc. In human hands, each figure holds before it a white staff or cloth. The shrine is squarish in de-
sign, primarily yellow in color, with a vertical line pattern near the top (to represent the curve of
the cornice). The shrine may represent the tomb or a gateway to the underworld (see The
UnderworldDoor, pp. 52-53, above).
There are four pairs of vertical bands that descend from the upper "sky" border: one before
each ba figure and one before each of the deities. The bands are blank and do not contain the texts
that one would expect to be inscribed within.

REGISTER SEVEN (Fig. 15)

The top register is seven inches in length and contains a mythological scene that depicts the de-
ceased making offerings before Osiris (on the left) and to Sokar-Re (on the right). In these com-
plementary scenes, the deceased (described by Edgar as a "worshipper") is pictured twice at either
side of the center of the register as a standing male figure with shaven (yellow) head and pink
flesh. Both figures wear a long white garment. In the image that faces right, the figure offers a cup-
shaped vessel to Sokar-Re who is seated on a throne. In the image that faces left, he pours a liquid
libation from a ewer before a seated Osiris. The arms of the figure on the left are obscured by a
white shawl that prevents his hands from touching the offering vessel. The yellow ewer (probably
brass or gold metal) has a handle in the shape of a uraeus and recalls (as first observed by Edgar
[1905a, p. xix] and further discussed by Griffiths [1975, pp. 232-33]) the description by Apuleius of
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150 0CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

a vessel, carried in procession by an Isis priest, that was "fashioned of gleaming gold in the follow-
ing form: a small vase it was ... its mouth ... standing out in a long spout ... on top of the handle
was set an asp in a coiled knot, its scaly neck rearing itself" (ibid., pp. 82-85). The depiction com-
plements representations of Isis priests in contemporary bronze statuettes (Mus6e du Louvre, Inv.
Br 4165 and Br 4394). The liquid from the ewer falls in a double stream, one forms droplets, the
other forms a steady stream (cf. also Kurth 1990, pl. 8).

0 0 0

Figure 15. Detail of Register Seven, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15

Osiris, the god represented in the vignette at left, is seated on a throne. His flesh is greenish -
yellow and he has no beard. He wears the white crown with atef-plumes (Edgar's "blue cap with
white-outlined plumes") and holds to his chest a crook and flail in his crossed clenched hands. He
wears a yellow beaded or rhombic-wrapped garment (Edgar describes the garment as "drapery
yellow with cross-hatched lines"). The box-like throne, decorated in a green scale pattern with a
white looped back, has a white star at the bottom left comer (a pseudo sma-tawy sign as in Register
Six of Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14). The plinth is (faded) yellow with a row of white dots.
In the vignette at right, the deceased offers a cup-shaped vessel in an upraised far hand. His
near arm is raised, also, and crooked at the elbow, and the fingers of his raised hand are crooked
and splayed, as if performing a gesture of worship or dwa. Sokar-Re is the god seated on a throne
in this scene (Edgar calls him "Sokaris"). He has a hawk head and wears a shoulder-length white
cross-hatched blue wig that falls in two lappets over his breast. His head is white with black mark-
ings. Atop his head is a yellow disc. He wears a pink garment with white cross-hatched lines. His
arms are held before him in the same position as those of Osiris, but his hands are not shown and
there are no discernible traces of a crook or flail. Sokar-Re is seated on a throne identical to that of
Osiris. For further discussion of this scene, see Repertoire of RepresentationalScenes, p. 55, above.
Register Seven is framed at top by a painted strip (not mentioned by Edgar) that is just above
the unpainted linen tape which forms the upper border for the row of gilt chest band buttons. The
faded strip, forming the "sky," is light blue with two black lines at top and bottom and a row of
white stars along its length.

CHEST S TRIP
A modified chest band has been achieved by the addition-across the widest area of the body be -
low the shoulders---of a row of nine gilt stucco buttons. Edgar describes one of the buttons as being
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RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 15 151

"6on a separate, small square of canvas and perhaps some others of the same sort have fallen out."
However, the buttons on this mummy were applied directly to the painted, top cloth and none ap-
pears to be missing (Edgar may have been thinking of other examples, on rhombic mummies,
where the chest band is made up of buttons attached to cartonnage squares).
Above and below this row of buttons is a horizontal border formed by the addition of an un-
painted linen tape. At the sides of the body wrapping is a painted mesh pattern "exactly as on no.
33219" (Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14), according to Edgar, which simulates a beaded net cover
(see Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14). The mesh pattern is badly faded.

PORTRAIT AND FRAME

Four layers of linen are molded over the head piece and folded under at the edge's to form an ir-
regularly- shaped oval opening for the portrait. The opening (with squared bottom corners) resem-
bles the octagonal linen frames around the portraits of rhombic-wrapped mummies from Hawara.
The portrait is embellished by the addition of a wreath of gold leaf.
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RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 16

ILLUSTRATIONS
Plate 16, figures 16-21

PRESENT LOCATION
Collection: Egyptian Museum
Inventory Number: CG 33221
City: Cairo

PROVENIENCE
Hawara (Petrie excavation, 1888)

DATE OF PORTRAIT
"Towards the middle of the second century [ca. A.D. 140-150]" (Parlasca 1970, p. 32)

DATE OF BODY WRAPPING

First quarter of the second century A.D.

MALE OR FEMALE
Female

MEASUREMENTS
Body Height: 65.00 inches (1.63 m [Edgar 1905a, p. 81])
Width: 17.50 inches (46.00 cm [ibid.])
Depth: 9.75 inches
Portrait Y/N?: Yes
Length: 12.50 inches
Width: 7.50 inches
Portrait Frame Y/N: Modified, stucco buttons and wreath
Width: Approximately 0.50 to 1.00 inch

RHOMBI
N/A

CHEST STRIP
Y/N?: Modified, inscription in modeled stucco within raised stucco bands
Width: 1.00 inch
INLAID STONES
YIN?: N~
Diameter: N/A

152
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RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 16 153

GILT BUTTONS
Y/N?: Gilt stucco buttons in modified portrait frame
Diameter: Approximately 0.50 inch

FOOTCASE
Y/N?: No
Underside Height: N/A
Width: N/A
Front Edge Height: N/A

DIAMETER OF ROSETTE/WADJET-EYE
N/A

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF BOUND FIGURES

Height: N/A
Width: N/A

LENGTH/WIDTH OF (CARTONNAGE) FEET

Length: 7.00 inches
Width: 3.00 inches

INSCRIPTION
Y/N?: Yes
Location of Inscription: Across breast
Demotic/Greek: Greek
Text: OEPMOYOAPINEYPYXEI

DESCRIPTION OF RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 16

REFERENCES FOR DESCRIPTION
Edgar 190l5a, pp. 81-82, pl. 32
Parlasca 1977, p. 32, pl. 63/5
Personal observation by author, 1984-85, 1993

FOOT COVER (Fig. 16)

At the bottom of the covering, appended from a raised gilt line where the actual feet would be, are
depicted feet that are modeled and gilt with toenails indicated by incised lines. Incised lines also
indicate strapped and laced sandals. Between the feet is shown an erect cobra, modeled and gilt,
with a disc on its head. The head of the snake is at the bottom of the covering, facing the portrait of
the deceased.
There is a three-quarter inch gap between this section and the first register of the body field.

BODY COVERING
The body was tightly wrapped in a linen top cloth. The cloth is visible at the underside of the foot
covering due to shredding. The cloth covering was coated in a thick shell of gesso and then painted.
The front (top) surface of the stuccoed cloth is hot pink, the sides and underside are red (the red
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154 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

Figure 16. Detail of Foot Cover, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 16

provided the undercoating for the pink surface coloring). The body of the stucco casing is divided
into six horizontal registers containing a broad collar at top and the representation of feet at the
bottom with four registers in between containing mythological scenes. These four registers are en-
closed above and below by modeled and gilt horizontal lines. The figures and designs are also
modeled in stucco and are gilt.
As an addendum to his description of this object, Edgar states that "the mythological scenes are
explained thus in Notice, 1895-97, p. 107: 1. [Register Four] represents the corpse on the bier, 2.
[Register Three] Thoth and Horus bringing about the resurrection of the soul, 3. [Register Two] the
dead rising from the bier, 4. [Register One] the flight of the soul to another existence."

REGISTER ONE (Fig. 17)

The first register above the feet is five inches in length. Only one figure is depicted. The figure is a
human-headed ba-bird. The head is in profile, facing left, and wears a bag wig. The wings of the
bird consist of three layers of feathers, the outer two are indicated with vertical lines, the inner with
cross-hatching. The wings are out-stretched and pointed upward. The bird's body and tail are sus-
pended between its two legs that end in claws.
There is a three-quarter inch gap between this register and the next.

Figure 17. Detail of Register One, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 16

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RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 16 155

REGISTER TWO (Fig. 18)

The second register is six and one-half inches in length. It depicts a mummy lying on a funerary
bier. The image is unusual as the mummy is shown with the wigged head of a hawk, which is
shown in the attitude of the "raised Osiris," a scene depicted in the Twenty-second Dynasty royal
tomb of Shoshenk III (825-818 B.C.) at Tanis and which also appears on the lower edge of a car -
tonnage funerary mask (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Inv. 1993.555). The mummy is shown
wrapped in rhombic bandages with feet hanging beneath the bier with toes pointed down, buttocks
in profile, upper torso frontal and upraised with both hands clenched in front of the chest, and head
in profile facing left. The image, as depicted, is also atypical in that, although the legs of the bed
are those of a lion and there is an up-curved tail of a lion at the foot of the bed, the head of the bed
is not that of a lion but the head of a jackal. Descending from the upper horizontal band, at the
center top of the scene, are two vertical lines. In the place of a text within, there is only a solid
broad gilt line.

Figure 18. Detail of Register Two, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 16

The Abydene motif of this scene complements the adoration scene in Register Three. The res -
urrection motif is similar to that depicted in Register Four.
A three-quarter inch gap separates this register from the next.

REGISTER THREE (Fig. 19)

Register Three is seven inches in length. It illustrates the adoration by Thoth and Horus of a central
element that Edgar describes as a "post surmounted by disc and plumes and encircled by bands
with large symmetrical knots." This "post" is the symbol of Osiris at Abydos. To each side of the
Abydos fetish is an offering table that Edgar describes as "a small column with base and calyx capi-
tal surmounted by a cone (altar?)." At left, the ibis-headed Thoth adores the symbol with hands up-
raised, performing dwa. He wears a shoulder-length wig topped by a disc, a short-sleeved shirt, and
a shendot -kilt (Edgar's "loincloth"). A hawk-headed Horus approaches from the right performing
the same gesture of adoration. He wears a shoulder-length wig topped by a disc, a broad collar, and
shendot-kilt. The abdomens of the gods are indicated frontally by an incised circular loop that en-
closes (on Thoth) a round navel (this convention is used in the depiction of the abdomens of bound
prisoners on the bottoms of the footcases, cf. Edgar's pl. 32). A rectangular box that would custom-
arily contain a hieroglyphic inscription descends from the upper horizontal enclosing band (the sky)
to each side of the top of the fetish. In the place of a text, there is only a solid broad vertical line.
There is a three-quarter inch gap between this register and the next.
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156 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

Figure 19. Detail of Register Three, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 16

REGISTER FOUR (Fig. 20)

The fourth register is eight and three-quarter inches in length. It depicts the jackal-headed Anubis
(or jackal-masked priest as Anubis) who stands, facing left, behind a lion bier, lustrating the
wrapped mummy of the deceased lying on the bier. The Anubis figure wears an elaborately twisted
and braided shoulder-length wig topped by a disc. He wears a broad collar necklace and a short-
sleeved ankle-length sheath. In his far hand the figure raises a cup-shaped vessel; his near hand
rests on the body of the mummy. The mummy, depicted as wrapped in rhombic bandages and with
the profile of a three-dimensional funerary mask, is lying on a bed that has the head of a fiercely
grimacing lion (with an overly tall wig topped by a double-plumed disc crown that rests on a T-
shaped platform), a lion's tail at the foot that curves in a wide arc to touch the back of the head of
Anubis, and lion's legs. The front and back paws of the lion's legs (each represented as a single
leg, front straight, back flexed) rest atop a cup-shaped platform. Under the lion bed are two elon-
gated jars (amphora?) with narrow necks and pointed bottoms that represent canopic jars.
0

Figure 20. Detail of Register Four, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 16

At both the head and foot of the bed stands a female figure. The women undoubtedly represent
Isis and Nephthys (as Edgar suggests with question mark), although since they wear only a disc
above their heads and not their distinctive headdresses, they cannot be differentiated. The women,
each wearing a broad collar and clothed in an ankle-length sheath, face inward toward the bier.
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RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 16 157

The goddess at the foot of the bier holds her far arm above her head, crooked at the elbow, with
hand held horizontally. In her near hand she holds a bolt of cloth that does not reach the groundline.
The goddess at the head of the bier performs the same gesture but holds her palm vertical to the
picture plane (perhaps the goddesses were supposed to have held a canopy over the bier as they
do, for example, in Register Three of Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14) and also holds a bolt of cloth
in her near hand. The only difference in the dress of the two figures is that there are no dots on the
dress below the broad collar of the goddess at the head of the bier. For a discussion of this scene,
see HistoricalBackground to the Cultic Use of Red Wrappings, pp. 57-58, above.

REGISTER FIVE (Fig. 21)

The breast area of the body is covered, for a length of eight inches, by a ws or broad collar com -
posed primarily of teardrop-shaped elements. The collar ends are each decorated with the profile

Figure 21. Detail of Register Five, Portrait, and Frame, Red-shrouded Mummy No. 16
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158 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

head of a Horus falcon wearing the double crown. The eye markings and the red crowns are
decorated with dots in sunk relief. In the center of the inner curve, created by the line of the neck-
lace, is a seated figure of the goddess Maat holding the feather of truth. Edgar described her as a
"squatting mummy-figure ... wearing disk on head and holding plume above knees." In the lower
left and in the lower right corner, created by the outer curve of the collar, is a similar but larger
figure of the goddess, facing inward (cf. Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14, where these spaces are
filled by winged figures of the goddesses Isis and Nephthys). There are chips in the plaster stucco
on the right side of the broad collar.
Below the broad collar is a horizontal band created by two raised and gilt lines enclosing a line
of Greek text:
OEPMOYOAPINEY'PYXEI
The letters, approximately one-half inch in height, are molded and are gilt. There is no space be -
tween the letters that form the name and greeting. The third letter of the word EYWYXEI is, more -
over, not the cross or plus sign as published by Edgar and Parlasca but is clearly a Greek psi. The
text reads: "Farewell, Thermoutharin." See Relative Dating Indicators, pp. 14-15, above.

PORTRAIT AND FRAME

Before it was stuccoed, the linen top cloth was folded under to form an oval opening for the por-
trait. Along the edge of the stuccoed linen that borders the portrait is a sort of frame built up out of
modeled circles of stucco buttons that are gilt. The buttons at the lower left have popped off and
only negative imprints remain.
To create the effect of a wreath just above the head of the portrait, the buttons or "studs," ac -
cording to Edgar, change into leaves, four pairs at both left and right, with a three leaf cluster to
each side of a pair of vertical lines in the center top of the wreath (to represent maat- feathers?, cf.
portrait of Red-shrouded Mummy No. 13 and J. Paul Getty Museum, Inv. 81.AP.42 [Thompson
1982, fig. F, cover]). On the right side only, the first cluster of leaves is also separated from the
buttons by two vertical lines.
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RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 17

ILLUSTRATION
Plate 17

PRESENT LOCATION
Collection: Karanis/Kom Oshim Museum
Inventory Number: 432
City: Kom Oshim (Karanis)

PROVENIENCE
Deir el-Banaat, the Fayoum (Egyptian Antiquities Organization excavation, 1982)

DATE OF PORTRAIT
The mummy portrait is not yet included in Parlasca's catalog. Probable date is fourth quarter of the
first century to first quarter of the second century A.D.

DATE OF BODY WRAPPING

Unique example of this technique. Similarity to red-shrouded examples corroborates suggested
date for the portrait.

MALE OR FEMALE
Male

MEASUREMENTS
Body Height: 59.50 inches
Width: 12.00 inches
Depth: 9.50 inches
Portrait Y/N?: Yes
Length: 8.50 inches
Width: 5.00 inches
Portrait Frame Y/N?: No
Width: N/A

RHOMBI
N/A

CHEST S TRIP
Y/N?: No
Width: N/A

159
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160 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

INLAID STONES
Y/N?: No
Diameter: N/A

GILT BUTTONS
Y/N?: No
Diameter: N/A

FOOTCASE
Y/N?: No
Underside Height: N/A
Width: N/A
Front Edge Height: N/A

DIAMETER OF ROSETTE/WADJET-EYE
N/A

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF BOUND FIGURES

Height: N/A
Width: N/A

LENGTH/WIDTH OF CARTONNAGE FEET

Length: N/A
Width: N/A

INSCRIPTION
Y/N?: No
Location of Inscription: N/A
Demotic/Greek: N/A
Text: N/A

DESCRIPTION OF RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 17

REFERENCES FOR DESCRIPTION
Unpublished
Personal observation by author, 1984-85, 1995
The mummy was discovered by the Egyptian Antiquities Organization during their 1982 season
at the site of Deir el-Banaat. Publication of the excavation and of the finds is in progress.
The portrait and the technique of the body decoration of this mummy are unique. The portrait
was drawn (painted) in tempera on a sheet of papyrus. The colors used for the portrait were light
brown, black, and dark brown on a light gray background. This is the only known example of a
mummy portrait on papyrus. The entire body of the mummy is coated with a shiny pitch-like black
resin. It is included with the red-shrouded examples because the technique used to create the body
covering has affinities with that used to manufacture the red-shrouded mummies.
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RED-SHROUDED MUMMY NO. 17 161

BODY COVERING
The body was wrapped in a sheet of stiffened linen. Branches with leaves (resembling bay leaves)
were placed on top of the wrappings along the entire length of the mummy, at the sides and across
the chest, across the stomach, across the pubic region, and at the ankles. Finally, the entire body of
the mummy was coated with a resin that now appears completely black. The underlying color of
fluorescent orange is revealed through broken bubbles of resin.
Beneath the layer of pitch there is no indication that the covering was decorated with a contin-
uation of the clothed body of the deceased in paint or with horizontal registers of funerary scenes.
However, bandages completely covered with resin are exposed beneath the cover sheet of red-
shrouded portrait mummies (Red-shrouded Mummies Nos. 13 and 14). Perhaps this mummy lacks
its top decorated shroud.

