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Five cartonnage panels
Egyptian
Hellenistic Period (Ptolemaic Dynasty)
3rd–2nd century B.C.
Findspot: Egypt, Abydos
Medium/Technique
Cartonnage
Dimensions
Height x width: 13.3 x 7.3 cm (5 1/4 x 2 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Egypt Exploration Fund by subscription
Accession Number02.830a-e
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAncient Egypt, Nubia and the Near East
ClassificationsTomb equipment – Coffins and sarcophagi
DescriptionThis group is comprised of five panels of decorated cartonnage (painted, plaster-soaked linen) from a mummy case. Four carry depictions of mummiform figures (three with heads of animals and one with the head of a human male), while the fifth carries a depiction of a kneeling goddess. Vertical inscriptions on each identify the four mummiforms as the Four sons of Horus (protectors of the viscera of the deceased). The fifth figure is the goddess Nephthys. Surviving colors include light green, blue, red, black, white, and yellow, with all panels following the same general color scheme. The background is green. The figures of deities as well as the column of black painted hieroglyphic text in front of each were painted with a yellow ground, much of which has dulled or worn away. The baseline of each panel has been rendered with a white background, divided at intervals with vertical black lines that also separate alternative blue and red rectangles.
ProvenanceFrom Abydos. 1902: excavated by William Matthew Flinders Petrie for the Egypt Exploration Fund, assigned to the Egypt Exploration Fund in the division of finds by the government of Egypt, received by the MFA through subscription to the Egypt Exploration Fund on November 17, 1902. (Accession Date: November 17, 1902)