Mummy Masks and Divine Transformatin in Ancient Egypt

Mummy masks are some of the most recognizable objects created by the ancient Egyptians. Early in Egyptian history, it became important to equip the mummified dead with an image that gave them lifelike features, and mummy masks are part of this tradition. At first, simple facial features were painted on the cloth wrappings of the mummy, but by the end of the Old Kingdom (c. 2350-2194 BCE) some mummies were being buried with more elaborate plaster masks, like the one shown on the right. These masks not only gave the dead person idealized, youthful features for the afterlife, but they were also an interface through which the dead could access the world of the living. They could see through the eyes of the mask, smell and taste the offerings made to them through their nose and mouth, and hear through their ears the prayers offered by the living (Cooney 2015, 271-282).

Over the following centuries, masks began to be produced by applying plaster and animal glue to strips of linen to form a material called cartonnage, which was molded to into different shapes before it dried and hardened to a consistency similar to cardboard. The outer surface of cartonnage masks were coated with stucco so it could be painted and decorated with gold, enhancing the modeled features like eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. (Dunand and Lichtenberg 2006, 28-29 and Ikram and Dodson 1998, 169).

Giving the dead a new face was part of the larger process of mummification. The ancient Egyptians believed that mummification did more than preserve the dead body: to them, it was a ritual process that could restore the dead and transform them into a divine being (Taylor 2001, 46-49). The ancient Egyptians feared the loss of unity between body parts and the components of the spirit, so the ritual process of mummification allowed these elements to join (Ikram and Dodson 1998, 15). The process is described in some of Egypt’s most ancient writings, the Pyramid Texts, written around 2300 BCE. This excerpt from a text dedicated to Pharaoh Pepy I highlights the transformation that occurred during mummification:

Nut [the sky goddess] comes to you…. She places your head for you, gathers your bones for you, joins together your limbs for you, and gets your mind for you in your body.  _{Pyramid Text of Pepy I, Recitation 450, translation by James P. Allen} 

Mummy masks and other funerary images were important parts of this process. They did not depict how a person looked, but instead transformed him or her into an idealized, youthful form that were considered beautiful. It was believed that different materials had different powers: gold, for example, was related to the power of the sun. The sun enlivened the world and brought new life when it rose each day, and was considered divine (Nyord 2020, 30-31). By giving the mummy a new face covered in gold, the ritual of mummification allowed the dead person to be regenerated like the sun (Taylor 2001, 27-31).

Osiris, god of the dead, was important to funerary practices throughout Egypt's history. According to the version of his myth that was recorded by the Greek history Herodotus, Osiris was murdered and dismembered by his jealous brother, Seth. Osiris’s wife Isis then gathered his body parts and reassembled them so that he could live again. They then conceived a son, Horus, who eventually defeated Seth and avenged Osiris. By reconstructing her dead husband, Isis in effect made Osiris the first mummy, and the ritual process of mummification promised to transform the dead person into “an Osiris” so that they, too, could be made whole and live again.

Throughout most of ancient Egyptian history, cartonnage masks were used alongside more elaborate wooden coffins. The most elaborate mummies would first be wrapped in linen, adorned with a cartonnage mask, and then encased in a coffin, sometimes multiple coffins. Beginning during the Third Intermediate Period (c. 1077-664 BCE), cartonnage masks became even more important to funerary practice. This was a time of political chaos and economic hardship, and wood, which was primarily imported from Lebanon, became scarce (Cooney 2015, 285). Because only the richest and most important people could afford a wooden coffin, some mummies started being buried in coffins made entirely from cartonnage.

This demonstrates an important fact about Egyptian funerary practice: ritual needs could be met by using more than one type of material. It was important to have a funerary image as part of the transformative process of mummification, but this image could be provided by wood or cartonnage. Even a mask painted with yellow pigment that was like gold could help the deceased achieve divine transformation. A cartonnage mask functioned in much the same way as a wooden coffin with a sculpted face.

Alexander the Great conquered Egypt in 332 BCE. In the decades following his death in 323 BCE, Ptolemy I, a general who had served under Alexander, took control of Egypt and founded a dynasty that ruled from 305 to 30 BCE. Art produced during the Ptolemaic Period shows a mix of traditional Egyptian styles and foreign influences, and mummy masks were no exception. Nevertheless, Egyptian funerary ritual adapted and remained vibrant during this time; while some cartonnage masks, such as the one shown on the right, remained quite traditional, others, such as the three from Tebtunis shown below, demonstrate a tremendous degree of innovation and creativity.

The gilding of the mask on the right has a distinctive reddish hue that is found on many gold objects produced in Egypt. This is caused by either Egyptian gold's high copper content or the tarnishing of silver that is present in the gold (see Schorsch and Frantz 2007).

The mask below (Michael C. Carlos Museum 2018.010.127) is probably from the Faiyum Oasis in northern Egypt, where similar examples (shown on the right) were excavated in the early 20th century (James, 1982, 175). These masks are notable for including complex mythological scenes and symbols. While the face is gilded, the yellow pigment used as the background for the rest of the mask evokes the same divine solar symbolism.

Although they still depicted idealized, youthful faces, some cartonnage coffins produced during the Ptolemaic Period also began to show a more naturalistic style (Taylor 2001, 82). The coffin on the right belonged to a man named Horemsah and was found at Akhmim in Upper Egypt. Now in the collection of the British Museum, it depicts Horemsah wearing the fashionable Greek clothing of his time. He is also shown wearing a laurel crown, a symbol of victory in Greek culture. Although he has a naturalistic skin tone, his eyes are still portrayed in an overly-large, more abstract style that is characteristic of Egyptian art. The text written across his abdomen reads 'Recitation by the Osiris of Horemsah, son of Hor.'

The developments that started during the Ptolemaic Period continued under Roman rule, which began when the emperor Augustus annexed Egypt as a Roman province in 30 BCE. Influenced by Roman portraiture, some mummy masks from this period represent a realistic image of the dead person, including signs of aging or illness. The transformative aspect of mummification was still achieved by embellishing the image with gold or through other decorations on the coffin (Taylor, 2001, 82-85). Over the next two centuries, many distinctive styles of mummy masks developed in different regions throughout Egypt. These masks balanced traditional styles with innovations that allowed them to function in the tradition of Roman funerary art, which served as a memorial meant to honor the dead, while still fulfilling the ritual needs of Egyptian funerary religion.

Far from being unchanging, ancient Egyptian funerary art remained a vibrant tradition for millenia because it was able to change and adapt to the times. Whether it was achieved by a wooden coffin or a cartonnage mask, a key part of the mummification process was to reconstitute the dead person by giving them a lifelike, divine appearance.

This StoryMap was produced in conjunction with Life and the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Art from the Senusret Collection exhibition at the Michael C. Carlos Museum, and the ARTHIST 470RW Seminar in Ancient Mediterranean/Anatolian Art taught by Dr. Melinda Hartwig during the Spring 2023 semester at Emory University. Tyler Holman is a Ph.D. student in the Art History department at Emory University.