PORTRAIT AND FRAME

The papyrus portrait was placed over the face of the deceased. Then, the body was wrapped in a
linen sheeting, which at the head of the mummy was cut out and folded under to form the oval
opening around the portrait. That the portrait was in place before the wrappings were coated with
resin is evident from the splash of resin on the portrait above the right shoulder line.
The portrait is that of a young man, face mostly frontal, although the eyes look slightly toward
the left. The man has curly black hair, bushy dark eyebrows, and no facial hair. He has large brown
eyes and thick dark eyelashes. The left eye is set lower than the right. The pupil of the right eye is
drawn so that the right eye is focused upward effecting a slight exotropia. The nose is somewhat
wide, with a shadow line along the left side. The mouth is depicted with an economy of line. The
deceased appears to be smiling (effected by diagonal lines at the comers of the mouth). Only the
dividing line between the upper and lower lips is shown, which makes the upper lip look thin. A
curved line to indicate thebottom edge of the lower lip makes it appear, on the contrary, quite full.
Both ears are shown. The left ear is drawn so that it sticks out a bit from the side of the head. The
deceased wears a white tunic. The neckline of the tunic can be seen at the right shoulder and at the
collar bone. The left shoulder is not visible as it is covered over by the wrappings.
The draftsmanship of the portrait painting resembles that of the portrait on linen of a stucco
shroud (Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Inv. 11652), which Parlasca (1969, p. 30) dates to the later
Claudian years (A.D. 54), and to another mummy portrait also on linen (Heidelberg Museum, Inv.
1021), which Parlasca dates (ibid., p. 38) to the second half of the first century. The hairstyle of the
young man on the portrait on papyrus is not, however, the fringed clip of the Claudian era. Its full-
ness more closely resembles the loose longer fashion of the Hadrianic period, although the men of
the second century are usually shown with beards or mustaches. This young man has no facial hair,
not even a wispy scraggly beard such as appears on some examples (see Staatliche Museen,
Berlin, Inv. 13277, or Pushkin Museum, Inv. 4229/1 la 5749; Parlasca 1966, pl. 36, nos. 1, 2). In this
lack of facial hair the portrait on papyrus resembles another portrait (Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, Inv. 18.9.2), which Parlasca (ibid., p. 73) nevertheless dates to the first years of
Hadrian (A.D. 117) or the early Antonine period (A.D. 138).
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STUCCO MUMMIES NOS. 18-23

STUCCO MUMMY NO. 18

ILLUSTRATIONS
Plate 18, figures 22-25

PRESENT LOCATION
Collection: Egyptian Museum
Inventory Number: CG 33215
City: Cairo

PROVENIENCE
None given. Hawara, by comparison to Stucco Mummy No. 19

DATE OF PORTRAIT
The portrait was destroyed (or removed?) except for parts of the panel that still adhere along the
left edge, bottom edge, and lower right edge. The portrait is therefore not included in Parlasca
1969, 1977, 1980.

DATE OF BODY WRAPPING

First quarter of the second century A.D.

MALE OR FEMALE
Male (Edgar 1905a, p. 69). A male, by contrast to Stucco Mummy No. 19, as there is no jewelry on
the arms nor any inlaid gems, and the traces of panel at the bottom edge preserve a white chiton
with black clavi. The length (height) of the mummy is only 43.375 inches, indicating that this is the
mummy of a young boy.

MEASUREMENTS
Body Height: 43.375 inches (1.80 m [Edgar 1905a, p. 69])
Width: 14.00 inches (38.00 cm [ibid.])
Depth: 8.00 inches
Portrait Y/N?: No, fragments of painted panel
Length: 9.00 inches
Width: 4.75 inches
Portrait Frame Y/N?: Modified, stucco incised with vine pattern
Width: 2.50 inches

162
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 18 163

RHOMBI
N/A

CHEST STRIP
Y/N?: No
Width: N/A

INLAID STONES
Y/N?: No
Diameter: N/A

GILT BUTTONS
Y/N?: No
Diameter: N/A

FOOTCASE
Y/N?: No
Underside Height: N/A
Width: N/A
Front Edge Height: N/A

DIAMETER OF ROSETTE/WADJET-EYE
N/A

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF BOUND FIGURES

Height: N/A
Width: N/A

LENGTH/WIDTH OF (CARTONNAGE) FEET

Length: 3.50 inches (although incompletely preserved at the toes)
Width: 2.00 inches

INSCRIPTION
Y/N?: No
Location of Inscription: N/A
Demotic/Greek: N/A
Text: N/A

DESCRIPTION OF STUCCO MUMMY NO. 18

REFERENCES FOR DESCRIPTION
Edgar 1905a, pp. 69-70, pl. 31
Parlasca 1966, p. 271
Personal observation by author, 1984-85, 1993
Parlasca's reference to p. 147, n. 162, should read p. 147, n. 163. Therein, he describes the
mummy (which is listed as on "page 19 Nr. 15," read "page 19, Nr. 5") as the female mummy,
which is Stucco Mummy No. 19. He must have intended to refer to this male mummy as the text is
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164 4CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

discussing the depiction of a small bird, which is held only by the male mummy (Stucco Mummy
No. 18) and not by the female. On page 117, Parlasca refers to "den beiden Kairiner
Maiidchenmumien," but Stucco Mummy No. 18 is definitely that of a little boy (see data chart,
above, and discussion under Portrait and Frame, below).

FOOT COVER (Fig. 22)

The bottom register, in which the feet are depicted, is three and one-quarter inches in length. The
feet are incised only and not modeled in stucco like the arms. There is a loss of stucco from about
half of this register. Of the right foot, only the ankle and upper part can still be seen. Of the left
foot, only the inner half of the foot showing the ankle and first four toes can still be seen. The toe-
nails on the left foot and the joints of the toes on both feet are indicated by incised circles. The feet
are bare (no sandals).
There is an incised curved line at the top of the register that arcs around the top of the ankles
and might indicate the hem of a garment. Between the feet is incised a branch or "curving spray
with leaves and twigs," according to Edgar. The leaves are arranged in groups of threes. There is
an incised line that appears to the right side of the right foot. The stucco is missing from this area,
but the line may be part of a design at the sides of the feet (see Stucco Mummy No. 19, where
there are incised mummiform figures in this position).

BODY COVERING
The body was wrapped overall with coarse linen. The wrappings were then covered with a layer of
stucco up the front, which was painted with a red undercoating then gilded.
The stucco body field was divided into four horizontal registers. Each contains a mythological
scene executed in incised lines (Edgar's "impressed ornamentation"). Incised horizontal lines at
the top and bottom of each register create the groundline and skyline of each scene except for the
first and the fourth registers.
Although the scenes in each register of Stucco Mummy No. 18 are identical to those of Stucco
Mummy No. 19, the two objects do not appear to have been decorated by the same artist. Although
figures are rendered as clumsy and heavy on both mummies, there are stylistic differences between
the two. For example, the figure of Anubis on Stucco Mummy No. 19 has more elaborate interior
details which indicate that the artist of Stucco Mummy No. 18 was not as skilled as that of Stucco
Mummy No. 19. Due to the similarity in iconography, however, the two objects should be dated
very closely.

REGISTER ONE (Fig. 22)

The first register, which is separated from the feet only by an incised groundline, is four and three -
quarter inches in length. It depicts the adoration of a fetish of Osiris, almost identical to the scene in
the first register of Stucco Mummy No. 19. The symbol is in the center of the vignette. It is a ban-
daged oval (similar to the sole of a sandal). The top, which is slightly larger than the bottom, is di-
vided into four horizontal bands. Within each band are diagonal stripes that shade left to right at the
top, right to left in the second row. etc. The bottom part is decorated with two parallel horizontal
bands. To the left and right of the emblem is a standing human figure who cradles the fetish in
swathed arms. The standing figures wear short wigs (or shaven heads) atop which is a disc. Each
wears an ankle length garment that has a sash which hangs from the waist to the hem of the gar-
ment and ends in a diagonal cut. Each figure also wears a mantle that covers the arms and hands to
prevent them from touching the fetish (cf. the priest figure with a ewer in Register Seven of Red-
shrouded Mummy No. 15).
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 18 165

Behind the figure at right is a standing male figure in profile facing inward who holds a was-
scepter erect with a raised far arm crooked at the elbow and a near arm lowered and crooked at the
elbow. The bottom of the scepter, which does not have the characteristic forked end, rests on the
groundline in front of the figure's forward foot. The figure wears a short wig and an ankle length
garment, which falls in a fashion similar to a sheath from below the figure's chest and has a sash or
tie at the side that falls from the top of the garment to just above the hem and ends in a diagonal
cut. Edgar refers to this drapery as being "fastened around his waist in the priestly manner."

Figure 22. Detail of Foot Cover and Register One, Stucco Mummy No. 18
At the far right of the scene is a pole, which rests on a groundline and is topped by "a lotus or
papyrus," according to Edgar. A cobra (or "uraeus," according to Edgar), with its hood splayed,
rears its head above the pole to face inward and entwines its body down the pole. This image of the
cobra on a pole appears often in bilaterally symmetrical motifs in which a cobra wears the white
crown and rests on a papyrus pole on one side and another wears the red crown atop a lotus pole on
the other. The cobras in these configurations represent the tutelary goddesses Nekhbet and Edjo.
There is a loss of stucco on the left side behind the central figure. There are traces of a forward
foot and leg, a back foot, and the hem of a garment. There are also traces of the lower part of a
scepter that rests on the groundline before the forward foot and the hand which grasps it. There is
insufficient room on this side, however, for there to have been a complementary cobra figure.
There is a blank space between the first and second registers that is bordered at top and bottom
by a thick incised horizontal line. This space is one and one-quarter inches in length.

REGISTER TWO (Fig. 23)

The second register is four and three-quarter inches in length. It depicts the jackal-headed Anubis
(or jackal-masked priest as Anubis) who stands, facing left, behind a lion bier, lustrating the
wrapped mummy (of the deceased) lying on the bier. He wears a striated shoulder-length wig
topped by a disc. He wears a broad collar and a sheath top that falls from below the chest. He also
wears a shendot-kilt. In his far hand, he raises a cup-shaped vessel that contains something
(water?) which rises in an arc above the lip of the vessel. His near hand rests on the body of the
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166 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

mummy. The mummy, depicted as wrapped in rhombic bandages ("cross-hatched wrapping," ac-
cording to Edgar), has the profile of a three-dimensional funerary mask with a striated wig.
The mummy is lying on a bed described by Edgar only as "a bier of the ordinary lion-type."
There is a loss of stucco, however, at the front of the bed preventing a description of the lion's
head. The lion's tail at the foot of the bed curves up and over the top of the footcase of the mummy
on the bier. The bed has the legs of a lion, although only the back line of the front leg is preserved.
The back legs, flexed, are shown as only one leg. The legs rest directly on the groundline. The plat-
form of the bed is decorated with a zigzag line. There is a tall vase with a flared neck and a pointed
bottom beneath the front part of the bier.

Figure 23. Detail of Register Two, Stucco Mummy No. 18

At the foot of the lion bed, facing inward toward the bier, stands a mummiform figure. The
mummy has a human face in profile with a shoulder-length wig that falls on the chest (cf. mummi-
form figure on the footcase of Stucco Mummy No. 19). The wig is topped by a disc. The bulbous-
shaped body is wrapped in a sheath. There are two incised vertical lines along the body that end in
an upward curve (shaped similar to a harpoon) which probably represent a sash. There is a flap
that falls in two pieces from below the figure's hand which projects from the chest. The flap is
rounded at the bottom and is decorated with incised diagonal stripes. The mummiform figure holds,
erect before him, a pole topped by a cup-shaped object described by Edgar as a "papyrus-scepter."
These scepters are often held by goddesses and one expects Isis and Nephthys in these positions by
the bier, but the four mummiform figures here probably represent the four sons of Horus.
There is a loss of stucco on the right end of the scene, but there are traces of a second mummi-
form figure behind the first. The feet, in profile facing left, the diagonally striped flap, and the ends
of three incised lines in front of the flap (Edgar plausibly suggested that these were from "some
object" being carried by the mummy) are still evident.
There is a great deal of stucco loss on the left side. It is, however, possible to identify the top of
the head of a figure (probably not the head of the mummiform figure but rather the head of a was-
scepter) in front of the bier. Edgar suggests that there had been "a similar figure with scepter" in
this position.
There does not appear to have been sufficient room at the left end of this scene for a second
mummiform figure or design to have been added on this side. The left side of this register and of
the register beneath it (Register One) are not as large as their right sides resulting in a slight twist
to the stucco and decoration.
There is a vertical band, edged at the sides, that descends from the horizontal border at the top
of the register and falls just behind the figure of Anubis. Edgar describes the hieroglyphs it contains
as "indistinct." The inscription reads _. This could be for mh-s (the crown of Lower Egypt). The
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 18 167

crown of Lower Egypt appears more frequently than the white crown on portrait mummies, which
could be due to the association of the mummies with the Delta. The signs might also refer to the
city of Chemmis, associated with the goddess Isis (see the name, Isis of Chemmis, on footcase CG
6839, and The Representation of Feet, pp. 50-51, above). For a discussion of this scene, see
HistoricalBackground to the Cultic Use of Red Wrappings, pp. 57-58, above.
There is a blank space between the third and fourth registers, which is bordered at top and bot-
tom by a thick incised horizontal line. This space is one and one-quarter inches in length.

REGISTER THREE (Fig. 24)

The third register is five inches in length. In the center of the register is a kneeling goddess with
outstretched wings. Her head is in profile facing left. In each of her hands she holds a maat-feather
(a "plume," according to Edgar) which has diagonal stripes. Edgar describes this female figure as
being "like the one above" which is at the back of the mummy's head (see description below). She
is probably meant to represent the goddess Nut who is often depicted across the breast of mummies
that have decorated cartonnage covers; she also appears on portrait mummies. The goddess wears
a vertically striated bag wig topped by a headdress. The headdress is a small circle in the center
having a cow's horn at each side, projecting from which is a vertical oblong topped by a semicircle
design (an atef-crown?). The goddess wears a broad collar and a long dress that has a V-neck. The
dress has a belt just under the breast (which projects in profile to the left). The belt has a tie that
hangs from it to her hips and ends in a diagonal cut. The eye, ear, and mouth of the goddess are
modeled on the face. The wings, which curve upward at the ends, are of three parts (although
Edgar describes them only as having "two rows of feathers"): directly beneath the arms is a section
of rhombic-patterning and next are two rows of diagonally striped feathers.

//.

Figure 24. Detail of Register Three, Stucco Mummy No. 18

Directly on the ground, to the right and left of the goddess, is a cup-shaped vessel that contains
something (water?) which rises in an arc above the lip of the vessel. The vessel at the right is deco-
rated with two horizontal bands. The vessel at the left is plain and slightly shorter than the other.
Behind the vessel at the right is a tall vase with a narrow flared neck. This vessel has horizontal
bands around the middle of the body. There is a loss of stucco at the left with only a single line to
indicate a fourth vase in the left corner.
At the right end of the scene is a bit of stucco with the outline of a foot. By comparison with the
third register of Stucco Mummy No. 19, there might originally have been a striding male figure in
this corner, although Edgar describes the scene as containing the "remains of a standing mummy-
figure as in next frieze."
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168 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

There are two vertical bands, edged at the sides, which descend from the upper horizontal bor-
der: one each between the front and back of the head of the goddess and the maat-feathers she
holds upright. The bands contain an incised zigzag line.
There is a blank space between the third and fourth registers that is bordered at top and bottom
by a thick incised horizontal line. This space is one and one-quarter inches in height.

REGISTER FOUR (Fig. 25)

The top register is ten and three-quarter inches in length. It is actually a continuation of the painted
portrait as it depicts the upper torso of the individual modeled in three-dimensional stucco. The
shoulders and upper part of the arms are covered by a shawl-like garment that is indicated by folds
of drapery. The raised right arm is crooked at the elbow and the opened right hand is placed above
the left breast. The left arm is bent down at the elbow and the opened left hand is placed upon the
mid-thorax. In the right hand, the deceased holds an irregularly triangular-shaped object with a
stem that Edgar describes as "a bunch of grapes (rendered without detail)." Support for this identi-
fication comes from the depiction of grape clusters(?) in the hands of small boys in painted portraits
and contemporary limestone stelae (cf. Parlasca 1966, pl. 62). In his left hand, the boy holds a bird
in profile facing left. The bird, in this case, looks more similar to a sparrow than a falcon but could
represent the god Horus. Birds, which sometimes appear in painted portraits, can represent the ba
or soul of the deceased (see Parlasca 1966, p. 147).
Within the left and right corners left open by the curve of the stucco arms are remains of deco-
rations, but as there is a great deal of stucco loss, it is difficult to identify the scene that may have
been illustrated. It is tempting, however, to compare this register with the upper register of Stucco
Mummy No. 19, which depicts an enthroned deity in each comer (Osiris and probably Sokar-Re).
At the extreme right are traces of a foot and a leg (a lion's foot?), or a hand and an arm, which
begin at the groundline. In front of this, directly beneath the elbow of the modeled right arm, is a
cup-shaped vessel that contains something (water?) which rises in an arc above the lip of the ves-
sel. The vessel is decorated with horizontal stripes.
At the left end of this register, directly beneath the elbow of the modeled left arm, is a floral
motif resembling a papyrus herald (Edgar's "floral device"). Edgar notes that this is similar to the
floral design on the back side of the head (see below). The design resembles Gardiner Sign List M
15, a clump of papyrus with buds bent down at each side. There are traces behind this motif that re -
semble the outline of a foot.

