Brooklyn Museum: Collections: Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Middle Eastern Art

Mummy Case of Nespanetjerenpere. Egypt, probably from Thebes. Third Intermediate Period, Dynasty 22 to early Dynasty 25, circa 945–712 B.C. Cartonnage (linen or papyrus mixed with plaster), paint, glass and lapis lazuli on inlaid eyes and eyebrows, 69 3/4 in. (177 cm.) high. Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 35.1265

Cartonnage, a substance made of cloth or papyrus mixed with plaster and water, was used during the Third Intermediate Period to make an innermost case for the mummified body. The mummy was inserted and the covering was then painted with funerary scenes and inscriptions and placed in one or more coffins, which had been decorated in much the same way. The decoration here was chosen to associate its occupant, the priest Nespanetjerenpere, with divine resurrection. The ram-headed falcon on his chest represents the sun god's nightly journey through the land of the dead. The small figures on the front represent deities aligned with various parts of his body, as described in the funerary Book of the Dead.

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