Golden Mummies of Egypt through July 11, 2021 at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, North Carolina

This exhibition uses mummies from the collections of the Manchester Museum (England) to allow visitors to examine life for the wealthy in multicultural Roman Egypt, where diverse Egyptian, Roman, and Greek communities and cultural influences were blended. The exhibition journey traces expectations for the afterlife and introduces cultural constructions of identity, strikingly demonstrated by haunting painted panel portraits. The practices of preservation and decoration of the body, and the transformation of the deceased into a god, are explored by the mummies on display.

Eight gilded mummies  and more than 100 related objects are presented in the display, including papyri, jewelry, ceramics, and artworks depicting deities that connect the daily lives of these Greco-Roman Egyptians to the religious world of the gods in a series of lavishly illustrated thematic sections covering the period from 300 BCE to 200 CE. The youngest of the preserved individuals is a 2 or 3 year-old child wrapped in strips of linen in an intricate diagonal pattern adorned with golden studs. Elaborate wrappings and decorated cartonnage were popular during the Roman period because sarcophagi were no longer used for many inhabitants. Interactive radiographic studies and multidirectional CT scans from three of the mummies will allow visitors to see underneath the wrappings.

 “Using art and science together, we’re able to explore concepts around humanity, divinity, and ideals of eternal beauty,” explains Museum Director Valerie Hillings.

Visitors are also encouraged to explore the Greco-Roman objects in the North Carolina Museum of Art's own collection that includes a gilded mummy covering, circa 300 B.C.E, an Aphrodite-Isis sculpture from the first to second century CE, and the plaster portrait head of a coffin, circa 100 to 150 C.E. 

For those (like me) that will be unable to attend the exhibit, I hope to post images taken by my friend Allan Gluck who will be exploring the exhibit shortly.

A large cache of gilded mummies were found in The Valley of the Golden Mummies at Bahariya Oasis in the Western Desert of Egypt, dating to the Greco-Roman period. Discovered in 1996 by Zahi Hawass and his Egyptian team, approximately two hundred fifty mummies approximately two thousand years old were recovered over the period of several seasons. Excavations have continued and  the excavator estimates the site contains a total of more than ten thousand such mummies.

Many of the mummies were still in good condition when they were discovered by Hawass and his team. They were decorated in different styles. There were four general styles of the mummies at Bahariya. The first style, which was found on approximately sixty mummies, has a gilded mask covering the face and a gilded waistcoat depicting different scenes of gods and goddesses across the chest. The second style is covered with cartonnage, depicting scenes of gods such as Anubis, the god of mummification, and his four children. The third style was not decorated with gold or cartonnage, but rather was placed inside an anthropoid, a pottery coffin. The fourth style was covered in linen.

I found Dr. Hawass' book, "Valley of the Golden Mummies," absolutely riveting! 

Egyptian, from Hawara, Mummy of a woman called Isaious, 1st century C.E., human remains, linen, plaster, and gold leaf, Manchester Museum, © 2019 Manchester Museum / Michael Pollard Photographer

Egyptian, from Lahun, Mummy mask for a woman, circa 50 C.E., gilded and painted cartonnage JULIA THORNE 2020/TETISHERI MANCHESTER MUSEUM, UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER

Egyptian, from Hawara, Mummy mask, 332–30 B.C.E., plaster and linen, Manchester Museum. This is one of a series of mold-made masks, built up from layers of linen and plaster. Michael Pollard 2020 Manchester Museum

Egyptian, possibly from Hawara, Portrait of a woman, circa 138–160 C.E., wood, Manchester Museum, © 2019 Manchester Museum/Michael Pollard Photographer

Gilded Mummy Covering, 300 BCE, Linen with gesso, paint, and gilding, now in the collections of the North Carolina Museum of Art, image courtesy of the museum

Greco-Roman Plaster Portrait Head from a coffin, 100-150 CE, now in the collections of the North Carolina Museum of Art, image courtesy of the museum

Aphrodite-Isis, copper alloy, 1st-2nd century CE, now in the collections of the North Carolina Museum of Art, image courtesy of the museum

If you enjoyed this post, never miss out on future posts by following me by email!

A Trajanic Period Roman in Egypt

This morning while I was researching a Fayum portrait of a priest of Serapis in the collections of the British Museum, I came across this encaustic portrait of what appears to be just a common Romano-Egyptian.  Although his face is painted with skill, he wears no adornments or displays even a hint of status from his clothing.  Because of the quality of the portrait, he must have been somewhat successful in whatever occupation he practiced, whether it was that of a tradesman or even a legionary.  

The British Museum points out that his mummy, found in the necropolis of Hawara, was simply wrapped in coarse linen.  His closely cropped hair is similar to Roman court portraiture of the Trajanic period and he is said to confront the viewer directly in the Roman manner. The portrait appears to be an example of what became known during Trajan's rule as the portrait of the decennial, an image seemingly devoid of emotion with firm, calm features emanating authority and dignity.  Scholars view this portrait style as a detachment from Hellenistic influence and a merging between two previously separate types of portraiture - the official, honorary, portrait, and the private, often funerary, portrait.

Trajan himself is depicted in this style on Trajan's column where he is shown in conversation with one of his commanders.  With simplicity, the emperor is depicted nonchalant while explaining a plan to the general, fixing him in the eyes and relaxing the palms of hands in front of him, illustrating a relationship of trust and respect between him and the subordinate, devoid of any orchestrated rhetoric or gestures of courtesy.

Image: Mummy portrait of a man in encaustic on limewood found in the necropolis of Hawara in the Fayum region of Egypt, 100-120 CE, at the British Museum in London.  Image courtesy of the museum and Wikimedia Commons. The portrait emphasizes  maturity and physical strength, the latter expressed in the rugged physique and sunburned countenance.

If you enjoyed this post, never miss out on future posts by following me by email!