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Fragment of Cartonnage from Breast of Mummy

Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art

After death, Egyptians hoped to merge with both the sun-god Re and the king of the dead, Osiris. The deity resulting from the fusion of these two gods was called Re-Osiris. He was represented as a ram with horns and a sun disk on his head. This image was sometimes added to a coffin to help the deceased join with the gods.

The deceased merged with the sun-god Re to travel with the sun across the sky to the West, where the entrance to the afterlife was thought to lie. The departed combined with Osiris, king of the afterlife, to live eternally in the next world.
MEDIUM Cartonnage, pigment
  • Place Made: Egypt
  • DATES ca. 945–656 B.C.E.
    DYNASTY Dynasty 22 to Dynasty 25 (probably)
    PERIOD Third Intermediate Period
    DIMENSIONS 9 1/4 x 10 11/16 x 1/4 in. (23.5 x 27.1 x 0.7 cm)  (show scale)
    ACCESSION NUMBER 37.1531E
    CREDIT LINE Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Fragment of cartonnage from the breast of a coffin, depicting a winged, ram-headed scarab; above this, a row of petals from a collar. Painted and varnished.
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Fragment of Cartonnage from Breast of Mummy, ca. 945–656 B.C.E. Cartonnage, pigment, 9 1/4 x 10 11/16 x 1/4 in. (23.5 x 27.1 x 0.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 37.1531E. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 37.1531E_PS4.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 37.1531E_PS4.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2016
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    RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
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