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Plaster body covering
Egyptian
Old Kingdom, Dynasty 5 or 6
2465–2150 B.C.
Findspot: Egypt, Giza, Tomb G 2037 B (X shaft)
Medium/Technique
Plaster
Dimensions
Mask height: 21 cm (8 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Harvard University—Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition
Accession Number39.828
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAncient Egypt, Nubia and the Near East
ClassificationsTomb equipment – Mummy trappings
DescriptionThis modern-looking sculpture brings to mind a figure in quiet repose. Made of plaster, it was molded directly over a body that had been wrapped in multiple layers of linen, and then buried in a simple wooden coffin. The head is slightly raised and splayed at the back because it lay on a wooden headrest, fragments of which were also found. Because coffins were often quite narrow, the body had to be angled slightly on its side. That requirement would account for the manner in which one leg is crossed over the other.
Burial practices and styles of mummification changed constantly throughout Egyptian history. At first, the body was buried in a simple pit in the desert, where the dry climate preserved it. With the development of larger and more complex tombs and coffins, the flesh, ironically, was subject to decay, and artificial ways to preserve it were sought. By Dynasty 4, internal organs were removed and the body was desiccated before being wrapped in linen. Sometimes features were modeled and painted directly on the cloth. Covering the head (or the head and torso) with plaster was a short-lived custom of Dynasties 5 and 6, particularly at Giza but occasionally at nearby Saqqara and Abusir as well. It has been suggested that these body coverings replaced the reserve heads that were sometimes placed in the burial chambers of what were for the most part Fourth Dynasty tombs. By the First Intermediate Period (about 2100-2040 B.C.), masks that covered the head and chest were made beforehand of cartonnage, painted, and placed over the body. Still later, entire coffins of anthropoid shape were made of cartonnage and the body inserted through a slit at the back.
This Giza body covering is the finest of its kind. Details of the face, including the straight brows, thin straight nose, widely spaced eyes, and straight mouth set off by a sharp line were carved separately into the wet plaster. Stylistically, these features are similar to those found on stone sculpture of Dynasty 5 or 6. The navel is marked by a depression. The molded ridges around the abdomen may indicate that originally the figure was clothed in a kilt.
Burial practices and styles of mummification changed constantly throughout Egyptian history. At first, the body was buried in a simple pit in the desert, where the dry climate preserved it. With the development of larger and more complex tombs and coffins, the flesh, ironically, was subject to decay, and artificial ways to preserve it were sought. By Dynasty 4, internal organs were removed and the body was desiccated before being wrapped in linen. Sometimes features were modeled and painted directly on the cloth. Covering the head (or the head and torso) with plaster was a short-lived custom of Dynasties 5 and 6, particularly at Giza but occasionally at nearby Saqqara and Abusir as well. It has been suggested that these body coverings replaced the reserve heads that were sometimes placed in the burial chambers of what were for the most part Fourth Dynasty tombs. By the First Intermediate Period (about 2100-2040 B.C.), masks that covered the head and chest were made beforehand of cartonnage, painted, and placed over the body. Still later, entire coffins of anthropoid shape were made of cartonnage and the body inserted through a slit at the back.
This Giza body covering is the finest of its kind. Details of the face, including the straight brows, thin straight nose, widely spaced eyes, and straight mouth set off by a sharp line were carved separately into the wet plaster. Stylistically, these features are similar to those found on stone sculpture of Dynasty 5 or 6. The navel is marked by a depression. The molded ridges around the abdomen may indicate that originally the figure was clothed in a kilt.
ProvenanceFrom Giza, tomb G 2037 B (shaft X). 1939: excavated by the Harvard University-Museum of Fine Arts Expedition; 1939: assigned to the MFA by the government of Egypt.
(Accession Date: September 1, 1939)
(Accession Date: September 1, 1939)