1889.27.87

Collection type

Object

Description

Wooden face from a mummy casing. It is roughly carved and oval in shape but square at the top with a projecting, triangular nose. The eyes and mouth are defined by grooves and there are some traces of black paint on the eyes. [JC [OPS Move] 26/5/2017]

Geographical reference

Egypt

Africa > Northern Africa > Egypt

Lahun [Kahun] [Illahun], Gurob

Person

Field collector William Matthew Flinders Petrie

PRM source William Matthew Flinders Petrie

Date / Period

Date made: Circa 30-305 BC Archaeological period: Ancient Egyptian Archaeological period: Greco Roman

Date collected

1889

Acquisition information

Donated: 1889

Materials and processes

Material Wood Plant, Material Pigment, Process Carved, Process Incised, Process Padded

Dimensions

Width: max 220 mm, Height: max 258 mm, Depth: max 68 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1889.27.87

Research and responses

The labels attached to these objects state the masks are XXII Dynasty, but these are in fact Ptolemaic. [AS 26/04/2010]

Associated publications

Petrie, W.M.F. 1890. Kahun, Gurob and Hawara (London). [AS 06/07/2012] Referred to on page 136 of 'Greco-Roman Egypt', by Christina Riggs, in World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum: A Characterization, edited by Dan Hicks and Alice Stevenson (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2013), pp. 115-121. Riggs writes: ‘Accessioned in the same year and noted to also be from ‘Lahun, Gurob’ are a series of 11 crudely-carved wooden faces (1889.27.78–88), which would have been pegged/dowelled onto coffins or half-length covers for mummies. Very similar objects from the same excavation are now accessioned into the Petrie collection.5 Although often recorded to be of Ptolemaic date, an earlier Third Intermediate Period dating is also possible and there are similar flat examples from Thebes, taken from coffins dating to the Roman Period thus extending their possible date range.’. [MJD (Verve) 21/1/2016]

Search terms: Death, Figure, Religion, Mummy