PORTRAIT AND FRAME (Fig. 25)

The oval opening for the portrait has an elaborate modeled frame. The frame evokes the horseshoe
shape, which is typical for portrait frames that were occasionally added to mummies from Hawara.
The outer edge of the stucco frame is bordered by an incised line. Next, there is a zigzag line en-
closed by two incised lines. The inner frame, which is one and one-quarter inches wide, is deco-
rated with a vine design (Edgar calls it a "laurel wreath"), similar to the designs on overlay frames.
On this stucco frame, the vine pattern consists of a line of incised leaf clusters placed one above the
other, one group beginning at the lower right corner, the other from the lower left corner, meeting
at the center top of the frame. The leaves are elliptical in shape and come in clusters of three.
Behind the zigzag frame, at the back of the head, are remains of some stucco that was deco -
rated with incised lines. Due to considerable stucco loss and also to the position of the mummy
within its display case, it was only possible to identify the top of a head with the tops of two vertical
text rows at each side, the tops of two maat- feathers, the pattern of a wing at the upper right and
left corners, and, just below these, a blossom or papyrus flower. Edgar describes the back of the
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 1816 169

headas
deoraed
ein iththefigre f " female deity kneeling to right, with wings and arms
outstretched and a plume in each hand. She wears disk, short coiffure, and necklace; the drapery
was not indicated." His description of this figure matches the representations of the goddess Nut,
who is often depicted across the breast of mummies that have decorated cartonnage covers; she

Figure 25. Detail of Register Four, Portrait, and Frame, Stucco Mummy No. 18
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170 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

also appears on portrait mummies (cf. Register Three). Edgar also notes that "there is a vertical
band above each wing; the one on the right is filled with a zigzag line, the other contains a few in -
distinct signs"; regrettably, these could not be seen clearly.
The central area of the panel portrait of this mummy is missing (due to splintering, insect ray -
ages, or vandalism). Edgar noted that "almost nothing of the panel portrait is left; [except for] re -
mains of the usual light gray background." There are, however, remains of the painted panel at the
outer left-hand edge, the lower right-hand edge, and at the bottom border of the panel. There are
traces, at the lower right part of the panel, of a white chiton with a black clavus. The color scheme
of this garment, reserved for males, confirmns that this is the mummy of a boy.
The loss of the panel exposes the burlap-type stuffing used to pad the facial area beneath the
panel portrait. An octagonal paper tag with the number "08" is attached to the center bottom of the
opening for the portrait panel. It does not refer to Petrie's numbering system: Petrie's (1911, pl. 26)
find number eight belonged to a rhombic-wrapped mummy. It might refer to the year in which the
mummy was accessioned by the museum. This area is caked with sand, which indicates either that
damage occurred to the portrait while in the ground or that the portrait was removed prior to burial.
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 19

ILLUSTRATIONS
Plate 19, figures 26-30

PRESENT LOCATION
Collection: Egyptian Museum
Inventory Number: CG 33216
City: Cairo

PROVENIENCE
Hawara (Petrie excavation, 1888)

DATE OF PORTRAIT
"The date most probable is the time of Hadrian [ca. A.D. 130]" (Parlasca 1969, p. 49). This is a re-
vision by Parlasca (ibid., 1966, pp. 116-17), who initially dated the mummy to the latter first cen-
tury A.D.

DATE OF BODY WRAPPING

First quarter of the second century A.D.

MALE OR FEMALE
Female. A young girl, as Parlasca (1969, p. 48) suggests "notwithstanding the length of the
mummy," which he lists as 1.58 m, but which is actually only 1.07 m (see below). The measure-
ments for this mummy were probably confused with that of Red-shrouded Mummy No. 12, which is
1.58 m in length (height).

MEASUREMENTS
Body Height: 46.00 inches (1.07 m [Edgar 1905a, p. 70])
Width: 12.50 inches (37.00 cm [ibid.])
Depth: 6.50 inches
Portrait Y/N?: Yes
Length: 9.75 inches
Width: 5.00 inches
Portrait Frame Y/N?: Modified, modeled in stucco
Width: 1.125 inches

RHOMBI
N/A

171
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172 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

CHEST S TRIP
Y/N?: No
Width: N/A

INLAID STONES
Y/N?: Yes, gems of various sizes, inlaid in frame and in bracelets; bronze
disc between feet
Diameter: Bronze disc: 2.00 inches;
average diameter of gems: 0.50 to 1.00 inch

GILT BUTTONS
Y/N?: No
Diameter: N/A

FOOTCASE
Y/N?: No
Underside Height: N/A
Width: N/A
Front Edge Height: N/A

DIAMETER OF ROSETTE/WADJET-EYE
N/A

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF BOUND FIGURES

Height: N/A
Width: N/A

LENGTH/WIDTH OF (CARTONNAGE) FEET

Length: 3.50 inches
Width: 1.75 inches

INSCRIPTION
Y/N?: No
Location of Inscription: N/A
Demotic/Greek: N/A
Text: N/A

DESCRIPTION OF STUCCO MUMMY NO. 19

REFERENCES FOR DESCRIPTION
Edgar 1905a, pp. 70-73, pl. 31
Parlasca 1969, pp. 48-49, pl. 20/2
Eingartner 1991, p. 169, pl. 89
Personal observation by author, 1984-85, 1993
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 19 173

FOOT COVER (Fig. 26)

The bottom register, in which the feet are depicted, is four inches in length. The feet are modeled
in relief. The toenails are delicately rendered with horizontal lines for the toe joints. They wear
plain sandals and ankle bracelets. The anklets resemble the deceased's armlets in that they are
similar to a twisted rope with a large inlaid oval bluish-white gem in the center. Between the feet is
an incised branch or "spray as on no. 33215" (Stucco Mummy No. 18), according to Edgar, with
leaves resembling those on the frame of Stucco Mummy No. 18 (cf. also Stucco Mummy No. 23).

Figure 26. Detail of Foot Cover, Stucco Mummy No. 19

To the right of the right foot is a standing mummiform figure in profile. The mummy is carved
upside-down, that is, it is standing on the top border line of the first register and its head is at the
base of the footcase so that it is facing the portrait of the deceased. The mummy has a human pro-
file. It wears a shoulder-length wig topped by a disc. The mummy is wrapped in a sheath that is in-
cised with horizontal lines across the shoulders and chest. From the bottommost of these lines hangs
a vertical sash that ends in a diagonal cut. There is a flap which falls from the chest of the figure. It
is grasped by the mummy's clenched fists and is rounded at the bottom where it stops above the
footcase. It is decorated with incised horizontal stripes.
There is stucco loss to the left of the left foot. There remains the head and chest of a mummi -
form figure "similar," according to Edgar, to that on the right. The figure is smaller and shorter than
its counterpart, however, probably due to the smaller amount of register space on the left side (see
comment below). This mummy differs in that there is a distinct line that curves from behind the
neck and falls on the chest, indicating the lappet of a shoulder-length wig. Along the sides of the
footcase is a raised line that continues from the top border line. The loss of stucco at the bottom
edge of the foot cover exposes linen bandages that cover the large toes of the feet. Wedged inside
the bandages that remain is a bronze disc that seems to be undecorated and uninscribed. The inclu-
sion of any objects within the wrappings of portrait mummies is unusual. Petrie (1911, p. 20) com-
mented that portrait mummies were, as a rule, wrapped without amulets of any kind (see Physical
Evidence, pp. 76-77, above).

BODY COVER
The body was wrapped overall with coarse linen and then covered with a layer of stucco at the
front and along the sides. The stucco was painted with a red undercoating and then gilded.
The body of the mummy is divided into three horizontal registers. Each of the registers contains
a mythological scene modeled in relief and embellished with incised lines. A raised horizontal line,
forming the groundline, separates each scene from the next at top and bottom.
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174 4CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

REGISTER ONE (Fig. 27)

There is a blank space between the foot covering and the first register, which is bordered at top and
bottom by a raised horizontal line. This space is one-half inches in length.

Q-/

Figure 27. Detail of Register One, Stucco Mummy No. 19

The first register above the feet is four inches in length. It depicts the adoration of a fetish of
Osiris and is almost identical to the scene in Register One of Stucco Mummy No. 18. The symbol is
in the center of the vignette. It is a bandaged oval that is topped by a disc, which is inlaid with a
small circular white gem. To the left and right of the Osiris emblem is a standing figure who cradles
the fetish in swathed arms. The standing figures have human heads with a slightly hawkish profile.
The figures wear short wigs atop which is a disc. Each wears an ankle length garment with a long
sash that hangs from the waist to just above the hem of the garment. The sash ends in a diagonal
cut. Each also wears a mantle that covers the arms and hands (see discussion under Register One
of Stucco Mummy No. 18).
Behind the figure at right stands a figure in profile facing inward who holds a was-scepter erect
with the far arm raised and crooked at the elbow and the near arm lowered and crooked at the el-
bow. The bottom of the scepter seems to rest on the figure's forward foot. The was-scepter is in-
cised to show the features of the animal head. The standing figure wears a short wig and an ankle
length garment with a long side sash represented by two vertical lines. It seems that the artist has
attempted to show this figure in profile. The bulge just below the figure's chin could be the far
shoulder that has been folded at a "hinged" back.
At the right comer of the scene, behind the figure with a was-scepter, stands a mummiform
figure in profile facing inward. The mummy has the head of a hawk atop which is a double crown.
The red crown is decorated with incised dots. The mummy wears a striated shoulder-length wig.
The mummy is wrapped in a sheath that is incised with horizontal lines across the chest. From the
bottommost of these lines hangs a vertical sash. There is a flap that falls from the chest of the fig-
ure. It appears to be held in the clenched hands of the mummy and is rounded at the bottom where
it stops at the footcase. It is decorated with incised horizontal stripes.
There is a loss of stucco on the left side of the scene. There are remains of a was- scepter that is
held erect by a raised arm and a lowered arm. There are remains of a foot directly beneath the
was-scepter. The body of the figure, which would have complemented the standing figure at the
right, is lost. There does not seem to have been room on this side for an additional mummiform fig-
ure behind this standing figure as on the right.
Edgar notes that this scene contains "two figures as on no. 33215 [Stucco Mummy No. 18] with
similar object between them." The scene of the adoration of the Osiris fetish also appears on Red-
shrouded Mummies No. 15, Register Four, and No. 16, Register Three.
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 19 175

There is a blank space between the first and second registers that is bordered at top and bottom
by a raised horizontal line. This space is three-quarters of an inch in length.

REGISTER TWO (Fig. 28)

The second register is five inches in length. It depicts the jackal-headed Anubis (or jackal-masked
priest as Anubis) who stands, facing left, behind a lion bier, lustrating the wrapped mummy (of the
deceased) lying on the bier. Anubis wears a shoulder-length wig that is tied back by a fillet. Atop
his head is a disc. The upper garment, which falls in a fashion similar to a sheath from below the
chest, is decorated with a grid pattern. He also wears a shendot-kilt, the drapery of which is in-
dicated by diagonal lines between the legs. In his far hand, he raises a cup-shaped vessel that
seems to contain something (water?) which rises in an arc above the lip of the vessel. His near
hand rests on the body of the mummy. To the front of Anubis is inlaid a large square purplish-red
gem. Behind the head of Anubis is inlaid a large round lapis blue gem. The mummy, depicted as
wrapped in rhombic bandages, has the profile of a three-dimensional mummy mask with a striated
wig.

Figure 28. Detail of Register Two, Stucco Mummy No. 19

The mummy is lying on a bed described by Edgar only as "of the usual lion form." The lion
head, which faces left, suffers from a loss of stucco. There is, however, no crown visible on top of
the lion's head. In front of the bed, a long flap hangs from below the lion's neck to just above the
front paws. The lion's tail at the foot of the bed curves up and over the footcase of the mummy on
the platform. The bed has the legs of a lion; each pair of legs is shown as only one leg. The front
leg is stiff and straight; the back leg is shown flexed. Both feet rest directly on the groundline.
There are no vessels beneath the bier to represent the canopic jars.
At the foot of the lion bed, facing inward toward the bier, stands Thoth as a human male figure
with the head of an ibis. His far arm is raised at the elbow in a gesture of protection or respect as he
approaches the mummy; the other arm is lowered before him (the same gesture performed by the
male figure above as Edgar notes). Two diagonal lines indicate that he is wearing a garment which
falls from below his chest. He also wears a shendot-kilt. Thoth wears a shoulder-length wig atop his
ibis head. He also wears a crown of "ram's horns and tall cap," according to Edgar, which is similar
to the [atef]-crown worn by Osiris in the top register.
Behind Thoth stands a mummiform figure. The mummy has a human face in profile with a stri -
ated lappet wig atop which is a disc. The body is wrapped in a sheath that is incised with horizontal
lines across the shoulder and chest. From the bottommost of these lines are two vertical lines. There
is a flap of cloth that falls from the chest of the figure. The flap is decorated with incised horizontal
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176 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

stripes and is rounded at the bottom. It appears to be clasped by clenched hands that project from
the chest of the mummy. The mummy is similar to the mummy in Register Four of Red-shrouded
Mummy No. 14, which Edgar( 1905a, p. 76) described as "of ordinary type." It might represent one
of the sons of Horus, or it might represent the deceased herself (although Edgar refers to the figure
shown here as masculine).
There is a great deal of stucco loss at the left end of the scene. It is possible, however, to iden-
tify the profile of the hawk head of the god Horus, the deity one would expect to find as the coun-
terpart to Thoth, although in this scene one more often expects to find Isis and Nephthys at the head
and foot of the bier. Horus faces inward toward the bier, raising his far arm at the elbow. Remains
of stucco indicate an outline for the other arm to show that Horus was performing the same gesture
as Thoth. Atop the hawk head is a crown "of two plumes," according to Edgar. These are two maat-
feathers atop a flat rectangular base, a crown similar to those worn by the lions in funerary biers
shown, for example, on Red-shrouded Mummy No. 16, Register Four, and to that worn by the Osiris
fetish on Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15, Register Four.
Although the stucco is missing from beyond the figure of Horus on this end of the scene, there
does not appear to have been sufficient room at this point for any other figures (such as an addi-
tional mummiform figure) to have been added on this side. From below this register, the left side of
the successive registers is not as large as the right side, resulting in a slight twist to the stucco and
decoration, just as on Stucco Mummy No. 18.
There is a vertical band that descends from the horizontal border at the top of the register: it
falls between Thoth and the mummiform figure. The band is inscribed with a group of vertical lines
at top and a pair of wavy horizontal lines at the bottom. The configuration of signs resembles the
hieroglyphic formula dd mdw jn, which marks the beginning of a quotation of direct speech. For a
discussion of this scene, see HistoricalBackground to the Cultic Use of Red Wrappings, pp. 57-58,
above.
There is a blank space between the second and third registers that is bordered at top and bottom
by a raised, horizontal line. This space is one inch in length.

REGISTER THREE (Fig. 29)

The third register is four and three-quarter inches in length. In the center of the register is a kneel -
ing goddess with outstretched wings. Her head is in profile facing left. In each of her hands she
holds a maat-feather ("a plume," according to Edgar). She is probably meant to represent the god -
dess Nut who is often depicted across the breast of mummies having decoraed cartonnage covers
and who also appears on portrait mummies (cf. Stucco Mummy No. 18). She wears a vertically
striated shoulder-length wig topped by a headdress. Edgar describes the headdress as a "crown of
cow's horns and disc(?) surmounted by w. The disc is filled in by an engraved gem of red stone."
This headdress is the same one worn by the goddess in Register Three of Stucco Mummy No. 18.
Edgar describes the design of the engraved red gem as being a "a vessel or table 7, surmounted
by two erect corn [wheat]-ears with a twig(?) standing slantwise on each side; on each side of this
a bird stands (in profile inwards) on the top of a cornucopia." Perhaps this intaglio represents the
same scene that is illustrated in Register Four of Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15, in which an Osiris
fetish is flanked by two cornice-topped pedestals, on top of each of which is a hawk in profile
facing inward. The goddess wears a broad collar, but her garment is not outlined. The wings of the
goddess, which curve upward, are of three parts: three layers of feathers, the outer and middle are
incised with diagonal lines, and the inner incised with cross-hatched lines.
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 19 177

Directly on the ground, to the right and left of the goddess, is a cup-shaped vessel with contents
(water?) arcing over their tops. Behind each of these is a bowl with a lotus petal design that is bal-
anced on a rectangular pedestal. There is a loss of stucco at the bowl on the left.

Figure 29. Detail of Register Three, Stucco Mummy No. 19

At the right end of the scene is a striding male figure facing left. His far arm is raised at the el-
bow in a gesture of respect as he approaches the goddess; the near arm is lowered before him. He
wears a vertically striated shoulder-length wig topped by a disc. He is clothed in a shendot-kilt
(Edgar's "loincloth"). There is a loss of stucco over his body preventing the description of other
details.
There is a complete loss of stucco on the left end of the scene, although Edgar suggests that "a
similar figure on the other side" may have been found.
There are four vertical bands, with border edging, that descend from the upper horizontal bor -
der: one to either side of the maat-feather held upright by the goddess. Edgar describes them as
containing "zigzag lines for hieroglyphs." Whereas the inner bands contain simply "zigzag lines,"
the outer bands seem to contain a real attempt at an inscription. The top sign resembles the
horizontal snake and vertical lines, a lower sign resembles a nb-sign for a possible rendering of the
common inscription for "the quotation of words to be said by the goddess."
There is a blank space above the third register that is bordered at top and bottom by a raised,
horizontal line. This space is one inch in length.

PORTRAIT AND FRAME (Fig. 30)

The top register is actually a continuation of the painted portrait as it depicts the upper torso of the
individual modeled in three-dimensional stucco. Within the left and right corners left open by the
curve of the modeled arms is depicted a seated deity.
The deity at the right is Osiris. He is shown wrapped in a mummiform sheath with his arms
crooked at the elbows and his hands clenched before his chest. His chest is decorated with incised
horizontal lines whereas the cloth covering his arms has a rhombic pattern. In each hand, Osiris
holds a flail that drapes over the corresponding shoulder. He wears a short bag wig atop which is a
crown "of ram's horns and tall cap with disk in front." Above the crown is inlaid a round light green
gem. Osiris is seated, with legs in profile, on a throne. The side of the throne is decorated with
cross-hatched lines except that in the bottom back corner of the throne is incised a star (a pseudo
sma-tawy sign as shown on the sides of similar thrones depicted on Red-shrouded Mummies Nos.
14 and 15). The plinth of the throne is decorated with vertical lines usually seen in representations
of curved cornices.
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178 178
CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

On the torso, just below the modeled left hand, in the center of the register, is an oval opaque
lapis blue stone with a teardrop-shaped emerald green gem at each side. At the upper left corner,
beneath the elbow of the left arm, is a molded bezel for a square stone that is now missing.

