When you purchase through golf links on our site , we may take in an affiliate mission . Here ’s how it works .
In the early first millennium , many mummies inEgyptwere affix with lifelike portraiture showcasing the gone ’s once - intense eye , styled hair and elaborated jewelry . Over the past few 100 , archaeologists have unearthed more than 1,000 of these mummy painting , largely from the metropolis of Fayum , earning them the name " Fayum portraits . "
These well - conserve , mesmerize portraits still captivate , prompting Allard Pierson , a museum in Amsterdam , to feature almost 40 Fayum portrayal in its showing " Face to Face : The People Behind Mummy Portraits , " which opened Oct. 6 and runs through Feb. 25 , 2024 .
This portrait, painted between A.D. 150 and 200 on wood, shows a young woman with brown doe eyes, a slender nose and thick eyebrows.
The portrayal , created during Egypt ’s popish period ( 30 B.C. to A.D. 395 ) , often picture individuals with European heritage , who moved to the area play along Alexander the Great ’s rule , the subsequent Ptolemaic dynasty ( 305 to 30 B.C. ) contribute by one of his generals and the Romanic period , when the empire made Egypt into a province .
The portraits were often painted on wooden panels with the two upper corner cut off so they could be easy inserted into the mummy bandages , over the face of the mummified consistency , Ben van den Bercken , curator of the Collection Ancient Egypt and Sudan at Allard Pierson , say Live Science .
Below are 12 of the portrayal , each revealing hints about the deceased and their culture .
1. Portrait of Ammonius
In the restored " Portrait of ' Ammonius , ' " paint on linen sometime between A.D. 225 and 250 , a immature humans holds a goblet in one script and a flower bouquet in the other . The artist commit Ammonius several typical features , include large lips , prominent spike , optic bagsand strangely curved fingers , agree to the book " Mummy Portraits in the J. Paul Getty Museum " ( Oxford University Press , 1982 ) .
2. Pearl earrings
This portrait , painted between A.D. 150 and 200 on wood , establish a young woman with brown doe eyes , a slender nose and deep brow . drop , like the ones she wears , are one of the " most ubiquitous " type of earring in the Fayum portrait , van den Bercken said . Jewelry and coiffure can help researchers see the portraits , he notice . For instance , women ’s coif could " be very elaborate " and often reflect fashions and vogue from Rome itself , " primarily [ from ] the empress , " he said .
However , it ’s always a question how long it have the fashions of Rome to turn over Egypt . In some case , " something fashionable in Egypt might have already gone out of fashion in Rome itself , " van den Bercken articulate .
3. Bearded man
In this portrait , painted on woodwind instrument sometime between A.D. 175 and 225 , we see a curly - haired , bearded piece clad in white . The Isle of Man ’s beard may mimic the facial hair of papistical emperor Marcus Aurelius ( prevail 161 to 180 ) , who also sported a byssus .
4. Elegant jewelry
This portrait , paint on Natalie Wood sometime between A.D. 175 and 200 , designate a dark - haired woman wear thin a pit necklace and earrings . However , as in other Fayum portraits , it ’s unclear if it portray the deceased when they were young or around the time of death .
In some case , theportraits were passably accurate , agree to a 2020 report in the journalPLOS One . A team took a CT ( computed imaging ) CAT scan of a young boy ’s mummy from Roman Egypt , digitally reconstructed his face and then compared the reconstruction with his portrait . concord to an psychoanalysis , the portrait made the tike expect young than his 3 or 4 year but was otherwise berth - on .
5. Vivid eyes
This male portrait , paint circa A.D. 250 on limewood , was purchased in the former 1800s by Henry Salt , the British frailty - consul in Egypt , making it one of the earliest Fayum portraits recovered in the New years , according to " Mummy Portraits in the J. Paul Getty Museum . "
The other record of a Fayum portrayal being roll up dates to 1615 , when a group of the paintings was bring from Saqqara , Egypt , to Europe by the papist Lord Pietro della Valle .
6. Girl with gold wreath
In this portrait , painted on wood between A.D. 120 and 130 , we see a new girl bust a bead necklace and a golden wreath in her hair . " This wreath is an reading that she ' overcame ' death , " van den Bercken said .
7. Man with gold wreath
Women were n’t the only ones painted with gold lei . In this portrayal , paint on wood sometime between A.D. 150 and 200 , we see a bearded serviceman sporting his own gold laurels .
8. Realistic portraiture
This portraiture , painted circa A.D. 150 , indicate a man garment in white and wearing a gold wreath . The Fayum portraits ' compelling images inspired creative person painting ikon in the lateByzantine Empire , as well as artists in the former nineteenth and twentieth centuries , harmonize to Allard Pierson . Today , this vogue is seen as one of the early known examples of realistic paint portraiture .
9. Curly-haired man
This human ’s face fungus helped researchers date his portrayal to the sovereignty of Emperor Marcus Aurelius . Like others with portrait , the military man paint here may have had European roots . Many Greeks and Romans lived in Egypt , first during the Ptolemaic dynasty , which started when one ofAlexander the Great ’s generals took over the neighborhood , and later when Rome made Egypt into a state following the death of Cleopatra VII .
10. Eyes and eyelashes
This portrayal , painted on wood between A.D. 300 and 400 , shows a woman wearing pearl earrings . " A plenty of item has been put in the composition of oculus and cilium , " van den Bercken said . A few clues suggest that the deceased were upper - middle class or elite , including that many fag out ornate jewelry in these portrayal . In addition , soul or their families had to pay an artist for the portrait . " They were not wanton to make , not cheap to make resource - wise , " van den Bercken said . " The multitude who ordered them must have had some financial mean value to do this . "
11. Fancy necklace
This woman ’s portrait was painted sometime between A.D. 160 and 190 . The majority of known Fayum portrait were find oneself in the 1800s , but in 2022 , archaeologists announced thatthey had discovered more at a cemeteryin the ancient city of Philadelphia in Egypt .
12. Bright-eyed woman
— Elite ancient Egyptian woman was embalmed with alien element smelling of vanilla and larch tree , young analysis divulge
— Ancient Egyptian queen ’s bracelets contain first evidence of long - space craft between Egypt and Greece
— Ancient Egyptian children were plagued with blood disorder , mum expose
This portraiture , painted on wood between A.D. 170 and 200 , was found in Egypt in the 1880s , according to " Mummy Portraits in the J. Paul Getty Museum . " The woman wears pearl earring , a necklace , a hot - pinkish tunic and pitch-black clavi , or vertical strips of embellishment . Her curly hair is drawn into a bun .
