115 20 Mummies of a man and a woman, each with mummy portrait and shroud Late Roman Period, late third to mid-fourth cent. CE Linen, stucco, painted and gilded, mummified corpse (a) H. 175, W. 40, D. 29.5 cm; (b) H. 164, W. 37.5, D. 29 cm Findspot: Saqqara, unearthed by Pietro della Valle in 1615 Purchased from the estate of Filippo Antonio Gualtieri, Rome, in 1728 Skulpturensammlung, Inv. nos. (a) Aeg 777, (b) Aeg 778 These two famous mummies bearing the portrait of a man and a woman date from the late Roman Period. They were brought back from Saqqara in 1615 by the Italian explorer Pietro della Valle and were thus probably the first traceable Ancient Egyptian mummies to have been brought to Europe still existing. While the linen bandages and the elaborately decorated and gold-leafed shroud of the man are very well preserved, the shroud of the female mummy is badly damaged. The top half of each mummy is decorated with a shroud depicting the deceased dressed like a living person. They each wear a golden diadem on their head as well as a chiton, the Greek tunic with textile bands called clavi. Attached to each side of the woman’s clavi is a broad decorative band with large blue and red stones set in gold mounts. Below that is a head of Medusa, which functions here as a magical symbol of protection. Likewise, the man’s chest is protected by the Egyptian vulture goddess Nekhbet. In their right hands, the deceased each carry a Greek vessel for liquid offerings: the man holds a kantharos containing wine, and the woman a single-handled lekythos for oil. In their left hands, they presumably hold the “wreath of vindication”, a wreath awarded to the deceased to indicate their having passed the test in which the dead were judged, allowing them to pass into the afterlife. While the man wears finger rings, the woman is adorned with elaborate, colourful neck and breast jewellery, as well as bracelets, ankle bands, and finger rings. The Greek inscription under the man’s right arm reads ΕΥΨΥΧΙ (Eupsychi), i.e. “Farewell!” On the lower section of each mummy, the deceased’s garment is covered all over by a painted bead-net (cat. no. 24). The pictorial elements in it have a mythological and decorative character and can be traced back to Ancient Egyptian as well as Graeco-Roman traditions. An interesting feature is a small, metal seal on the left side of the male mummy, which bears the sign of the mummification workshop. Such seals can also be made of unfired Nile silt clay and wax. MG The skull and lower extremities of these two supine mummies are well preserved, but many bones of the trunk skeleton and the arms were anatomically displaced after death (figs. 3 a – b). Numerous bones were broken post-mortem, probably in the course of excavation or transportation, in the case of the male mummy presumably also after the opening of the textile wrapping in Egypt. Of the organs of the two mummies, only a very few remnants have been preserved. The poor state of preservation of the bodies means that it is impossible to make reliable statements about the exact technique of artificial mummification. Radiological evidence of brain removal via the nose was not found. The materials in the skulls showing different degrees of radiopacity are bone fragments and, presumably, sediment accumulations. In the upper part of the man’s body, a mixture of bones, sediments, and probably plant remains was found (fig. 1). It is assumed – albeit tentatively in view of the poor state of preservation – that moisture was extracted from the bodies using natron, as was customary in Ancient Egypt. The brain and organs were probably not removed, which is also indicated by comparative analysis with a third mummy of the same type from Saqqara. There is no evidence of the use of radiopaque resinous embalming substances. The two metal-dense foreign bodies inside the male mummy have been radiologically identified as seals of the embalmers from the mummification workshop. Presumably, they were originally attached to the outer textile layer and probably shifted into the mummy’s interior when the textile cover was opened in Egypt following its discovery. The two metal-dense objects near the right thigh of the female mummy
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