Figure 30. Detail of Portrait and Frame, Stucco Mummy No. 19

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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 19 179

There is a loss of stucco at the left corner that contained a complementary design to the image
at right. Still visible are the remains of a plinth similar to that for the throne of Osiris. Atop the
plinth can be seen the toes of a foot. Atop the foot is a box above which is the outline of a cup-
shaped object (Edgar describes this as a "lotus-shaped vessel on a stand"). By comparison to the
scenes depicting seated deities on other mummies (cf. Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14), the deity
originally illustrated in this corner, as a foil to Osiris, was the god Sokar-Re (see Repertoire of
RepresentationalScenes, p. 55, above).
The shoulders are covered by a "fringed mantle with knot between the breasts," according to
Edgar. This motif is commonly (although imprecisely) referred to as an "Isis knot" and is associ-
ated with the goddess (see Priestesses?, pp. 72-74, above). The bare arms are also modeled in
stucco. The raised right arm is crooked at the elbow and the opened right hand is placed upon the
left breast. The left arm is bent down at the elbow and the opened left hand is placed upon the mid-
thorax.
Each arm is decorated with an armlet that resembles a twisted rope with a space for an oval-
shaped inlaid gem in the center. Both gems are missing. Each wrist is decorated with a bracelet that
has inlaid gems, "in the middle a [diamond-shaped lapis] blue lozenge; at each end an elliptical
gem with red, white, and black strata [as at center top]; on each side two small globes of transpar-
ent green," according to Edgar, although the bracelet on the left hand is missing two green stones.
On the third finger of the right hand is a ring with a squarish opaque lapis blue stone. On the pinky
and ring finger of the left hand are rings with small oval stones of the red, white and black variety.
Edgar notes that the ring on the left-hand ring finger is worn "above the joint." In the right hand, the
deceased holds a folded wreath. In the left hand, she holds three sheaves that Edgar describes as "a
bunch of three ears of grain," a fertility symbol associating Isis with the vegetation goddesses
Renenutet and Thermouthis (cf. Red-shrouded Mummies Nos. 12 and 13, and see Red Wreaths and
the Isis Cult, pp. 63-64, above).
The oval opening for the portrait has an elaborate modeled frame. The frame effects the horse-
shoe shape that is typical for portrait frames which were occasionally added to mummies from
Hawara. The inner edge of the stucco modeled frame is bordered by a row of granulated beads and
a raised line. The outer edge is bordered by two raised lines. The frame is decorated with a vine
design (Edgar calls it a "laurel-wreath"), which also decorated the overlay frames. On this stucco
frame the vine pattern consists of inlaid gems that are connected by a raised relief "stem" with
raised relief blades or "leaves" between each gem. At the center top of the frame, above the head
of the portrait, is "a small Isiac crown, corn[wheat]-ears(?) [certainly], cow's horns, and plumes,"
according to Edgar. The elliptical (sun) disc in the middle of the crown is filled by a gem ("glass,"
according to Edgar), which is black and white along the outer edges with a mostly red center. See
Priestesses?, pp. 72-74, above, and compare Stucco Mummy No. 21, Portrait and Frame.
To either side of this elliptical central gem are fourteen gems inlaid in the frame (seven on the
left-hand side, seven on the right). The gems might originally have been from jewelry owned by
the deceased as was suggested in the discussion of Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 2. The gems,
starting from the bottom right, are: (1) light blue, small, oval; (2) blue, large, oval; (3) red,
medium, oval; (4) emerald green, large, rectangle; (5) missing, originally large, oval; (6) missing,
originally large, oval; (7) missing, originally large, square; and from the bottom left: (1) opaque
orange/red, medium, oval; (2) medium blue, large, circle; (3) opaque dark red, small, oval; (4)
emerald green, large, rectangle; (5) opaque lapis blue, large, oval; (6) clear green, medium, oval;
and (7) emerald green, medium, rectangle. The gems are round or elliptical except for the fourth
and seventh gems that are rectangular. The orange/red gem in the bottom left corner (the design of
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180 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

which was not possible to examine in detail although the incised lines were visible) is described by
Edgar as an intaglio that depicts a "youthful head to right with fringe of curls and indistinct emblem
like pshent; apparently holds up right hand towards face." His suggestion that it depicts "perhaps a
head of Harpokrates" seems likely because of the depiction of the child's gesture, typical in images
of Horus the child, in which he holds a hand to his mouth. The representation of Harpocrates on a
gem stone on this mummy is also complementary to the Isiac iconography of the crown and to the
depiction of the deceased wearing a "Horus-lock," the "tuft of hair from which hang two purple rib-
bons," according to Edgar. For further discussion, see Priestesses?, pp. 72-74, above.
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 20

ILLUSTRATION
Plate 20

PRESENT LOCATION
Collection: Egyptian Museum
Inventory Number: CG 33280
City: Cairo

PROVENIENCE
Saqqara (Edgar 1905a, p. 123)

DATE OF PORTRAIT
There is a considerable loss of stucco and paint from the portrait evident in Edgar's photograph, es-
pecially at the forehead and across the lower part of the face at the mouth. The object itself has
collapsed, apparently a hazard with this type of decorated mummy (cf. Stucco Mummy No. 22).

DATE OF BODY WRAPPING

Mid-fourth century A.D. by comparison to Stucco Mummies Nos. 21, 22, and 23

MALE OR FEMALE
Female. According to Edgar's (1905a, p. 123, n. 1) reappraisal on the basis of the Jewelry
(particularly the earrings and the Gorgoneia at the breasts), the mummy is that of a woman.

MEASUREMENTS
Body Height: 1.60 m (Edgar 1905a, p. 123)
Width: 52.00 cm (ibid.)
Depth: Not available
Portrait YIN?: Yes
Length: Not available
Width: Not available
Portrait Frame YIN?: Modified, modeled in stucco
Width: Not available

RHOMBIC PATTERN
N/A

CHEST S TRIP
YIN?: No
Width: N/A
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182 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

GILT BUTTONS
Y/N?: No
Diameter: N/A

FOOTCASE
Y/N?: Yes, modeled in stucco
Underside Height: Not available
Width: Not available
Front Edge Height: N/A

SIDE OF DECORATED SQUARE

Approximately 2.00 inches

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF IMAGES IN S QUARES

Approximately 1.50 x 1.00 inch

LENGTH/WIDTH OF (CARTONNAGE) FEET

Length: Not available
Width: Not available

INSCRIPTION
Y/N?: No
Location of Inscription: N/A
Demotic/Greek: N/A
Text: N/A

DESCRIPTION OF STUCCO MUMMY NO. 20

REFERENCES FOR DESCRIPTION
Edgar 1905a, pp. 123-26, pl. 47
Egyptian Museum 1994, pp. 18-19
Personal observation by author, 1984-85
The portrait will be included in Parlasca, forthcoming
Both this mummy and the stuccoed mummy similar in design to it (Stucco Mummy No. 21)
were in storage during October 1984-June 1985. Although entrance was permitted to the storage
area, the mummies were enclosed in a sturdy glass-topped packing case that was not easily acces-
sible. Moreover, the mummies were in a fragile condition. It was therefore prudent to view the ob-
jects from outside their storage container, to take notes on designs and colors, and to compare the
objects with the detailed descriptions and photographs given in Edgar's catalog. Consequently, the
statistics given for this mummy are summary.
It is a fortunate coincidence that both these mummies (Stucco Mummies Nos. 20 and 21) are
described in greater detail than any others cataloged by Edgar and that they are two of the seven
portrait mummies which were published by him in full-length photographs.

FOOT COVER
There is a loss of linen shroud at the bottom of the mummy, especially at the right side.
Feet are depicted on a gray background. They are shod in bootlets. There is a central design on
the shoes similar to an inverted webbed foot with a raised disc (gilt button) at the middle. The cen-
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 20 183

tral design is red. The body of the boots is gray ("lilac," according to Edgar) with black lines that
give the appearance of a woolly fabric. Each ankle is decorated with two ankle bracelets, is mod-
eled in relief, and is gilt. The bracelets are ridged similar to the disc bead bracelets worn at the
wrists.
There is a white line between the feet and along the outer edges of the background. Beyond
this Edgar describes "a broad band of yellow with a wavy spray pattern in dark lines" and "on the
inner side a strip of white between dark lines." Both of these designs also appear in fragmentary
condition on Stucco Mummy No. 23. A further band of yellow and blue with white strokes continues
a pattern that began, at the top of the mummy, around the head.
Just above the feet is the hem of the deceased's tunic. The tunic is fringed at the hem and has a
spiral design at the border. It is decorated with three figures that are aligned with the square panels
of the decorated field above. Edgar describes the central figure as "a human-headed uraeus to
front." The figure may however be an Osiris fetish. On each side of this figure is a uraeus in profile
inward with arms or wings (Edgar describes them as "winged") projecting before them.

BODY COVERING
The mummy is covered with a linen shroud that is gessoed, stuccoed, and painted.
The body field is covered by a paneled field or "apron" that is arranged in a grid pattern. Each
of five rows of the apron consists of three squared panels. The top row consists of a unified scene.
Each panel contains an image in raised relief that is gilt, "the details being rendered for the most
part by raised lines and dots," according to Edgar. The panels are separated at the top and bottom
by rows of raised dots. To each side of the central panels are various-shaped patterns (diamonds,
branches, ovals, etc.). At each corner of the central panels is a square bit of stucco painted to re-
semble a precious gem.

RoW ONE
At the top and bottom of this row is a line of horizontal dividers (raised dots and raised stucco
squares).
In the central panel of the row is "a winged female sphinx ... with tail round flank," according
to Edgar. The sphinx wears a shoulder-length wig. Its head is human or possibly that of a hawk. At
the top of the head is a disc.
Within each panel to the side of this central panel is a figure wrapped in a sheath. Each figure
is seated in profile facing inward, feet flat on the ground, hugging its knees to chest. The figures
appear to hold something in their hands, possibly the maat- plume. The figures are seated on a
pedestal similar to the ones shown in Rows Three and Five beneath the hawk and ibis figures
("pedestal below mummy as on 2 and 4," according to Edgar). The figures may represent the god-
dess Maat, although Edgar describes each as "a seated mummy" (cf. this to his description of a fig-
ure--certainly the goddess--on Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14).
ROW TWO
In the central panel is a hawk-headed crocodile in profile facing left. The animal has a rear and
foreleg, a second "projecting foreleg," according to Edgar, and two upraised wings (one behind the
other) on top of its back. The animal's tail resembles an upright cobra with splayed hood (a
"uraeus-tail," according to Edgar). There is a small disc above the animal's head. As on the central
panel with the griffin (see Row Four), there is a small raised square in each upper corner. The
hawk-headed crocodile represents the syncretized deity Soknopaious, a local deity of the Fayoum
(see Local Characteristicsof DecoratedMummies, pp. 45-46, above).
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184 84CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

Within each panel to the side of this central panel is an X impressed in stucco and gilt. The
same pattern appears again on this mummy in the side panels to Row Four and in the side panels to
Row Three of the "apron" field of Stucco Mummy No. 21. Separating each of the side panels from
the central panel on Stucco Mummy No. 20 is a leafed branch placed vertically (as in Row Four).
SThis branch is similar to the branch that appears in the central panel of Row Two of Section Three
of Stucco Mummy No. 23.

Row THREE
In the central panel is "a bust to front, wearing chiton and himation; on each side an uncertain at-
tribute (curving stem with bud-shaped top)," according to Edgar. The drapery lines are shown by
diagonal and vertical lines. Although it resembles a pleated tunic with a cloak over the left shoul-
der, these lines might also represent funerary bandages. The bust (which looks similar to a semi-
circle) is similar to the shape that appears in the central panel of Row Two of Section Two of the
"apron" field of Stucco Mummy No. 23. The image might represent a fetish of Osiris such as that il-
lustrated in Register Four of Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15. The objects to each side of the bust
might represent altars(?) similar to the stand which separates the two uraei in the central panel of
Row One of Section One of the "apron" field of Stucco Mummy No. 23. A human bust in profile
appears also in the side panels of the top row of Stucco Mummy No. 21.
Within each panel to the side of the central panel is a bird in profile facing inward. Each bird
stands on a "pedestal," according to Edgar. The birds might represent the ibis of Thoth, the kites of
Isis and Nephthys (see Row Six of Stucco Mummy No. 21), or a phoenix(?). They appear also in
the side panels of Row Two of Section Three of Stucco Mummy No. 23. There is a raised dot or
disc above the head of each bird.

ROW FOUR
In the central panel is "a winged griffin with serpent-tail, seated to right with left foreleg raised
over wheel," according to Edgar. This motif appears to the left of the head of an individual on a
painted panel (Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Inv. AE 686/687). Parlasca (1966, p. 72) identifies the
animal as a symbol of Nemesis (fate) but also stresses the solar aspect of the motif. In each of the
upper comers of the panel is a raised square.
Within each panel to the side of this central panel is an X impressed in stucco and gilt. The
same pattern appears in the side panels of Row Two (described above) and in Row Three of the
"apron" field of Stucco Mummy No. 21. Separating each of these side panels from the central panel
is a leafed branch placed vertically. This branch is similar to the branch which appears in Row Two
(described above) and in the central panel of Row Two of Section Three of the "apron" field of
Stucco Mummy No. 23.

ROW FIVE
In the central panel is a winged putto. The full-length figure is in profile facing left. The figure is
clothed in an ankle-length garment that has a double pleated fishtail bottom. The wings of the fig -
ure are frontal and are attached at the shoulder line. The figure's arms are held forward, bent up-
ward at the elbow. Beneath the figure is a raised line.
Edgar tentatively suggests that the figure may represent "victory." The image of a winged god -
dess is however a common motif on earlier portrait mummies, on which the goddesses Isis and
Nephthys appear winged (cf. Red-shrouded Mummies Nos. 14 or 15) and the goddess Nut spreads
her wings in a protective gesture across the body of the mummy (cf. Stucco Mummy No. 19).
Moreover, there is the image of the winged ba or soul (cf. Section Two, Row Two, Stucco Mummy
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 20 185

No. 23). It is therefore not necessary to look to Greek or Roman mythology, in a conceptual sense,
for an antecedent for this motif.
The image of a flying figure in profile appears on limestone reliefs of the third to fifth centuries
A.D. when it is adopted into Christian iconography. See, for example, the fifth or sixth century A.D.
panel painting (Coptic Museum, Inv. 9105) that resembles a mummy portrait with face frontal but
has wings at the shoulder line and an inscription identifying the individual as an archangel. Also
see the relief (Coptic Museum, number 133) on which a winged figure bears a garland for the head
of St. George and another relief (Coptic Museum, number 728) from a door of St. Barbara's in Old
Cairo that shows the head of Christ within a medallion supported by two flying "angels." A relief
from Heracleopolis (Coptic Museum, Inv. 7029) might have served as a prototype for the image of
Christ on the door of St. Barbara's. It is dated to the third or fourth century A.D. (contemporary to
the stuccoed portrait mummies) and shows a goddess of agriculture (called Ceres in the museum
label) who is encircled by a floral medallion supported by two flying "nymphs" shown in a pose
identical to that of the figure in the central panel of this mummy (Stucco Mummy No. 20).
A flying figure appears in the central panel of Row Five of the "apron" field of Stucco Mummy
No. 21. The motif also appears (in a fragmentary state) in the top left comer of the bottom of the
middle of Row One of Section Two of Stucco Mummy No. 23, where only the head (shown frontal)
and the wings (attached at the shoulder line) remain.
Within each panel to the side of this central panel is a standing hawk in profile facing inward.
There is a disc above the head of each bird. The birds stand on a "calyx-like pedestal," according to
Edgar. Hawks, standing in profile on a pedestal, appear in Register Four of Red-shrouded Mummy
No. 15 and also on an intaglio inlaid in Register Three of Stucco Mummy No. 19. The birds in the
side panels of Row Six of the "apron" field of Stucco Mummy No. 21 probably depict kites, how-
ever, not hawks. Kites can substitute for the goddesses Isis and Nephthys.

Row Six
In the center of this scene is a mummiform ("possibly mummiform," according to Edgar) Apis bull,
lying in profile facing left. On his head is a disc. The bull lies in a simple shrine. The roof of the
shrine, supported by a column in front and back of the bull, is decorated with a uraeus frieze.
Above the back of the bull is a raised dot. There are four more raised dots beneath the bull (to rep-
resent canopic jars?).
To each side of this central motif is a standing bull in profile facing inward. In front of each bull
is "a post or altar," according to Edgar. Above the back of the bull at right is a scarab beetle with a
disc. Above the back of the bull at left are two uraei, each with a disc.
A mummiform Apis bull appears on the right side of the head casing and a striding bull(?) with
a white crown appears above the left hand of Stucco Mummy No. 22, a mummy covering that
shares other features in common with these shrouds from Saqqara (e.g., the ram of Mendes motif
on Stucco Mummy No. 23, and the image of Soknopaious on this mummy, Stucco Mummy No. 20).
A standing bull with a disc on its head appears in Row Three of the "apron" field of Stucco Mummy
No. 21. The Apis bull is a Memphite motif.

LEFT AND RIGHT S IDE BORDERS

To the left and right of the central "apron" field are identical vertical border strips. Each strip con-
sists of a square panel that contains a raised diamond shape in the center (cf. the description of a
similar panel from the left side of Stucco Mummy No. 23). The diamond is decorated with eight
dots arranged in a diamond pattern and a dot in the center. The triangular corners of the panels are
alternately red and blue (those on Stucco Mummy No. 23 are red/white). There are three of these
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186 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

square panels separated by two rectangular panels. The rectangular panels contain decorative im-
ages (cf. the rectangular panels from the left side of Stucco Mummy No. 23). The square panels
are separated from the rectangular panels by a horizontal row of raised dots. Beyond these strips is
a border of "yellow with leaf-shaped strokes in white," according to Edgar, similar to a border on
the right side of Stucco Mummy No. 23.
The lower rectangular panels contain dual uraei on a T-shaped pedestal within an inner dia-
mond-shape made from an incised twisted rope. The snakes are upraised with splayed hoods. They
are in profile facing inward. Each has a disc on its head. Dual uraei appear above the back of the
Apis bull on the left side panel of Row Six of the "apron" field (described above) and to the sides
of the motif at the hem of the tunic (described above). Two uraei, hoods splayed, are shown facing
a central column (altar or fetish) which separates them in the central panel of Row One of Section
One of Stucco Mummy No. 23. Dual uraei also appear in the central panel of Row One and in Row
Seven of Stucco Mummy No. 21. In the Roman period, dual uraei often represented Isis and
Serapis.
The upper rectangular panels contain, according to Edgar, "a mummy Anubis standing inwards;
disc above head and leaf-shaped studs round about (like a growing plant)" within an inner diamond
shape made from an incised twisted rope. Compare this figure with the ithyphallic mummiform fig-
ure depicted in the rectangular panel on the left side of Stucco Mummy No. 23.

PORTRAIT AND FRAME

In a smooth transition from the portrait, the bejeweled and clothed upper torso of the deceased is
modeled and painted at the upper half of the shroud. The multiple necklaces are modeled in relief.
The precious gems are represented by modeled and painted stucco. The more noteworthy of the
necklaces has two Gorgon or Medusa head pendants, each of which covers a breast. The earrings
are of a type not known from panel portraits. They are a drop earring consisting of a gold crescent,
an elliptical gold bead, and a white bead. A looped gold wire secures a gold bead to the side of
each ear. This jewelry is comparable to that shown on Stucco Mummy No. 21.
Although the arms are not shown, the hands are modeled in relief. The opened hands are
placed below the breasts at the center of the upper abdomen. The right hand is placed above the
left. In her right hand is held a high-necked flask. In her left hand, she holds a folded wreath. She
wears multiple gold disc bead bracelets (three on the right arm, four on the left). Edgar notes that
one has "a Gorgoneion in front."
From the shoulders, following the curve of the arms inward and then running straight down
along the sides of the decorative "apron" or field of the body of the mummy (between the rows of
three decorative square panels in the center and the outer line of rectangular decorative panels), is
an edging consisting of a red stucco stud alternating with a white ellipse. The edging continues be-
low the hem of the tunic and stops just above the top anklet. This strip appears also on Stucco
Mummies Nos. 21 and 23.
The portrait of a woman, which is seen to be badly damaged in Edgar's photograph, was
painted directly onto the gessoed cloth. Surrounding the face is a stucco wreath with rosettes.
Surrounding this wreath is a frame or "arcade," according to Edgar. The columns of the gateway
are divided into sections by horizontal bands (similar to the frame of Stucco Mummy No. 23). In
the center of the cross-section or arch is "a conch or palmette," according to Edgar, in relief. This
frame, similar to the one shown in Stucco Mummy No. 23, is similar to that seen on a tombstone
(Coptic Museum, Inv. 8024) and is probably an abbreviated form of a full-size shrine (see The
UnderworldDoor, pp. 52-53, above).
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 21

ILLUSTRATION
Plate 21

PRESENT LOCATION
Collection: Egyptian Museum
Inventory Number: CG 33281
City: Cairo

PROVENIENCE
Saqqara (Edgar 1905a, p. 126)

DATE OF PORTRAIT
Parlasca (1980, p. 47) compares this example to portrait number 598 (Staatliche Kunstsamm-
lungen, Dresden, Inv. 778; ibid., p. 48), which seems to have been made "around the middle of the
IVth c."

