Cartonnage Mummy Case
Description
[Egypt, Greco-Roman period (332 BCE–395 CE), Ptolemaic dynasty (305–30 BCE)–Roman empire (30 BCE–395 CE)] This mummy case is made of cartonnage, a material similar to papier-mâché, but using layers of linen rather than paper. Cartonnage mummy cases such as these are contemporary with funerary portraits painted on wood or linen, although they present a very different appearance. The face, modeled in plaster, is bland and idealized, although the effect of the gilding and glass inlays is quite dazzling. The body is painted with traditional, age-old funerary motifs: the god Osiris, seated and mummiform; the fetish of Abydos, holy city of Osiris, flanked by standing deities (Thoth and Shu); a Horus falcon with outspread wings, and the bark of Sokar. Below these are the sandaled feet of the deceased. On the sides are rows of seated deities. On the top of the head are a winged scarab beetle flanked by Anubis jackals. On the foot are painted the soles of the deceased’s sandals, flanked by scorpions for protection.
AI image analysis GPT-5.4-nano
Machine-generated from the object's image on Jul 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
Painted and gilded cartonnage mummy case shown frontally, with a stylized human face and extensive decorative panels across the body.
The image depicts an anthropoid mummy case made of cartonnage, photographed against a dark background. The head and upper torso are covered by a painted, gilded surface. The face has large painted eyes, arched brows, and a defined nose and mouth, with a blue-and-gold ceremonial wig (nemes-like stripes or patterned hair) extending over the forehead and sides of the head. Across the body are multiple stacked registers of geometric and patterned decoration, including rectangular bands and lattice-like motifs in red, green/blue, yellow/gold, and black outlines. A broad chest/wide collar area is decorated with colored panels and symbolic patterns, while the lower portion contains a central scene/register with small figures that are not clearly legible at this resolution. No clear cartouches or royal names are identifiable. There is no clearly readable hieroglyphic, Greek, Coptic, or Arabic text in the provided view. Visible materials include cartonnage with paint and gilding; small reflective elements consistent with inlays are not clearly distinguishable as glass in this image, though the catalogue description mentions glass inlays.
Cross-references (2)
- Wikidata Q60756044 tier-1
- CMA-id 94191 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Cleveland Museum of Art (Egyptian).
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.