Brill’s New Pauly

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Mummy portraits
(659 words)

[German version]

Wooden tablets with painted heads or busts of women, men and children. As the topmost, visible layer they were integrated into the casing of a mummy (Mummies ) at the level of the face, where a gap was left for them. Many of the c. 900 known pieces, dating from the birth of Christ to the 3rd cent. AD, come from necropoleis of Fayum, an oasis south-west of Cairo, but they were also found elsewhere along the Nile. MP were discovered by chance at the end of the 19th cent. and soon became desirable objects in the international art trade, due to …

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Hoesch, Nicola (Munich), “Mummy portraits”, in: Brill’s New Pauly, Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and , Helmuth Schneider, English Edition by: Christine F. Salazar, Classical Tradition volumes edited by: Manfred Landfester, English Edition by: Francis G. Gentry. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1574-9347_bnp_e811410>
First published online: 2006
First print edition: 9789004122598, 20110510



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