DATE OF BODY WRAPPING

Mid-fourth century A.D. by comparison to Stucco Mummies Nos. 20, 22, and 23

MALE OR FEMALE
Female. Compare the "two Gorgoneia in gilded relief" (Edgar 1905a, p. 127) or the "two Medusa
medallions" (Parlasca 1980, p. 47) that appear on this mummy (Stucco Mummy No. 21) with a
single Medusa medallion that appears on Staatliche Museen, Berlin, Inv. 11659 (Parlasca 1980, p.
47) and Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, Inv. 778 (Parlasca 1980, p. 48).

MEASUREMENTS
Body Height: 60.00 inches (1.58 m [Edgar 1905a, p. 126])
Width: 14.00 inches (43.00 cm [ibid.])
Depth: 9.00 inches (27.00 cm [ibid.])
Portrait Y/N?: Yes
Length: 12.00 inches
Width: 8.00 inches
Portrait Frame Y/N?: Modified, modeled in stucco
Width: 2.50 inches

RHOMBIC PATTERN
N/A

187
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188 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

CHEST S TRIP
Y/N?: No
Width: N/A

INLAID STONES
Y/N?: Modified, modeled in stucco
Diameter: Approximately 0.50 inch

GILT BUTTONS
Y/N?: No
Diameter: N/A

FOOTCASE
Y/N?: Yes, modeled in stucco
Underside Height: 8.00 inches
Width: 10.00 inches
Front Edge Height: N/A

SIDE OF DECORATED SQUARE

Approximately 2.00 inches

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF IMAGES IN SQUARES

Approximately 1.50 x 1.00 inch

LENGTH/WIDTH OF (CARTONNAGE) FEET

Length: 8.00 inches
Width: 3.00 inches

INSCRIPTION
Y/N?: No
Location of Inscription: N/A
Demotic/Greek: N/A
Text: N/A

DESCRIPTION OF STUCCO MUMMY NO. 21

REFERENCES FOR DESCRIPTION
Edgar 1905a, pp. 126-29, pl. 47
Parlasca 1980, pp. 47-48, pl. 142/4
Egyptian Museum 1994, pp. 18-19, fig. 15
Personal observation by author, 1984-85, 1995
Both this mummy (Stucco Mummy No. 21) and the stuccoed mummy similar in design to it
(Stucco Mummy No. 20) were in storage during October 1984-June 1985. Although entrance was
permitted to the storage area, the mummies were enclosed in a sturdy glass-topped packing case
that was not easily accessible. The mummies were in a fragile condition and it was prudent to view
the objects from outside their storage container, to take notes on designs and colors, and to compare
the objects with the descriptions given in Edgar's catalog. Since that time, Stucco Mummy No. 21
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 21 189

has been cleaned and conserved and has been placed on exhibit. It was, therefore, possible to doc-
ument the statistics for Stucco Mummy No. 21 in April 1995.
It is nevertheless a fortunate coincidence that Stucco Mummies Nos. 20 and 21 are described in
greater detail than any others cataloged by Edgar and that they are two of the seven portrait
mummies that were published by him in full-length photographs.

FOOT COVER
The feet are painted on a background that is light blue/gray (cf. Stucco Mummy No. 23). It is not
the same color that forms the background for the portrait (see below), which is yellow with white
cross-hatching. There is a white line between the feet and along the outer edges of the fabric. This
is the same design that appears on Stucco Mummy No. 20.
The feet are shod in bootlets. The top of each boot has a border of white with black lines.
Beneath this, the upper part of the boots has a scalloped edging in beige (Edgar described it as
"yellow with white markings," perhaps when the colors were more clear). The body of the boots is
brown. There are "two white stars on front of each," according to Edgar. The "stars" are placed one
above the other. They are made up of a central dot with four rays or elliptical lines. There is an
edging of white with dots, along the outside of the soles of the bootlets. At the central tip of each
bootlet is a gilt dot.
Each ankle is decorated with two ankle bracelets, modeled in relief and gilt. The upper ankle
bracelets are plain. The lower ankle bracelets are ribbed similar to the bracelets worn at the wrists.
These bracelets are similar to those worn by Stucco Mummy No. 20. Even the arrangement, that
there is one fewer bracelet worn on the right arm, is copied (here three and two respectively, on
Stucco Mummy No. 20 there are four and three).
Just above the feet is the hem of the deceased's tunic. The hem of the tunic is fringed. The tunic
is edged with an elaborate horizontal border of five rosettes separated by lines and dots. The border
is dark brown and purple and has a decidedly "Coptic" flavor to the design. Above this edging, the
hem is decorated with three vertical bands that are aligned with the square panels above. These
bands are edged and are separated by two plain bands. The three bands are decorated. The two
side bands have several vertical lines in raised stucco. The central band has a vertical line in the
middle and two strips at each side with diagonal lines in opposite directions.

BODY COVERING
The shroud is linen cloth, which was gessoed, stuccoed, and painted. The body field is arranged in a
grid pattern or "apron" of seven horizontal rows. Each row consists of three square panels
(although the top row contains two extra panels). Each panel contains an image in raised relief that
is gilt, "the modeling being chiefly done by means of raised lines and dots," according to Edgar.
The panels (except for Row Seven) are separated, on all sides, by rows of raised dots. Edgar de-
scribes the dots as being attached to a strip of "white on a yellow background with patterns ... in
black lines" (see Edgar's sketches [1905a, p. 128]). At each corner of the central panels is a large
raised stud.

ROW ONE
This is the lowest row of the decorated "apron" field. The row is edged at the bottom by a line of
raised dots.
In the central panel are two uraei in profile facing each other. The cobras are upraised, with
hoods splayed. Each stands on a small T-shaped pedestal.
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190 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

There are two uraei in Row Seven of the "apron" field above. Dual uraei also appear above the
back of the Apis bull on the left side panel of Row Six of the "apron" field of Stucco Mummy No.
20, to the sides of the motif at the hem of the tunic and also on the lower rectangular panels on the
left and right side borders of that mummy. Two uraei who face each other-separated by an altar
or fetish-appear in the central panel of Row One of Section One of Stucco Mummy No. 23.
Within each side panel is a gilt rectangle incised with X's and embellished with raised dots.
The design resembles the motif in the central panels of Rows Two, Four, and Six. Edgar states
"border as on middle panel of 2 [6]," but they are not exactly alike as the rectangles in the side
panels of Row One are turned on end.

Row Two
In the central panel is a squarish shape decorated with impressed lines, which is similar to that in
the central panels of Rows Four and Six.
Within each side panel is a design of unclear symbolism. Edgar suggested either "a crown of
cow's horns (or two uraei?) with two discs between." The elements are: a white T-shaped pedestal
topped by a semicircle of gold, above which, at each side, is a vertical ellipse topped by a small
circle, and between these two elliptical shapes is a large circle. To the side of this design is a white
strip decorated with a black X at top, horizontal bands at the center, and a wavy vertical line at the
bottom (similar to the "columns" of the "arcade" frame).

ROW THREE
In the central panel is a standing bull in profile facing left "with head to front," according to Edgar.
There is a raised disc above the bull's back and in front of the bull's head. Standing Apis bulls ap-
pear in profile at either side of Row Six of the "apron" field of Stucco Mummy No. 20. For other
examples of this motif, see Stucco Mummy No. 21, Body Covering, Row Six.
Within each side panel to the central panel is a gilt rectangle incised with an X pattern. This
design appears in the side panels to Rows Two and Four of the "apron" field of Stucco Mummy No.
20.

ROW FOUR
In the central panel is a squarish shape decorated with impressed lines, which is similar to the de-
sign in the central panel of Row Two above and Row Six below. *
Within each panel to the side of this central panel is a standing mummiform figure in profile
facing inward. Compare it to the ithyphallic mummiform figures depicted in the upper side panels
of Stucco Mummy No. 20 and to the figure in the rectangular panel on the left side of Stucco
Mummy No. 23.

ROW FIVE
In the central panel is a winged putto. The full-length figure is flying to the left. The torso of the
figure is frontal. The left arm is held downward and bent in at the elbow so that the hand rests at
the hips. The right arm is held straight out to the side from the shoulder. By comparison to a winged
figure on a limestone relief (Coptic Museum, number 133) who bears a garland for the head of St.
George, this figure appears to hold a crown (or wreath?) in the right hand (Edgar refers to
"indistinct object in right" hand). Edgar describes the figure as "naked," perhaps because, although
there are no anatomical features delineated, there is no drapery line between the legs to indicate a
sheath or skirt. The figure has a ring of curly hair. The wings of the figure are frontal and are at-
tached at the shoulder line.
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 21 191

The figure changes to a profile view at the hips. Both legs are shown in profile, one above the
other, with feet pointed straight down. The figure hovers above a T-shaped platform.
This flying figure appears also in the central panel of Row Five of the "apron" field of Stucco
Mummy No. 20 and in a fragmentary state in the top left comer of the bottom of the middle of Row
One of Section Two of Stucco Mummy No. 23.
Within each panel to the side of this central panel is a rectangular shape. The shape is deco-
rated with a raised dot in the center and four raised dots in a diamond pattern around this. The cor-
ners are cut by diagonal lines.

ROw Six
In the central panel is a rectangular shape decorated with impressed lines (two incised X-shapes,
etc.). This design is repeated in the central panels of Rows Two and Four. It also appears in the
central panel of Row Two of Section One of Stucco Mummy No. 23.
Within each panel to the side of this central panel is a bird in profile facing inward. There is a
raised disc above the back of each bird.
Edgar refers to the bird in these panels as "a hawk." Hawks appear in profile in the side panels
of Row Five of the "apron" field of Stucco Mummy No. 20. There is, however, a strong icono-
graphic similarity between this scene and the scene depicted in Row Two of Section One of Stucco
Mummy No. 23, from which it is clear that the scene being depicted is the mourning of Osiris by his
sisters Isis and Nephthys. On Stucco Mummy No. 23, the goddess (only one is preserved) is shown
as a woman. If this scene is indeed parallel, the birds shown here (on Stucco Mummy No. 20) rep-
resent kites (not hawks), the birds which served as alternative images for the two goddesses.
Considering all the variants of this scene, it is one of the more popular to appear on portrait mum-
mies. The theme of the lamentations of Isis and Nephthys provided a text for dramatic reenact-
ments as part of the rites of the Isis cult.
The rectangular motif is repeated in the central panels of Rows Two and Four. In these con-
texts, however, the connection of the central motif with the images to either side is unclear.

ROW S EVEN
Row Seven is edged above by a line of large raised studs in the center of which is a design that re-
sembles a wrapped penny-candy (a mummy ticket?). The row itself contains five images: a central
panel with two smaller panels to each side.
In the central panel is a naked human figure in a frontal position. The figure appears to be
seated with its right leg forward and left leg bent in at the knee. The figure's right arm is raised at
its side and crooked at the elbow. The left arm is lowered and crooked at the elbow; the hand is
held to its abdomen. There is a raised dot in the upper left comer.
Edgar suggests that the figure is Harpocrates. The fact that the figure is shown naked in a child-
like posture supports this suggestion.
Within each small panel to the side of this central panel is an upraised uraeus, with splayed
hood, in profile facing inward. See central panel, Row One (described above), and central panel,
Row One of Section One of Stucco Mummy No. 23.
Beyond these panels are two other small panels that each contains a human bust in profile fac-
ing outward (cf. central panel of Row Three of Stucco Mummy No. 20). The figures wear shoulder-
length wigs. Drapery lines are indicated on the torsos.
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192 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

LEFT AND RIGHT SIDE BORDERS

To the left and right of the central "apron" field are identical vertical border strips. The strip con-
sists of a "zigzag band of yellow with white strokes, forming a series of triangles on each side of
it," according to Edgar. The outer triangles are pink (although Edgar notes that they alternate with
brown). The inner triangles are blue with gold. In the center of each triangle is a gilt raised dot.
Edgar describes the triangles as being decorated with "indistinct foliage patterns."
To the left and right of the border described above, Edgar describes two additional border pat-
terns. The first is a "yellow stripe with white strokes." The second is a "blue stripe with white
strokes."
At the bottom of the feet and along the sides of the mummy are loose strings that Edgar sug-
gests were used to sew the painted linen shroud to the linen wrappings beneath. The ends of these
strings were "sealed with lead," according to Edgar, who also notes that a "loose sheet of cloth is
stitched on to top of head, perhaps to draw over the front."This sheet is now folded behind the head
of the mummy.

PORTRAIT AND FRAME

At the lower corners of the torso are "two ornamental bands in an 'H,"' according to Parlasca,
which are described by Edgar as "a slanting black stripe like those on the tunic [i.e., the clavi] with
a notch at the end." For a discussion of this enigmatic motif, see Kurth 1990, pp. 51-52.
From the shoulders, following the curve of the arms inward and then running straight down
along the sides of the decorative "apron" or field of the body of the mummy (between the rows of
three decorative square panels in the center and the side borders of geometrically patterned trian-
gles), is an edging consisting of a red stucco stud alternating with a white ellipse. The edging stops
at the last row of decorative square panels where it meets the bottom horizontal dot border. This
strip appears also on Stucco Mummies Nos. 20 and 23.
Although the arms are not shown, the hands are modeled in relief. The opened hands are
placed below the breasts at the center of the upper abdomen. The right hand is placed above the
left. In her right hand, is held a small conical-shaped bottle. In her left hand she holds a folded
wreath. She wears multiple gold disc-bead bracelets (three on left and two on right; contra Parlasca
[p. 47] "the arms, each one of which is ornamented with three circlets of gold").
In a smooth transition from the portrait, the bejeweled and clothed upper torso of the deceased
is modeled and painted at the upper half of the shroud. The multiple necklaces are modeled in re -
lief. The precious gems are represented by modeled and painted stucco. Covering each breast is a
Gorgon (or Medusa head) pendant that appears to be attached to the tunic. The earrings are identi-
cal to those worn by Stucco Mummy No. 20: a gold crescent, an elliptical gold bead, and two round
white beads (contra Parlasca [ibid.] who describes them, however, as "hoops of gold from which
hang four pearls and a circle of gold.) Midway, at each side of the neck, is a raised and gilt rosette.
The portrait of a woman is painted directly onto the gessoed cloth. The woman wears a fillet or
twisted band of gray across the crown of her hair. Surrounding her head is a stucco wreath. In the
center top of the wreath is an oval bit of stucco painted to resemble a precious gem. At each side of
the oval [sun-disc?] is an upraised uraeus in profile facing outward. Compare this ornament with
that on the center top of the jeweled frame surrounding the portrait of Stucco Mummy No. 19 and,
compare Apuleius' description of Isis who wore a crown in the center of which "a flat disk above
the forehead shone ... while on its right and left it was embraced by coils of uprising snakes"
(Griffiths 1975, pp. 72-73). Between the wreath and the "arch" of the frame, and at both the inside
and outside of the "columns" of the frame, are two white cloth ties that are bound together at inter-
vals with horizontal banding. The background to the portrait is yellow with white cross-hatching (to
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 21 193

simulate gold?). There are "three plain studs," according to Edgar, or raised stucco dots above the
head (not mentioned by Parlasca).
Surrounding the wreath is a frame or "arcade," according to Edgar. The columns of the gate -
way are divided into sections by horizontal bands similar to the frame on Stucco Mummies Nos. 20
and 23; note that Edgar describes the workmanship on this frame (Stucco Mummy No. 21) to be
"(Coarser" than that on Stucco Mummy No. 20. The cross-section or arch of the frame is a twisted
rope. As was noted in the description of Stucco Mummy No. 20, this frame is similar to the one on
Stucco Mummy No. 23, and similar to that seen on a tombstone (Coptic Museum, Inv. 8024), and is
probably an abbreviated form of a full-size shrine (see The Underworld Door, pp. 52-53, above).
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 22

ILLUSTRATIONS
Plates 22, 31; figures 31-35

PRESENT LOCATION
Collection: Egyptian Museum
Inventory number: Inv. prov. 17/10/16/1
City: Cairo

PROVENIENCE
Unknown. Possibly Saqqara, because of the representation of the "ram of Mendes" motif

DATE OF PORTRAIT
A.D. 330-350 (Parlasca 1985, p. 103). This is a revision by Parlasca of his earlier statement that
"on account of its style and hairdo it is probably to be considered to have been made around A.D.
220-230."

DATE OF BODY WRAPPING

Late second or early third century A.D.

MALE OR FEMALE
Female

MEASUREMENTS
Body Height: 61.00 inches
Width: 16.00 inches (across shoulders)
Depth: Approximately 9.00 inches
Portrait Y/N?: Yes
Length: 8.00 inches
Width: 8.00 inches
Portrait Frame Y/N?: Modified, modeled in stucco
Width: 2.00 inches

RHOMBI
N/A

CHEST S TRIP
YIN?: Modified, modeled in stucco
Width: 1.50 inches

194
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 22 195

INLAID STONES
Y/N?: Yes, inlaid within frame and wreath
Diameter: 1.00 inch

GILT BUTTONS
Y/N?: Yes, across chest strip
Diameter: 1.25 inches

FOOTCASE
Y/N?: Yes, modeled in stucco
Underside Height: 9.50 inches
Width: 10.50 inches
Front Edge Height: 2.00 inches

DIAMETER OF ROSETTE/WADJET-EYE
N/A

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF (BOUND FIGURES) KNEELING GODDESS

Height: 7.00 inches
Width: 8.00 inches

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF (CARTONNAGE) FEET

Length: 5.50 inches
Width: 2.75 inches

INSCRIPTION
Y/N?: No
Location of Inscription: N/A
Demotic/Greek: N/A
Text: N/A

DESCRIPTION OF STUCCO MUMMY NO. 22

REFERENCES FOR DESCRIPTION
Parlasca 1977, p. 67, pl. 98/3
Parlasca 1985, p. 103, pl. 4c
Personal observation by author, 1984-85, 1993

FOOT COVER (Fig. 31)

Feet are modeled in low relief at the bottom of the wrappings where the actual feet would be. They
are shod in sandals painted red, with a row of gold dots along the vertical strip between the big toe
and second toe. The bottoms of the sandals, painted green, are shown surrounding the feet. Each
ankle is decorated with two anklets: the upper has an irregular line at top and bottom (perhaps a
twisted rope design or a string of elliptical beads similar to the bracelets on the deceased's right
wrist), the lower is a simple band. Between the feet is a floral branch or perhaps a string of jasmine
flowers (cf. Stucco Mummies Nos. 18, 19, and 23). To the right and left of the outer side of her feet
is a string with three blossoms (jasmine flowers?). Above the feet is the fringed hem of the chiton
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196 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

that completes the continuation of the garment scheme begun at the shoulders of the body field.
This section of the body field is fifteen inches in length.

