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Material : Cartonnage , Cloth , & Gilded and Painted Stucco
Width : 41 Height : 51
Found in : Hawara , Near the Fayoum Oasis (1888)
Period : ROMAN PERIOD
Reign of : Claudio
Belonged_to: Ammonarin
Archeologist : W . M . F . PETRIE
This highly artistic funerary mask of a woman called Ammonarin was found in1888 by W . M . F . Petrie in Hawara , a very famous archeological site near the Fayoum Oasis . A great corpus of plaster masks was made during the Roman imperial era . The Roman taste had a particular interest in making portraits and masks that stand for iconographic realism . Such a tendency became the most successful expression of the reciprocal penetration of Egyptian and Roman cultures that were far more integrated in death than in life . While plaster masks were placed on the mummy over the area of the face , portraits were either placed among the bandages wrapping the deceased's mummy or on the linen shrouds .
Dating back to the Roman Period , to the reign of Emperor Claudius (41-54 AD) , this highly admired mask of Ammonarin which covers both her head and bust is made of cartonnage and cloth mixed with gilded and painted stucco . The name of the woman is inscribed in gold on the back of her head . Similar in style to the traditional Egyptian funerary masks , this example of funerary masks denotes a high taste of decoration and a skillfully-organized color arrangement . Realistically portrayed , the beauty of the eyes is gracefully highlighted by eye black . Worth noticing is the slight smile that lightens the mask's face . With her right hand , she holds a bunch of violet flowers . Hanging from her neck is a fine highly artistic gold necklace . There are three figures hanging down from this necklace: the one in the middle is depicted naked (and therefore possibly identified as Harpocrates , the god of silence in the Greek mythology) .
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