gilded masks

Ancient Egypt
155

Gold tongues and Homer

A Spanish mission working at the ancient site of Oxyrhynchus (Bahnasa, in Minya) has found a Roman tomb containing wooden coffins and a number of mummies, three with gold tongues, and one with a tongue of copper. Some of the…

ABOVE This gilded mummy belonging to a woman called Isaious was discovered at Hawara in 1911. The mummy mask’s facial features and hairstyle are reminiscent of Ptolemaic ideals, while other elements of the cartonnage feature traditional Pharaonic iconography, reflecting the multiculturalism present in burial traditions in Egypt at the time.

World Archaeology
118

Golden Mummies of Egypt

An internationally touring exhibition featuring mummies and artefacts from Graeco-Roman Egypt has opened in the UK for the first time at the newly refurbished Manchester Museum. Amy Brunskill visited to find out more.