This head of an inner mummiform coffin lid is typical of body containers found in cemeteries in and around the Faiyum. The deceased wears a blue tripartite wig with yellow stripes and a blue and yellow plaited beard. The coffin’s face is green, associating the coffin owner with the god Osiris, who ruled the underworld and vegetation. The eyes are inlaid with white and black glass. The eyebrows and cosmetic lines are highlighted in bronze. Only three upper strands of the broad collar remain around the neck. On the far right are the remains of two rows belonging to a polychrome collar. The upper torso of the anthropoid coffin is painted white. Yellow varnish was brushed on the coffin’s face, neck, wig, and beard, perhaps to confer divinity on the deceased to make them ready for the next life.1
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See Serpico, M. and R. White. 2001. “The use and identification of varnish on New Kingdom funerary equipment.” Colour and Painting in Ancient Egypt, edited by W.V. Davies, 33–42. London: British Museum Press.. ↩︎
Bibliography
- Serpico and White 2001
- Serpico, M. and R. White. 2001. “The use and identification of varnish on New Kingdom funerary equipment.” Colour and Painting in Ancient Egypt, edited by W.V. Davies, 33–42. London: British Museum Press.