The Ancient World

Mummy mask, Early 18th Dynasty Ancient Egypt, 1500 BCE

“Cartonnage mummy-mask of Satdjehuty: on this splendid female mask, gold leaf not only covers the woman’s face, but also her huge collar necklace and the vulture-headdress that embrace the front and sides of her voluminous, lapis lazuli-coloured wig. The wings are examples of protective symbolism that, like the feather patterns on many anthropoid coffins of the Seventeenth and early Eighteenth Dynasties, evokes the guardianship of Isis and other deities. This woman’s name, once written at the bottom of each column of hieroglyphs, has been lost. There are two columns of hieroglyphic text on the chest.”

The British Museum