| Mummy of Herakleides | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Height | 179.8 cm |
| Width | 45 cm |
| Depth | 32.5 cm |
| Created | 120-140 AD |
| Present location | Getty Villa |
| Culture | Romano-Egyptian |
The Mummy of Herakleides is a Romano-Egyptian red-shroud portrait mummy dating to the 2nd century AD. [1] [2] It is a rare example of a mummy portrait found complete with its painted panels. [3] It is currently on display at the Getty Villa. [1]
A study of his bones and teeth determined that Herakleides was about 18-20 years old at the time of his death, which was around 120-140 AD. The quality of his portrait and materials used indicate that he was of high social status. [3]
The shroud of the mummy was painted red and then with a number of motifs, including an ibis at the abdomen. [2] A CAT scan revealed that underneath the painted ibis, a mummified ibis was placed, which is unusual in Egyptian human mummification. This may indicate Herakleides had a connection to the god Thoth, and was a priest or scribe. [4]
Herakleides' name is inscribed in Greek above his feet. Translated, it reads "Herakleides, son of Thermos." [4]
A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay further if kept in cool and dry conditions. Some authorities restrict the use of the term to bodies deliberately embalmed with chemicals, but the use of the word to cover accidentally desiccated bodies goes back to at least the early 17th century.
Saqqara, also spelled Sakkara or Saccara in English, is an Egyptian village in the markaz (county) of Badrashin in the Giza Governorate, that contains ancient burial grounds of Egyptian royalty, serving as the necropolis for the ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. Saqqara contains numerous pyramids, including the Pyramid of Djoser, sometimes referred to as the Step Tomb, and a number of mastaba tombs. Located some 30 km (19 mi) south of modern-day Cairo, Saqqara covers an area of around 7 by 1.5 km.
Mummy portraits or Fayum mummy portraits are a type of naturalistic painted portrait on wooden boards attached to upper class mummies from Roman Egypt. They belong to the tradition of panel painting, one of the most highly regarded forms of art in the Classical world. The Fayum portraits are the only large body of art from that tradition to have survived. They were formerly, and incorrectly, called Coptic portraits.
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Tuna el-Gebel was the necropolis of Khmun. It is the largest known Greco-Roman necropolis in Egypt, dating from the New Kingdom to the Roman Period, and seeing heavy use in the Ptolemaic Period. Tuna el-Gebel is located in Al Minya Governorate in Middle Egypt.
The Severan Tondo or Berlin Tondo from c. 200 AD is one of the few preserved examples of panel painting from classical antiquity, depicting the first two generations of the imperial Severan dynasty, whose members ruled the Roman Empire in the late 2nd and early 3rd centuries. It depicts the Roman emperor Septimius Severus with his wife, the augusta Julia Domna, and their two sons and co-augusti Caracalla and Geta. The face of one of the two brothers has been deliberately erased, very likely as part of damnatio memoriae.
The Tomb of Aline is an ancient Egyptian grave from the time of Tiberius or Hadrian, excavated at Hawara in 1892.
The Malibu Painter was an Ancient Roman painter of Fayum mummy portraits active in Egypt between about 75 and 100 AD. Three portraits have been attributed to him, based on his manner of painting highlights and shadow and the distinctive form of the noses and mouths in his portraits. Two paintings were found at Hawara, and it appears that the painter was primarily active in nearby Arsinoe. The artist's name is derived from a portrait of a woman now found in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, Los Angeles.
Animal mummification was common in ancient Egypt. Animals were an important part of Egyptian culture, not only in their role as food and pets, but also for religious reasons. Many different types of animals were mummified, typically for four main purposes: to allow people's beloved pets to go on to the afterlife, to provide food in the afterlife, to act as offerings to a particular god, and because some were seen as physical manifestations of specific deities that the Egyptians worshipped. Bastet, the cat goddess, is an example of one such deity. In 1888, an Egyptian farmer digging in the sand near Istabl Antar discovered a mass grave of felines, ancient cats that were mummified and buried in pits at great numbers.
Gebelein is an archaeological site and former town in Egypt. It is located on the Nile, about 40 km south of Thebes, in the New Valley Governorate.
Hornedjitef was an ancient Egyptian priest in the Temple of Amun at Karnak during the reign of Ptolemy III. He is known from his elaborate coffins, mummy mask and mummy, dating from the Early Ptolemaic Period and excavated from Asasif, Thebes, Egypt, which are all held in the British Museum. These related objects were chosen as the first of the hundred objects selected by British Museum Director Neil MacGregor in the 2010 BBC Radio 4 series A History of the World in 100 Objects.
In ancient Egyptian religion, the crown of justification(mꜣḥ n mꜣꜥ ḫrw) was a wreath or fillet worn by the deceased to represent victory over death in the afterlife. Its symbolism is based on Chapter 19 of the Book of the Dead, in which the wearer is said to be "justified" by a triumph over death just as the god Osiris eventually rose above his enemies. A ritual text was recited as the dead person was crowned.
The Ritual of Embalming Papyrus or Papyrus of the Embalming Ritual is one of only two extant papyri which detail anything at all about the practices of mummification used within the burial practices of Ancient Egyptian culture.
Portrait of the Boy Eutyches, also known as Portrait of Boy, is a portrait by an anonymous artist from Roman Egypt of about 100 to 150 AD. The portrait depicts a young boy, who is named as "Eutyches, freedman of Kasanios" by an inscription. It is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York. The work was produced after the boy's death, and is classified as one of the Fayum mummy portraits.
The archaeology of Ancient Egypt is the study of the archaeology of Egypt, stretching from prehistory through three millennia of documented history. Egyptian archaeology is one of the branches of Egyptology.