Figure 31. Detail of Foot Cover, Stucco Mummy No. 22

On the underside of the footcase is painted the figure of a kneeling female (much obscured).
The exposed breasts are shown fully frontal. Each arm is outstretched and raised upward. She
wears an armband on her right arm. In her left hand she holds a semicircular shaped vessel. There
are two square bands that descend from the upper border of the surface within each of which are
two horizontal wavy lines to simulate text.
This figure is similar to a kneeling figure with pronounced breasts but wearing a shendot-kilt
that appears in the central panel at the head of a wooden coffin (CG 33122) from Saqqara that,
however, is dated to the third or fourth century B.C. (Edgar 1905a, p. ii, pl. 4). However, the section
of the coffin on which the figure appears might have been added to the coffin at a later date
(perhaps the coffin was re-used) as Edgar (ibid., p. 9) states that "although ancient, [it] is not part
of the original work." The similarity of the motifs adds support, however, to the suggested Saqqara
provenience.

BODY COVERING
The linen body wrapping is covered with a layer of stucco around the head, along the front, and
around the footcase. The body field is divided into three horizontal registers. Each of the registers
contains a mythological scene with figures modeled in stucco in low relief and painted, chiefly in
shades of pink and green. A modeled horizontal stucco line with simulated inlaid stones of red or
green separates each register from the next at top and bottom.
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 22 197

This mummy has, similar to Stucco Mummies Nos. 20 and 21, collapsed along its entire length.
The surface of the stucco is covered with blisters overall.

REGISTER ONE (Fig. 32)

The first register is six inches in length. It depicts the purification of the deceased by Thoth and a
second deity. It is a scene depicted in Register Five of Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14 and Register
Six of Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15. For a discussion of this scene, see The "Baptism of Pharaoh,"
pp. 59-60, above.

r
0 0

Figure 32. Detail of Register One, Stucco Mummy No. 22

In the center of the scene stands a small human figure (only about half the size of the flanking
deities). The figure is naked and probably represents a child. The figure faces left in profile. Both
arms fiue
hangTebndgso ti
slightly away from umyswapig
the body at each side.aeidiae y igna ie adh/hlsi
hi ads hc aehldcecedbfrehm fa ffueay adg. h ea/ftisfgr
Atisinisict
the left of the central
Tefiur tads
figure
i
stands nwrd
the human figure of the ibis-headed Thoth. He wears a
roil n Tsapd lafrm Tee ou umifr
disc atop
figre his
rprset head and
he oua knee-length
snsofHous garment. His arms are raised above the human figure to pour
a libation over the figure. At the right of the central figure stands the human figure of a ram-
headed(?) deity or possibly Seth (although one would expect the hawk-headed Horus). The figure
wears a wig, atop which is a disc, and a knee-length garment. The figure raises his arms above the
human figure to pour a libation over the figure. In place of streams of water or of ankh- and was-
emblems, there is a large five-pointed star between the central figure and each deity.
Behind the figure of the deity at right is a mummiform figure with a jackal head. Atop his head
same
mumiformFigure.
is a disc. The mummiform figure Detliestands,oecitefro te,Suconr
in profile inward, on a ofmm
thsesr.
T-shaped Jutbhn2teels
platform. A second dam-
aged mummiform figure stands behind the jackal-headed figure. In a similar manner, a hawk-
headed mummiform figure stands behind the figure of Thoth. This hawk-headed figure wears a
wig, topped by a disc. The figure stands, in profile inward, on a T-shaped platform. A second
mummiform figure, with a human head, stands on a T-shaped platform behind the hawk-headed
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198 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

two stars can be seen a scepter held in a human hand. These last two stars might belong to the
scene that decorates the left side of the mummy. The right side of the mummy is badly damaged,
however, and the left side was not clearly visible as it was too close to the back wall of the display
case. In its fragile condition (the mummy has collapsed inward), the mummy could not be moved
for better observation of the side registers. The precise elements of these side registers are there-
fore -not known.
A raised stucco line borders this register at the bottom. It is approximately one and one-half
inches in length and the stucco "gems" that decorate it are set in oval stucco bezels. Another raised
stucco line borders this register at top and separates it from the register above. This line is approx-
imately one and one half inches in length and the stucco "gems" that decorate it are set in diamond-
shaped stucco bezels.

REGISTER TWO (Fig. 33)

The second register is six and one-half inches in length. It depicts a scene of procreative power and
revivification that is complementary to the scene in the register above. Whereas the scene in
Register Three depicts the goddess Isis above the body of her husband Osiris, this scene depicts the
ram of Mendes above the body of a female mummy. For a discussion of the ram of Mendes motif,
see Local Characteristicsof DecoratedMummies, pp. 45-46, above, and Stucco Mummy No. 23, be-
low.

/
¢ i-

Figure 33. Detail of Register Two, Stucco Mummy No. 22

In the center of the register is a woolly ram standing in profile facing right. The ear of the ram
is indicated. All four legs of the animal are shown. The ram stands over the body of a mummy,
which rests upon a lion bier. The bandages of the mummy are not delineated and the form of the
mummy is indicated in a summary manner (a raised curve for the head, a lozenge-shaped body,
and an elliptical curve for the footcase). The head of the mummy, with the profile of a three-di-
mensional mummy mask, is at the right. This position, with head at the right, is the reverse of the
usual position of the mummy in similar scenes (such as the one in Register Three above) and fur-
ther emphasizes the contrast between this image, which relates to a female mummy, and the
"masculine" version above. That both images can appear together on the same mummy indicates
that neither motif is specifically gender-related to the sex of the deceased (contra Parlasca 1985, p.
103).
The mummy is lying on a bier in the shape of a lion. The lion head, at right, suffers from a loss
of stucco. The lion's tail at the foot of the bed curves up and over the footcase of the mummy. All
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 22 199

four legs of the lion are depicted in a striding position, resting directly on the groundline. The plat-
form of the bier is undecorated.
At the foot of the lion bed (at the left corner of the scene), facing inward toward the bier, is a
standing figure (female? Isis or Nephthys?). The figure is dressed in an ankle-length sheath. On the
figure's head is a crown of two maat-feathers atop a flat rectangular base atop a disc. It is a crown
similar to that worn by Horus in Register Two of Stucco Mummy No. 19, where he stands at the
head of a lion bier (also see description of Stucco Mummy No. 19, where other examples are
quoted). The arms of the figure hang down and away from the figure's body. In the figure's far
hand is held the end of an arched band that rises over the central scene. This band or canopy is
painted red. Above and just in front of the head of the figure is a five-pointed star with a round cen-
ter, molded in stucco.
There is a loss of stucco at the right end of the register where one would expect to find the
complementary image of a figure (Isis or Nephthys) to hold the opposite end of the canopy. The
figure is, however, recognizable in the negative impression left by the stucco loss.
This scene and the scene in Register Three are depicted on a shroud in the Museum of Art and
Archaeology, University of Missouri (Inv. 61.66.3), and discussed by Parlasca (1963, pp. 264-68,
esp. pp. 267-68). The sequence of the two registers is identical: the scene with Isis in the upper reg-
ister, the scene with the ram of Mendes beneath it.
A raised line of stucco separates this register from the register above it. The band is approxi-
mately one and one-half inches in length and the stucco "gems" that decorate it are set into rectan-
gular stucco bezels.

REGISTER THREE (Fig. 34)

The top register is seven inches in length. It depicts the episode in the Osiris myth in which the
child Horus is conceived. In the center of the register is a kneeling goddess (Isis) with outstretched
wings who hovers above a wrapped mummy that lies upon a lion bier. Both the goddess and the
mummy are modeled in stucco whereas the rest of the scene is only painted. The goddess, facing
left in profile, wears a short wig atop which is a disc. In each of her hands she holds a maat- feather.
To the left and right of her head is a five-pointed star with a circle in the center. There are dotted
lines that project from the stars connecting the star at right to the goddess' head and the star at left
to her head and left wing. A single curved horizontal line in the mid-section of each wing indicates
the rows of feathers. The bandages of the mummy are not indicated. It has the profile head of a
three-dimensional mummy mask.

Figure 34. Detail of Register Three, Stucco Mummy No. 22

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200 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

The mummy is lying on the back of a lion (presumably a bed in the shape of a lion). The head
of the lion is drawn in a whimsical manner: large pointed ears, furry mane, arched eyebrow above
an almond-shaped eye, and a tongue that hangs from its mouth. The lion's tail (at the foot of the
bed) curves up and over the footcase of the mummy. All four legs of the lion are depicted, in a
striding position, resting directly on the groundline. The body of the lion (the platform of the bed) is
decorated with two X-shapes, side by side, edged by two horizontal lines. Perhaps this section
would have been carved in latticework. There are three canopic jars painted beneath the lion bier:
one human-headed, one jackal-headed, and a third human-headed.
At the head of the lion bed, facing inward toward the bier, is a standing human figure. The head
of the figure is obscure but resembles the jackal-headed profile of Anubis. His far arm is raised at
the elbow in a gesture of protection, respect, or mourning as he approaches the mummy. His near
arm hangs down at his side. He wears a knee-length garment. Atop his head he wears a white
crown.
In between the figure of Anubis(?) and the head of the lion bier are two, five-pointed stars with
circles within: one level with the lion's head, the second near the groundline. Dotted lines project
from the upper star to connect it to the right underarm, hip, and knee of Anubis(?) and to the breast
of the lion. A single dotted line projects from the lower star to connect it to the breast of the lion.
There is a loss of stucco at the right end of the scene. It is possible only to discern the lower
outline of a figure that decorated this side. One would expect there to have been a complementary
standing figure at the foot of the bier, possibly Horus himself?
A raised line of stucco borders the top edge of Register Three. It is approximately one and one-
half inches in length and the inlaid stucco "gems" that decorate it are set into oval stucco bezels
similar to the design at the lower edge of Register One.

PORTRAIT AND FRAME (Fig. 35)

The upper torso of the mummy, approximately sixteen inches in length, depicts the clothed figure
of the deceased in a smooth transition from the painted portrait. Elements of the figure are modeled
in three-dimensional relief: the crown of leaves inlaid with stucco "gems" and with a central star
medallion, the deceased's medallion necklace, the breasts, and a small vessel held in the right
hand.
Just above the upper band, which separates this section from the body field, are painted hands
that appear from the drapery of a red chiton with black clavi. Only the wrist of the right hand,
wearing a double bracelet of elliptical gold beads, is clearly visible. The opened right hand must
have been placed just below and between the modeled breasts in order to support the small
(approximately three inch long) vase that is placed here. The vase has a faceted body (perhaps
glass?), a high neck, and flanged rim. At either side of the neck of the vase hangs a ribbon(?). The
opened left hand, which holds a folded wreath (barely visible), is placed downward upon the mid-
thorax. There is a ring on the third (ring) finger of this hand. It is worn "above the joint" in the
manner that Edgar (l905a, p. 71) noted the ring was worn on the left-hand ring finger of the gilt
mummy, Stucco Mummy No. 19. To the left of the vessel, just above the wrist of the left hand, is a
striding animal figure (a ram or a bull?) wearing a wig. Atop the wig is a white crown. The animal
is standing upon a platform or groundline.
The portrait is painted directly onto the linen of the stuccoed shroud and is surrounded by an
elaborate, modeled frame. The inside border of the frame creates a rectangular horseshoe-shaped
edge around the portrait. The outside border is curved at the outer upper corners. The gilt frame is
decorated with a line of colored stucco "gems"~ in laid in stucco bezels. The portrait, similar to the
painted stucco body covering of this mummy, is obscured overall by a blistering of the surface.
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 22 201

Figure 35. Detail of Portrait and Frame, Stucco Mummy No. 22

On the right side of the head casing is painted a figure of a wrapped Apis bull seated on a cor -
niced topped pedestal (see Stucco Mummy No. 20, Row Six). The colors of this motif are mostly
red and black. The bull's wigged head is in profile facing upward. A red disc is on top of his head
behind his horns. He wears a gilt double collar and is wrapped overall in red with a rhombic pattern
painted in black to simulate a beadwork cover. The pedestal is painted red with black dots. In front
of the body of the bull is an altar(?) consisting of a curved pedestal, a corniced top, and a circle in
the center. Above the bull's head, a vertical band descends from the upper edge. The band is bor-
dered at the sides by a vertical line. It contains three wavy horizontal lines to simulate a text.
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202 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

On the left side of the head casing is a complementary figure that is difficult to discern. The
head of the figure is black. It is topped by a red disc. There is a double collar of gold around the
neck. The body of the figure is red. The lower part of the image is decorated with a cross-hatched
design to simulate rhombic wrappings.
At the back of the head casing is an image of a bird with outstretched wings. The head of the
bird is in profile facing right. On its head is the double crown (the red crown painted green with
black dots, the white crown painted red). At either side of the bird's head is a vertical band that
contains rows of wavy lines to simulate a textual inscription. The body of the bird is mostly white
with black detailing. The wing feathers are striped green and white. The sides of this scene are
outlined in bands of red. The bird represents either the falcon god Horus, Re-Horakhty, or the fu-
nerary deity Sokar-Re.
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 23

ILLUSTRATIONS
Plate 23, figures 36-42

PRESENT LOCATION
Collection: Coptic Museum
Inventory Number: 4124
City: Cairo

PROVENIENCE
Parlasca (1980, p. 46) states that the provenience is "claimed as Antinoopolis, but is probably
Saqqara." Parlasca is probably correct, although the museum records indicate only that it was pur-
chased 3/9/35 from an antiquities dealer named Gundi el-Malakh.

DATE OF PORTRAIT
"The style is very close to that of the mummies from Dresden (Nos. 598 and 599), but the execu-
tion of our portrait is more fluid. This places it at about the middle of the IV c. [ca. A.D. 350]"
(Parlasca 1980, p. 47).

DATE OF BODY WRAPPING

Late third or early fourth century A.D.

MALE OR FEMALE
The portrait is that of a man. Parlasca (1980, p. 47) suggests that pieces of the shroud with which
the portrait has been joined might have belonged to a woman. See discussion below.

MEASUREMENTS
Body Height: 44.00 inches (1.10 m, museum register)
Width: 13.00 inches (23.00 cm, museum register)
Depth: Approximately 0.25 inch
Portrait Y/N?: Yes
Length: 11.00 inches (36.00 cm [Parlasca 1980, p. 46])
Width: 5.50 inches
Portrait Frame Y/N?: Modified, modeled in stucco
Width: Approximately 1.25 inches

RHOMBIC PATTERN
N/A

203
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204 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

CHEST STRIP
Y/N?: No
Width: N/A

INLAID STONES
Y/N?: No
Diameter: N/A

GILT BUTTONS
Y/N?: No
Diameter: N/A

FOOTCASE
Y/N?: No
Underside Height: N/A
Width: N/A
Front Edge Height: N/A

SIDE OF DECORATED SQUARE

2.50 inches

HEIGHT/WIDTH OF FIGURES IN SQUARES

Approximately 1.50 x 0.75 inches

LENGTH/WIDTH OF CARTONNAGE FEET

Length: Approximately 5.00 inches
Width: Approximately 2.00 inches

INSCRIPTION
Y/N?: No
Location of Inscription: N/A
Demotic/Greek: N/A
Text: N/A

DESCRIPTION OF STUCCO MUMMY NO. 23

REFERENCES FOR DESCRIPTION
Parlasca 1980, pp. 46-47, pl. 142/2
Personal observation by author, 1984-85
Parlasca has suggested that the intact appearance of this object has been effected by the as -
semblage of fragments from various funerary shrouds. The upper half includes the painted portrait
of a bearded man. The mid-section of the shroud is missing. By comparison to Stucco Mummies
Nos. 20 and 21 (Parlasca compares it to two mummies in Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen,
Inv. 777 and 778), this section should have offered a continuation of the draped upper torso
and would have depicted hands. The lower part, because it contains an image of a procreation
scene with the "ram of Mendes," is attributed by Parlasca to the shroud of a woman. A careful
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 23 205

study and drawing of the various fragments argues for the integrity of the pieces as a single artistic
accomplishment.

FOOT COVER (Fig. 36)

Feet are painted at the bottom of the shroud. They are decorated at the ankles with an inverted V-
shape in black with the loose ends of a tie at the left side of each. These do not, however, seem to
be sandal straps. There are no lines to show the strip that usually comes up from the sandal bottom
between the large toe and second toe and connects to the sandal strap. There is, however, an out-
line of black beneath the toes, which may represent sandal bottoms. Toenails are indicated as
ovals. The shroud is broken across the middle of the feet, but there is a clean fit.

irI

Figure 36. Detail of Foot Cover, Stucco Mummy No. 23

Beneath the feet, the light blue background appears to be fringed with a row of white ovals out-
lined in black. This background is the same color used for the background of the portrait. This simi-
larity and the lack of ankle bracelets, which one would expect to find if these feet belonged to a
female, indicate that the top and lower fragments were originally associated. Beneath the light blue
background is a strip of black with a white vine pattern.
Lying horizontally across the ankles of the feet is a branch with leaves (a wreath) drawn in
black.

BODY COVER
This section is decorated (as Edgar [1905a, p. 124] describes the similar treatment of Stucco
Mummy No. 20) as "a highly ornamented covering like an apron, divided into rectangular panels
which are filled with various designs. .... The panels are divided from each other horizontally by
rows of studs." Four principal fragments (including the bottom section that depicts the feet) were
joined to produce the intact appearance of the shroud.
The dark brown field of the "apron" is arranged in horizontal rows. Each row originally con -
sisted of three rectangular panels. Each panel contains an image in raised relief that is painted pink
or gilded. The details of the images are "rendered in raised lines or dots" (Edgar 1905a, p. 124) as
on Stucco Mummies Nos. 20 and 21. The panels are separated by lines of raised dots and, at the
corners of the central panel, a raised diamond shape.
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206 6CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

SECTION ONE (Fig. 37)

This section is positioned incorrectly in that the middle row of central panels (the panel containing
the two uraei and the one containing the casket, identified as central panels by the diamond shapes
at their comers) are placed off-center to the right.

