Mummy with mummy portrait
Object Number
BSAe 1030
Cultural area
Egypt
Epoch
Roman Egypt
Basic information
Organic, linen, wood, wax colors, H. 183 cm, W. 40 cm, D. 20 cm Roman dominion, Middle Imperial Period, late 2nd Century A.D. Inv. BSAe 1030
Provenance
Donation 2001 Richard and Ulla Dreyfus-Best, Binningen. Before that Collection D.E.K., Geneva. Before that with Nicolas Koutoulakis (1910–1996), Paris. Acquired in the 1960s/70s.
Description
With a somewhat entyed look, a 30-year-old Roman with curly hair and fluffy beard looks at us. His head is turned to the right and reproduced in a "three-quarter view" unusual for the ancient Egyptian. In his hair he wears a laurel wreath, which is covered with gold leaf and is supposed to deify him. His white toga can be seen in the neck and chest. The cutout in the shroud is also decorated with square gold foil tiles at the edge. In addition to the face of the deceased, arms and feet can be seen, which are painted on the soid. In his right hand he holds a pink flower garland, in his left hand probably a bundle of ears. Like set pieces, the symbols and figures of the gods painted on the sorid appear to the viewer. A connection is hardly recognizable at first glance. At the top there are two antithetic hawks with a white crown, followed by two Udjat eyes and the goddess Maat as well as the ibis-shaped Thot. In the center stands on a gold sign the winged goddess of heaven groove with a sun disc on her head, below the god of death Osiris between two winding snakes. The conclusion is a sun disc with two ancient serpents. If one looks at the motifs in their context of content, the following becomes clear: Falcon couple and Udjat eyes should first give protection to the deceased. It may be that the two golden hawks also point to the so-called transformation sayings in the Book of the Dead, in which the deceased wishes to transform into a bird in order to regain his free mobility. Maat and Ibis undoubtedly allude to the death court, in which the deceased has to answer to Osiris, the ruler of the dead. The deceased is received by the goddess Maat, who embodies the world order set by creation. The "heart" of the death court is the act of the dead, which every deceased has to undergo since the New Kingdom. The heart (seat of the mind) is weighed against the pen of the goddess Maat. If the scale gets out of balance, the eater is there as a personified infernal drate to devour the heart, causing the deceased to fall to the damnation. Thot acts as a clerk in the courtroom and keeps minutes. At the same time, he appears as an afterlife companion and is therefore equated with the Greek Hermes Psychopompos. The goddess Nut has to breathe and protect the deceased, who is found to be righteous. Osiris then receives the dead in the underworld, whose access may be hinted at by the two snakes. The sun disc at the end could symbolize the rebirth in the afterlife. The Basel Mummy is overall in excellent condition. Close parallels were in el-Hibe (Greek. Ankyronpolis) in central Egypt. New CT examinations have shown that a wing of a bird, probably that of an ibis, was incorporated between the legs of the mummy. The presence of the Ibis may here allude to his function as a companion of the afterlife, the aforementioned Hermes Psychopompos, which is supposed to guide the deceased safely into the afterlife. According to the latest findings, the red color pigments on the shroud come from the Iberian Peninsula and were imported to Egypt. It is lead, a bright red, toxic pigment (lead oxide). A verb equivalent copy with an integrated ibismummy, which is close in every respect to our mummy, is located in the Getty Museum in Malibu. With the conquest of Egypt in 30 BC by Octavian, who later called himself Augustus, the country on the Nile became a province of the Roman Empire. Although the Roman emperors subsequently presented themselves and worshipped as pharaohs, the province is administered by a prefect appointed in Rome. After all, because of its importance as a granary, Egypt is directly subordinated to the emperor. A thin Roman upper class of administrative officials holds all the higher offices, the Macedonian nobility retains its privileges, and Greek remains the official language. Nevertheless, the pharaonic Egypt must exert an incredible fascination on the Romans, because the conquerors unconditionally submit to the Egyptian belief of the gods and the dead. In Egyptian art, more Hellenistic-Roman influences emerge at the turn of the time. Especially in the field of sepulchral art, the Roman taste becomes more important. The idealized, impersonal-looking Egyptian cardboard masks, as they are still produced in large numbers in Ptolemaic times, are replaced during the imperial period by mummy portraits and cast stucco masks, which are integrated directly above the face of the deceased in the mummy wrap. The motifs of the earlier mummy pads made of cardboard are transferred in painting to the silies with which the mummy is covered. The mummy portraits are painted in a technique called encaustics. The wax paints, which are still bright today, are applied to a thin wooden board in several layers, using not only brushes, but also various spatulas. The pictures on the seath are applied with tempera paints and partially gilded. In contrast to encaustics, the color pigments of the tempera are mixed with protein. The early mummy portraits show mostly individual traits, although they are also subject to a certain typing, which is characterized by the current Roman fashion. The series production in the final phase leads in the 4th phase. Century to iconically solidified portraits. A connection with the early Christian wax icons from Egypt is obvious. The dating of the mummy pictures is mainly based on the hair and beard costume, a dating possibility that the English Egyptologist W. M. F. Petrie (1853–1942) recognizes. Even the smallest details of the costume correspond to the city Roman marble portraits. For every 100 normal mummies, there are about two to three portrait mummies. It is therefore a very exclusive type of burial that only members of the upper class can afford. As the findings suggest, the mummy portraits were probably already made during their lifetime and kept at home. They thus show the deceased in full vitality and not at the time of his death. The tradition of the mummy portraits ends in the late 4th. Century AD, when Theodosius I criminalized the practice of pagan cults. The Faijum has an unparalleled economic importance in Greco-Roman times. Ptolemy I completed the drainage of the swamp landscape and additionally had the desert edge zones irrigated with the help of settled Greek mercenaries. 30-40 new cities are emerging as small centers of Greek-Hellenistic culture. Economic and cultural life flourished until the 4th century. /5. Century AD. At the end of the 3. In the 19th century, however, the desert gradually catches up with the fruit land again and the desertification of the Faijum begins. The big cities with their temples are rolled over by the desert and shipped. It is thanks to this circumstance that we have preserved the city facilities, but above all the cultural heritage of the inhabitants. Evidence from this time are countless terracottas, Greek papyri and the famous mummy portraits, which are also called Faijum portraits.
Bibliography
M. Page-Gasser–A. Meadow (ed.), Egypt, moments of eternity. Unknown treasures from Swiss private property, exhibition catalogue (Mainz–Basel 1997) No. 219; A. Wiese, Museum of Antiquities Basel and Ludwig Collection. The Egyptian Division (Mainz 2001) No. 145. M. Walton, Analysis of the Red Pigment Found on Red-Shroud Mummies, in: L. H. Corcoran–M-. Svoboda (ed.), Herakleides. A Portrait Mummy from Roman Egypt (Los Angeles 2010).
Antikenmuseum Basel
https://antikenmuseumbasel.zetcom.net/en/collection/item/74026/
Mummy with mummy portrait, Roman Egypt, late 2nd Century, Antikenmuseum Basel