Row One
In the central panel are two upright cobras with hoods splayed. They are shown in profile, each
facing toward a central column that separates them. The column consists of three sections: a verti-
cal post, a horizontal bar, and an ellipse at the top. The post might represent an altar or a fetish of
the god Osiris as Registers One of Stucco Mummies Nos. 18 and 19. The image of the double up-
raised uraei appears also in Rows One and Seven of Stucco Mummy No. 21 and in the tunic border
of Stucco Mummy No. 20.

o q

0 < 00 0 oo
Figure 37. Detail of Section One, Stucco Mummy No. 23
In the side panel at left is a concentric diamond shape in raised stucco. The inner diamond is
decorated with dots. The outer diamond border is gilt. There is a raised dot at each corer of the
panel. The shroud is broken all around this panel, but there is a clean fit to the panel with the uraei.

Row Two
In the central panel, which suffers from a loss of the upper right corner, is a concentric rectangular
shape. Within the inner rectangle is a cross-hatched pattern embellished by a horizontal line of dots
inside the diamond shapes created by the cross-hatching. There are three scattered raised dots
within the panel.
Only the left side panel is preserved. It depicts a kneeling female figure in profile facing in -
ward. She wears a shoulder-length wig that ends in a flip at the back. An arched eyebrow, almond
eye, and drapery lines are indicated. Her breast is indicated in profile. The female raises one arm
to her head, crooked at the elbow, in a gesture of mourning. Her other arm falls downward before
her. She is kneeling; her foot hangs over the edge of a T-shaped platform. There is a raised dot be -
hind the woman.
This scene is reminiscent of scenes which depict the sisters of Osiris mourning his death (such
as those which appear on Registers Three of Red-shrouded Mummies Nos. 14 and 15). As the
panel with the rectangular motif should have been positioned in the center, there would have been
a place for a second panel with a complementary mourning female at the right side. The females
would represent Isis and Nephthys. The rectangular shape was probably meant to represent the
mummy or the coffin of Osiris (for a discussion of this motif, see Stucco Mummy No. 21, Body
Covering, Row Six).
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 23 207

SECTION Two (Fig. 38)

The next major section is positioned incorrectly in that the central panel of the three panels (with
diamond shapes at the lower corners) is placed off-center to the left. This section does not join with
Section One.

Row One
The uppermost section of a central panel is evident at the bottom of this section. In the top left cor-
ner is a human face with wings. The features of the face and hair are indicated with raised dots.
Raised dots decorate the right wing (the left wing is partially destroyed).

Row Two
At the bottom of the central panel is a raised stucco triangular shape (with blunt-edged bottom cor-
ners). The object is missing a piece of stucco at top that would have been in the shape of a head(?)
in profile facing left. This addition may have produced an object (a fetish of Osiris?) similar to the
full-front bust in Row Three of Stucco Mummy No. 20. The shape is decorated with raised lines and
dots. Above this shape is a line of three circles. The outer two circles have a raised dot in the
center.

/////'
(Q CO) CO))
0 0 0/ 0 3~5 0
/I <a~
Figure 38. Detail of Section Two, Stucco Mummy No. 23
Within the panel to the right side of this central panel is a large figure of a human-headed bird
(a ha- bird or a winged goddess?) in profile facing outward. The head of the figure is flat-topped
and has a raised line for an eyebrow and a dot for an eye. The body of the figure resembles a wing
and is decorated with raised diagonal lines and rows of dots. In front of this figure is a row of raised
diagonal lines. Before the figure is a horizontal line of three dots. Behind the figure is a uraeus in
raised relief. The uraeus is in profile facing inward with head upraised. It has a raised dot for an
eye.
The panel to the left of the central panel is broken. There are traces of a pattern that reproduce
the images within the right side panel (mirror image). It contains a curlicue at the upper inside cor-
ner (probably the body of the complementary uraeus). There is also the back part or tail of the
complementary bird figure.

SECTION THREE (Fig. 39)

Row One
In the central panel is a hawk-headed crocodile in profile facing left. Two eyes are indicated by
raised dots. The animal has a rear and foreleg, a second flat-edged projection at the chest, an up-
raised tail, and two upraised wings on top of its back. The animal stands on a T-shaped gold plat-
form. This fantastic creature, shown with a similarly "projecting foreleg" (Edgar 1905a, p. 125),
also appears in Row Two of the body field of Stucco Mummy No. 20. The figure of a hawk-headed
and winged crocodile is an image of the god Soknopaious, the crocodile god of the Fayoum who
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208 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

became syncretized with aspects of the god Horus. For this motif, see Local Characteristicsof
DecoratedMummies, pp. 45-46, above.
Within each panel to the side of this central panel is a concentric diamond shape in raised
stucco. The inner diamond is decorated with dots. The outer diamond border is gilt.

Row Two
In the central panel is a concentric rectangle. The inner rectangle is decorated with a leafed branch
placed horizontally (cf. the branches at the feet in the Foot Cover, described above, and in Rows
Two and Four of Stucco Mummy No. 20). The outer diamond border is gilt. At each comer of the
panel is a raised ellipse.

Figure 39. Detail of Section Three, Stucco Mummy No. 23

Within each side panel is a bird in profile facing inward. Each bird stands upon an L-shaped
pedestal that is gilt. The birds, with their squat bodies, may represent the ibis of Thoth, the kites of
Isis and Nephthys (see Row Six of Stucco Mummy No. 21), or perhaps a phoenix. Each bird has a
dot for an eye. The details of the birds vary slightly: there are curved lines on the bushy tail of the
bird at left, only one curved line to indicate a wing on the bird at right; the space between the feet
on the bird at left is a square, that for the bird at right is an elongated semicircle. There is a raised
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 23 209

dot above the tail of the bird in the panel at the right. These birds appear in the side panels in Row
Three of the body field of Stucco Mummy No. 20 (see p. 184, above).

Row Three
In the central panel is a ram standing in profile facing left. The eye and twisted horn of the ram are
indicated. All four legs of the animal are shown. The ram stands over the body of a mummy. The
mummy is shown only as an outline. The three-dimensional profile of the mummy's head is at left.
A semicircular dip at the bottom of the mummiform indicates the buttocks. The feet are pointed
upward. Above the ram is a raised dot with a semicircle at each side. Below the mummy, in each
corner, is a pink rectangle.
This scene is depicted on a shroud (Museum of Art and Archeology, University of Missouri,
Inv. 61.66.3) published by Parlasca (1963, pp. 264-68), who states (idem 1966, p. 162, n. 66; 1985,
p. 103) that this motif appears only on coverings belonging to women because of its sexual symbol-
ism. He refers to two other examples of shrouds, also belonging to women, that depict the motif.
For this reason, he concludes that the decorative panel fragments that are joined to the portrait of
this object do not belong together with the portrait (which is masculine), but that these panel sec-
tions were part of another (similar) shroud made for a woman.
In response to that analysis, it is noted that the ram of Mendes motif also appears on Stucco
Mummy No. 22, on which it appears, as it does on the Missouri shroud (Inv. 61.66.3), beneath a
representation of a "masculine" counterpart to the motif: the image of Isis above the mummiform
Osiris. As this example (Stucco Mummy No. 23) is in a fragmentary condition, it is possible that the
intact shroud originally had a similar complementary "masculine" image. The dual and comple-
mentary images may then have also been appropriate for a man's funerary shroud, and the frag-
ments described here need not necessarily have belonged to more than one shroud. Moreover, a
careful examination of the elements of Stucco Mummy No. 23 indicates that the fragments, al-
though they have been assembled in a careless manner and there are a number of gaps, all do ap-
pear to belong to one shroud, which was made for the man idealized in the portrait.
Within each panel to the side of the central panel which depicts the "ram of Mendes" is a con-
centric diamond shape in raised stucco. The inner diamond is decorated with dots. The outer dia-
mond border is gilt.
At the top of this section is the lower half of an incomplete panel. This, together with the abrupt
end to the tunic of the portrait section above it, indicates that these sections were never originally
joined at this point.
To the left of Section Three are traces of the left edge of a vertical side pattern. The lower
panel contains an illegible shape similar to the numeral seven. Above this is a panel with a dia-
mond shape in the center. The diamond, decorated with a dot in the center and at each comer, is
gilt. The top panel has a raised lotus blossom design. The blossom is gilt; the background is red.
The upper left comer is white; the lower left comer is red.
LEFT SIDE (Fig. 40)
To the left of Section One, halfway between the image of the mourning female and the diamond
side panel below it, is a rectangular segment composed of a pattern of rectangular panels contain-
ing images separated by diamond-filled squares. This design is identical to the side border of the
decorative field on Stucco Mummy No. 20. Along the border of this edging is a strip of black with a
wavy line of white dots with a white V-shape within each curve.
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210 10
CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

At the bottom of the segment is a rectangular

shape (cf. the side panel motif on Stucco Mummy
No. 21, Body Covering, Row Two). Within that
rectangle is a raised image of a column. The col-
umn is in five parts: (1) the lower part is a vertical
post, (2) a horizontal ellipse, (3) a half-moon with
the "horns" pointed upward, (4) a circle, and (5) a
dot above the circle. This post may be a second
representation (see the bottom central panel of
Section One) of a horned(?) altar or an Osiris
fetish. X
Above this image is a square panel. It contains
a raised diamond shape in the center. The diamond,
decorated with a dot in the center and at each cor-(
ner, is gilt. The corners of the square are alternately )
pink and gray.
Within the rectangular shape above is a flat-
tened circle that contains the raised image of a 0
standing ithyphallic figure in profile facing right -000

(cf. the mummiform figure that appears on Stucco 0

Mummy No. 20, Body Covering, Left and Right 0
Side Borders). An eye is indicated and a diagonal
line for a mouth. The figure and background are
pink; the flattened circle is gilt. The comers of the
rectangle are painted alternately pink and gray.
This figure might represent the god Min and acts as /
a masculine complement to the scene of sexual re-
vivification shown in the "ram of Mendes" scene in
Section One (described above).
Above this image is a fragmentary square
panel similar to the second panel. It originally
contained a similar raised diamond pattern.
Figure 40. Detail of
Left Side, Stucco
Mummy No. 23

RIGHT SIDE (Fig. 41)

There is a complete loss of any of the side panel designs on the right side.
To the right of Section One, at a level with the double uraei and ending at
the ankle line, is a vertical strip of three-clustered leaves that resemble jasmine
flowers (cf. Stucco Mummy No. 22, Foot Cover).
To the right of Section Two, on a level with the human-headed bird, is a
section of an illegible pattern in raised stucco painted pink and red.
There is a vertical strip at the border that extends from the shoulder height of
the portrait to the mid-section of the feet. This strip is identical to the strip at
Figure 41. Detail of the left border edge. It is black with a wavy line of white dots with a white V-
Right Side, Stucco shape within each curve.
Mummy No. 23
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STUCCO MUMMY NO. 23 211

PORTRAIT AND FRAME (Fig. 42)

The portrait of a bearded man is painted directly onto the gessoed cloth. It is surrounded by a stucco
frame. The frame resembles an architectural gate (in his description of Stucco Mummy No. 20,
Edgar [1905a, p. 123] refers to this as an "arcade"). Each side post is divided into sections by hori-
zontal bands. Each section is embellished with impressed designs in the stucco (diagonal lines, X's,
etc.) and painted (red, gray, or pink). The cross-piece of the frame suffers from a loss of stucco at
the center. This cross-piece contains a stucco appliqu6 that resembles curved ram's horns creating a
crown of ram's horns above the head of the deceased in addition to the pink (rose) stucco leaf fu-
nerary that was applied to the portrait itself.
Within the inner comers of the architectonic frame are applique fillers. At each upper comer is
a gilt triangle with a row of dots along the hypotenuse. At the bottom right corner is a pink blade-
like shape. It is decorated with a central S-shaped line and various dots. At the bottom left comer is
a round pink shape. It is decorated with a curlicue line and a row of dots.

Figure 42. Detail of Portrait and Frame, Stucco Mummy No. 23

Outside the frame is a serrated edged wreath in relief. It is divided into sections of red and
gray: gray at the bottom, red in the mid-section, gray toward the upper comers. The red mid-section
is embellished with a row of white painted diamonds.
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212 CATALOG OF PORTRAIT MUMMIES

To the right of the wreath is a preserved area of painted linen (the left-hand side of the shroud
is damaged at this point). There are traces of a standing male figure facing inward. The figure has
short dark hair and wears' a broad collar or necklace. An ankle-length sheath falls from below his
chest. In the center of the sheath is a sash or tie that falls to above the knee. The figure's right foot
is preserved. The man raises an arm at the elbow. There is a white cloth with diagonally striped
drapery lines that falls in an arc above him. Similar to the figure of the deceased in Register Seven
of Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15, this figure holds a metal ewer in his arm. At knee-level in front
of the figure is a square-shaped square-necked bottle(?). The body of the bottle is decorated with
two concentric squares. At the groundline is a red irregularly shaped appliqu6 above a line of two
circles that are above a cross-hatched area.
Along the left shoulder of the deceased is a line of circles. This motif appears again as a verti-
cal line of circles down the left side of the body field of the shroud and again in a section on the
right side. These lines must have formed the border edges of the panel design as on Stucco
Mummies Nos. 20 and 21, Portrait and Frame.
Parlasca states that "to the [viewer's] right [of the mantle] can still be seen part of the finger of
the left hand." The image to which he refers, however, appears on close inspection to be simply
another bit of raised appliqu6. Although its curlicue shape may have been mistaken for a curved
finger (such as appears at this height in a painting on a linen shroud in Berlin (see Parlasca 1980,
pl. 142/3), the shape is decorated with a central row of raised dots and must simply be another one
of the stucco designs.
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INDICES
1. SUBJECT INDEX
h jkr n R , 75-76 bilingual culture, 1-2, 7-8
Abydenien motifs birds
journey to Abydos, 55, 135, 144 hawks, 185, 191
lamentations of Isis and Nephthys, 55, 191 kites, 45, 184-86, 191, 208
lustration of wrapped mummy (Osiris), 55
black, significance of color, 58
worship of Abydos fetish, 55, 147
burial
acolytes, of Isis, 60, 98, 105
directly in the ground, 7
age of subjects, life expectancy, 14, 17-18, 71, 77 family burials, 19-20
Aline, stela of, 13-14, 17, 20, 76 gender parity in, 198
group burials, 18-22
amulets, mummies kept above ground, 24
not found with mummies, 76, 173
candle, held by bust, 64
worn on portraits, 51, 67, 98, 105
cartonnage, gilt bust mummies, 18-19, 21
ancestor worship. See 'hjkr n R '
categories of mummies, 7-8
Anubis, 30, 49, 52, 55, 58, 61, 68, 70, 135-38, 144-48,
156, 164-66, 175, 186, 200 Christianity, introduction of, 79

Apuleius, 63, 71, 73-76, 149, 192 class, elite, 2, 78-79

Aramaic, name on portrait, 67 computed tomography (CT) scan, 76-77

art of portraits, decline in, 16 cult, family, 73

Artemidoros, 42, 62, 67-68 dating of portrait mummies, 13-34

Aswan, 36-37 death. See age of subjects

atef-crown, 42-43, 61-62, 138, 150, 167, 175 decoration of mummies

continuity of designs, 13, 61
athletes, 68, 70-71 direction of reading motifs, 49-50, 81
Atum, 58 Demetrios/Demetris, 18
ba-bird, 154, 207 Demos, 17, 66-67
bandaging of mummies, direction of, 7 Demotic name on portrait, 2, 41-42, 61, 67
"baptism" of pharaoh, 31, 59, 61-63. See also Didymos/e, 67
lustration
el-Hibeh, 11, 15, 37-38, 40,43-44, 126, 128
bead netting, 7, 134-35, 137, 151
encaustic painting, 3, 25, 28, 117
beards, 14-17, 24-25,29, 45-46, 87-88, 115, 123, 134,
150, 161,204,211 ephebe, 71

213
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214 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

1. Subject Index (cont.)

on stela (of Aline), 14, 17
ethnicity of portrait subjects, 66-68 on stone (of Kephalion), 15, 20
Fayoum Isis, 45, 51, 55, 57, 60-68, 71, 98, 105,128, 136, 140,
district, 3, 5-6, 9-11, 35, 37, 40-42, 44, 46-47, 82, 146, 150,156,158,166-67,176,179,186,191-
85, 90, 101, 117, 129, 159, 183,207 92, 198-99, 206, 208-09
epithet for portraits, 35, 37
jackals. See Wepwawet
find sites for portraits, 9-12, 36-37
jewelry
footcase, 21-22, 24-29, 32, 50-53, 57, 64, 77, 82, 85, as dating criterion, 16-17, 30, 32
passim in Catalog of PortraitMummies bracelets, 128, 131,140, 172-73, 179, 183, 186,
frames, to portraits 189, 192, 195, 200, 205
gilt, 25-26, 126, 128, 200 earrings, 16, 44, 98, 181, 186, 192
horseshoe-shaped, 22, 28, 30-31,33,43, 45-47, hairpins, 26
107, 121, 124-25 necklaces, 16, 89, 104, 140, 148, 156, 158, 169,
funerary rites 186, 192, 200, 212
cost of, 68 represented in cartonnage, 73, 186
ritual significance, 79 rings, 73, 128, 179, 190, 200
fusion of cultures, 2 Latin, use of, 2
garlands. See plants linen, portraits directly on, 3, 22, 24, 29, 35, 69, 82, 84,
126, 128, 161,200, 212
gilt, significance of, 50
lion bier, 136-37, 145-46, 156, 165, 175, 198-200
glass inlays, 26, 59
lotus, 51-52, 87, 114-15, 123, 134, 137, 139, 142-43,
gold. See gilt
145, 165,177,179,209
governess, 69 lustration, 58-61, 64, 138, 148-49. See also "baptism
grammatiki, 69 of pharaoh"
Greek Maat
texts, 153, 158 conceptual symmetry in iconography, 54, 63, 78
names, 15, 67 feathers depicted in crown, 128, 140, 158, 167-68,
176-77,199
Greek loan-words in Egyptian, 2
goddess represented on mummies, 43, 140, 158,
Greek settlers, 35 183
hairstyles, dating criterion, 16-18, 32-33 Marina el-Alemain, 10, 36-37
Hathor, 61, 72-73 mummy tickets, 39, 75, 191
Hawara, 3, 9-12, 14-15, 19-22, 24, 26-28, 32-35, 40- names
47, 61, 63, 67, 69-70, 75, 90, 94, 98, 101,105, as index of religion, 38, 66-68
109, 113, 117, 121,132, 140, 151-52, 162, 168, personal, 14-15, 19, 28, 42, 57, 67-69
171,174
Nephthys, 31, 55, 57, 134, 136, 140, 146, 156, 158,
Hermione,66-67,69,76-77 166, 176, 184-85, 191, 199, 206, 208
Horus-lock, 60, 180 nudity, 70-71, 74
Horus/Harpocrates, 46, 51, 54, 59-62, 65, 68, 73-74, officers. See soldiers
135, 137-38, 145, 147-48, 154-55, 158, 166, 168,
176, 180, 191,197, 199-200, 202, 207 old age. See age of subjects

initiates, 60, 64, 70-72, 74,76 Osiris, 39, 42-43, 46, 49, 51-52, 54-58, 61-62, 73-74,
136, 139, 144, 146-147, 149-150, 155, 164, 168,
initiation ceremony, 74 174-77, 179, 183-84, 191, 198-99, 206-07, 209-
inscription 10
on portraits, 14-16, 18-19,41-42, 66-69, 144, paganism, survival of, 78-79
153, 166, 177
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INDICES 215

papyrus, 14, 19, 24, 29, 38-39, 46, 52, 57, 135, 138-39, teachers, 68-69
144, 160-61, 165-66, 168
teeth, examination of, 17, 77
patronage, 5, 7, 65-79
Thebes, 15-16
plants
Thermoutharin, 28, 66-67, 158
garlands, 51, 63, 74-75, 185, 190
marjoram, 63 Thoth, 59-60, 68,137-38, 147-49, 154-55, 175-76,
roses, 28, 51, 63, 211 184,197,208
wreaths, 31, 43-44, 51, 60, 62-64, 128, 131,151- underworld door, 52-53, 149
52, 158, 168, 179, 186, 190, 192-93, 195, 200,
205, 211-12 uraeus, 42-43, 52, 138-39, 146, 149, 165, 183-86,
189-92,205-07,210
Pliny, 68, 73
vessels
portraits depicted on portraits, 58, 75, 136, 139, 145, 148-
cut down for mummy, 44-45,47, 75 50, 156, 165, 167-68, 175-77, 179, 196, 200
framed for display, 75 ewer, 149-50, 164, 212
kept in house, 24, 37, 75 hs-vase, 59, 139
priests, 50, 60, 63, 68, 71-72, 136, 145, 150, 156, 164- wadjet-eye, 51, 86-87,91,95, 114-15, 118, 122-23,
65, 175 133-34, 142-44
priestesses (of Isis), 72-73 watercolor painting, 22
prisoner, bound, on footcases, 53-55, 64, 115, 155 wedge-faced mummies, 5, 18-24, 32
profession. See athletes, priests, priestesses, soldiers, Wepwawet, 52, 135
teachers
wood, portraits directly on, 3, 25, 28-29,37-38, 58
ram of Mendes, 32, 43, 45-47, 185, 194,198-99, 204,
209-10 wreaths. See plants

Re, 51-63, 75. See also Sokar-Re

rebirth, resurrection, 51, 59-60, 71, 76-77, 154-55
red, significance of color, 55-58
Renenutet/Thermouthis, 73, 179
rhombic bandaging, 7
rosette, 51, 87, 92, 115, 123, 134, 143, 186, 189, 192
sandals, 50-53, 62, 64, 77, 87, 96, 115, 119, 123, 127,
130, 133, 142, 153, 164, 173, 195,205
semiprecious stone inlays, 7, 22, 26, 30, 33
Serapis, 61, 65, 68, 71-74, 186
Sokar-Re, 31, 55, 138-39, 149-50, 168, 179, 202. See
also Re
Soknopaious, 46-47, 183, 185,207
solar symbolism, 49, 51-52, 55, 58-59, 62, 64-65, 72,
75-76, 78, 184
soldiers, 68-70, 74, 117
stela, 52, 75, 168. See also inscription, on stela
stone. See inscription, on stone
stucco covering of mummies, 7-8
studs, gilt, on mummies, 84, 88-89, 93, 158, 186
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216 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

2. OBJECT INDEX

Art Gallery and Museum, Brighton

Inv. R. 137, p. 10

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Inv. 1888.832, p. 9
Inv. 1911.354, pp. 9, 21, 27
Inv. 1913.512, p. 9

Berlin aigyptisches Museen, Berlin

Inv. 19581, pp. 72-73

Brooklyn Museum, New York

Inv. 11.600 A and B, pp. 11, 17-18, 40, 43-44

British Museum, London

Inv. 6679, p. 53
Inv. 6713, p. 12
Inv. 6715, p. 12
Inv. 13595, pp. 9, 124
Inv. 21809,pp. 11, 20,40
Inv. 21810, pp. 11, 15, 40, 42, 62
Inv. 22939,p.59
Inv. 29577,p.144
Inv. 29782,p. 52
Inv. 65345, p. 69

Coll. Koffler-Truniger, Switzerland

No inventory number, pp. 11, 40

Coptic Museum, Cairo

Inv. 133, pp. 185, 190
Inv. 728, p. 185
Inv. 4124 [= Stucco Mummy No. 23], pp. 4, 7-8, 12, 31-32, 45-46, 53, 183-86, 190-93, 203-12
Inv. 7029,p. 185
Inv. 8024,pp. 186, 193
Inv. 9105,p.185

Egyptian Institute, University of Heidelberg

Inv. 1021, pp.9 ,29

Egyptian Museum of the University of Leipzig

Inv. 1653, pp. 9, 23-24
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INDICES 217

Egyptian Museum, Cairo

Inv. 1308, p. 52
Inv. 6839, pp. 51-52, 167
Inv. 13580, p. 58
Inv. 33122, p. 196
Inv. 33131, p. 62
Inv. 33133, p. 62
Inv. 33214 [= Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 1], pp. 4, 7, 10, 17, 82-84,
Inv. 33215 [= Stucco Mummy No. 18], pp. 4, 7, 12, 30, 60, 147, 162-70, 173-74, 176, 205
Inv. 33216 [= Stucco Mummy No. 19], pp. 4, 7, 12, 30, 61, 72-73, 76, 147, 163-64, 167-68, 171-80, 185, 192,
199-200, 206
Inv. 33217 [= Red-shrouded Mummy No. 12], pp. 4, 7, 11, 15, 17, 40,43-44,63, 126-28, 171
Inv. 33218 [= Red-shrouded Mummy No. 13], pp. 4,7, 11, 40, 43,56, 129-31,158, 161
Inv. 33219 [= Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14], pp. 4,7, 11, 28-29,40,43, 55, 58-59, 88, 125, 132-40, 142-43,
145-48, 150-51, 161, 176-77, 197, 206
Inv. 33220 [= Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15], pp. 4, 7, 11, 28-29, 40, 43,55, 58-59, 88, 93, 97, 141-51,174,
176-77, 184-85, 197, 206, 212
Inv. 33221 [= Red-shrouded Mummy No. 16], pp. 4, 7, 11, 15, 28,40, 42, 66, 147, 152-58, 174, 176
Inv. 33222 [= Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 2], pp. 4, 7, 10, 26, 30, 85-89, 92-93, 97
Inv. 33223 [= Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 3], pp. 4, 7, 9, 90-93
Inv. 33224 [= Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 4], pp. 4, 7, 10, 93, 94-97, 100, 111
Inv. 33225 [= Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 5], pp. 4, 7, 9, 23, 98-100
Inv. 33226 [= Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 6], pp. 4, 7, 9, 92, 101-04
Inv. 33227 [= Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 7], pp. 4, 7, 9, 105-08
Inv. 33232, pp. 11,44
Inv. 33237, pp. 17, 66
Inv. 33238 [= SB I 1425 = 3963], p. 17
Inv.33257,p.69
Inv.33265,p.23
Inv.33268,pp.20,23-24
Inv.33269,pp.75-76
Inv.33276,p.5
Inv.33277,p.5
Inv.33278,p.5
Inv.33279,p.5
Inv. 33280 [= Stucco Mummy No. 20], pp. 4, 7, 12, 31-32, 45-46, 53, 130, 181-86, 188-93, 197, 204-06, 209,
212
Inv. 33281 [= Stucco Mummy No. 21], pp. 4, 7, 12, 31, 45-46, 53, 130, 182, 184-93, 197,204-06, 210, 212
Inv. 33282, p.12
Inv. 60723, p. 51
Inv.JE30325,p.53
Inv. JE 42790 [= Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 8], pp. 4, 7, 9, 109-12
Inv. prov. 12/11/16/13, p. 53
Inv. prov. 17/10/16/1 [= Stucco Mummy No. 22], pp. 4,7, 12, 31-32, 46, 59-60, 73, 185, 194-202,204
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218 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

2. Object Index (cont.)

Egyptian Museum, Cairo (cont.)
Inv. prov. 30/9/14/8 [= Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 9], pp. 4, 7, 9, 113-16
Inv. prov. 30/19/14/8, p. 27
Inv. SB I1425 = 3963 [= CG 33238], p. 17

Eton College, Windsor

Inv. 1252, p. 69

Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago

Inv. 30018, p. 10

Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England

Inv. E. 5.1981, p. 67
Inv. E. 63.1903, pp. 11, 15, 40, 44, 128
Inv. E.102.1911, p.9,11
Inv. E.103.1911, pp. 50,64

Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Inv. 1924.80, p.69

Girton College, Cambridge, England

No inventory number, pp. 9,20, 22-24, 27, 66-67, 69, 76-77

Graeco-Roman Museum, Alexandria

Inv. 7311 [= Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 10], pp. 4, 7, 10, 27-28, 117-20
Inv. 7312 [= Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 11], pp. 4, 7, 10, 27-28, 33, 121-25
Inv. 22404, p. 73
Inv. 27808, pp. 32, 59

J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu

Inv. 74.AP.20, pp. 65, 75
Inv. 74.AP.21, pp.65, 75
Inv. 74.AP.22, pp. 65, 75
Inv. 81.AP.42, pp. 11,40, 43-44, 63, 66, 158

Karanis/Kom Oshim Museum

Inv. 432 [= Red-shrouded Mummy No. 17], pp. 4,7,11, 29, 32,40, 131, 134, 159-61

Kestner Museum, Hannover, Germany

Inv. 1966.88, p. 11

Kunsthistorische Museum, Photographic Department, Vienna

No inventory number, p. 11

Luxor Museum of Art

Inv. J.194/Q. 1512,p.69
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INDICES 219

Manchester Museum, Manchester, England

Inv. 789a, p. 69
Inv. 1767, pp. 11, 40
Inv. 1768, p. 9
Inv. 1775, pp. 11, 15, 40, 42
Inv. 5377, pp. 10, 21
Inv. 5378, p. 9
Inv. 5379, p. 9
Inv. 5380-1, p.10
Inv. 5381, pp. 21, 27

Martin von Wagner Museum, University of Heidelberg

Inv. H 33112, p. 9

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Inv. 08.202.8, p. 12
Inv. 09.181.8, p. 12
Inv. 18.9.2, pp. 29, 69, 161
Inv. 90.6.87, p. 53
Inv. 1979.37, p. 58
Inv. E11.139, p. 9, 20

Mus6e du Louvre, Paris

Inv. A.F. 6440, p. 12
Inv. A.F. 6482, p. 12
Inv. A.F. 6484, p. 12
Inv. A.F. 6485, p. 12
Inv. A.F. 6487, p. 12
Inv. A.F. 6488, p. 12
Inv. A.F. 6489, p. 12
Inv. A.F. 6490, p. 12
Inv. A.F. 6492, p. 12
Inv. A.F. 6882, p. 10
Inv. Br 4165, pp. 72, 150
Inv. Br 4394, pp. 72, 150
Inv. E 13044, pp. 11, 40

Mus6es Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Brussels

Inv. 4858, p. 10
Inv. E 4857, pp. 9, 14, 22, 24-25, 30

Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham

Inv. 11-61, pp. 10, 20-21

Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri

Inv. 61.66.3, pp. 11, 39-40, 43, 66, 199, 209
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220 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

2. Object Index (cont.)

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Inv. 11.2891, pp. 10, 22, 24-27, 76-77
Inv. 11.2892, pp. 9, 27, 77
Inv. 50.650, pp. 11, 40
Inv. 54.993, pp. 12, 61
Inv. 1979.37, p. 58
Inv. 1993.555, p. 155

National Cultural History and Open-Air Museum, Pretoria, South Africa

Inv. 68/68, p. 14
Inv. 170,pp. 6, 14

National Gallery, London

Inv. 1268, p. 70
Inv. 2912, pp. 10, 71-72
Inv. 2913, pp. 9,21, 27
Inv. 2914, p. 9
Inv. 2915, pp. 9, 27

National Museum, Dublin

Inv. 1911.440, pp. 9, 20

Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Copenhagen

Inv. 1388, p. 53
Inv. AE 686/687, p. 184
Inv. AE 1425, pp. 9, 17, 20, 22-27, 69
Inv. AE 1426, pp. 11, 33, 40,42-43
Inv. AE 1473, p. 10

Oriental Institute Museum, Chicago

Inv. 9137, p. 9
Inv. 10797, p. 52

Petrie Museum, London

Inv. 267 FF 336, pp. 11, 39-43
Inv. 19610, p. 21

Public Museum, Liverpool, England

Inv. 13.10.1911.25, pp. 10, 20

Pushkin Museum, Moscow

Inv. 4229/I la 5749, pp. 12, 29, 161
Inv. 4280/I la 5750, p. 12
Inv. 4290/I la5771, p. 69
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INDICES 221

Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh

Inv. 1911.210.1, pp. 9,20, 27
Inv. 1951.160, pp. 9,21, 27

Salford City Art Gallery, Salford, England

Inv. 1954.9, p. 9

Seabury Western Theological Seminary, Chicago

No inventory number, pp. 10, 20, 27

Staatl. Sammlung Agypt. Kunst, Munich

Inv. 1307, pp. 9,20
Inv. 2972, p.9

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Inv. 777, pp. 12, 204
Inv. 778, pp. 12, 187, 204

Staatliche Museen, Antikenabteilung, Berlin

Inv. 31161/2, pp. 10, 69
Inv. 31161/3, p. 69
Inv. 31161/5, p. 69
Inv. 31161/6, p. 6 9
Inv. 31161/42, p. 10
Inv. 31329, p.31

Staatliche Museen, Berlin

Inv. 6983, p. 53
Inv. 10974, p. 9
Inv. 11411,p.9
Inv. 11412, p. 9
Inv. 11413,p. 9
Inv. 11415, pp. 13-14
Inv. 11651, p.12
Inv. 11652,pp. 12,29
Inv. 11659, pp. 12, 187
Inv. 11673, p.10
Inv. 11752, p. 9
Inv. 13277, pp. 12, 29, 161
Inv. 13463, p.52

Stiftung Niedersachsen, Hannover

No inventory number, pp. 11, 40, 128
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222 PORTRAIT MUMMIES FROM ROMAN EGYPT

2. Object Index (cont.)

University College, London
Inv. 19607, pp. 10, 27
Inv. 19609,pp. 9,70
Inv. 19610, pp. 10, 20
Inv. 19613, p. 9

University Museum, Philadelphia

Inv. E. 462, pp. 10, 27

Vatican Museum, Vatican

Inv. 17953, p. 12

Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore

Inv. 32.4, p. 72

3. TEXT CITED INDEX

Book of the Dead

Spell 19, p. 62
Spell 20, p. 62
Spell 81, p. 51
Spell 81 B, p. 51
Spell 133, p. 63
Spell 188, p. 50
The Golden Ass, Apuleius, pp. 63-64, 74-75
De Iside et Osiride, Plutarch, p. 61
Karnak
Amun Temple B 151, 152, p. 60
Bubastite Gate, P. 62
Mag. Pap. 9, 23, p. 42
P. Par. 18bis = W. Chr. 499, p. 38
Papyrus Boulaq III, 9, 14-15, p. 52
Papyrus Louvre 5.158, 2, 3-4, p. 52
Papyrus Salt 825, p. 57
Papyrus Westcar, p. 57
Pyramid Text,
Utterance 570, p. 57
Utterance 666, Pyramid Text, p. 60
Setne II, 2, 11-12, p. 42
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PLATES
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Plate I

Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 1. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33214

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Plate 2

Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 2. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33222

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Plate 3

Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 3. Egyptian Museum. Cairo. Inv. CG 33223

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Plate 4

Rhombic-wrapped Mummy NC). 4. Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Inv. 33224

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Plate 5

Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 5. Egyptian Museum., Cairo. Inv .33225

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Plate 6

P" ~-a

Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 6. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33226

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Plate 7

\r
4

Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 7. Egyptian Museum. Cairo. Inv. CG 33227

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Plate 8

Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 8. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. JE 42790

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Plate 9

.46

Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 9 and Underside of Eootcase. Egyptian Museum11. Cairo, Inv. CG 30/9/14/8
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Plate 10

Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 10 and Detail of "Chest Strip" Studs. Graeco-Roman Museum, Alexandria, Inv. 7311
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Plate II

SI
F-

4 #A4%~ A
4h~ * 4 et

SN

Rhombic-wrapped Mummy No. 11. Graeco-Roman Museum., Alexandria. Inv. 7312

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Plate 12

Red-shrouded Mummy No. 12. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33217

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Plate 13

Red-shrouded Mummy No. 13. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33218

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Plate 14

Red-shrouded Mummy No. 14. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33219

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Plate 15

i1]

Red-shrouded Mummy No. 15. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33220

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Plate 16

,,

Red-shrouded Mummy No. 16. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33221

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Plate 17

Red-shrouded Mummy No. 17 and Detail of Portrait. Karanis Museum, Karanis/Kom Oshim. Inv. 432
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Plate 18

Stucco Mummy No. 18. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33215

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Plate 19

Stucco Mummy No. 19. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33216

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Plate 20

Stucco Mummy No. 20. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33280

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Plate 21

'"f(
Stucco Mummy No. 21. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. CG 33281
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Plate 22

Stucco Mummy No. 22. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. Prov. 17/10/16/1
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Plate 23

Stucco Mummy No. 23. Coptic Museum, Cairo, Inv. 4124

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Plate 24

Underside of Footcase. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Inv. E. 103.1911I

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Plate 25

Gilt Stuccoed Bust. Fitzvilliain Museum. Cambridge. hiv. E.103. 1911I

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Plate 26

-U
~- 4~ ~ -- a -

'P
4 '4

2Iqy

Front View of Footease. Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Inv. 6839

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Plate 27

rrn f:- n;;

;

": t i~
i

N--

N~ N P~

' %P ~ x

Side View of Footcase. Egyptian Museum. Cairo, Inv. 6839

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Plate 28

1114
z

Detail of Underside of Footcase. British Museum, Inv. 29782

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Plate 29

Detail of Underside of Footcase. Egyptian Museum. Cairo, Inv. prov. 12/11/16/13

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Plate 3()

Detail of Lustration Scene. Graeco-Roman Museum, Alexandria, Inv. 27808

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Plate 31

D~etail of Lustrat ion SceneC. Stucco Mummy No. 22. Egyptian MuISeum.I Cairo, Inv prov. 17/10/16/1
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Plate 32

* ~ .4 ~ ~
Tq&,
- - X- -

Aedicula with Portrait. Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Inv. CG 33269