Mummy Masks
Cartonnage Conservation
By Susi Pancaldo, Gemma Aboe and volunteers from the
MA Principles in Conservation Course, July 2010
1 UC45931 mummy
mask from Roman
period.
3
5
4
6
2 UC31377 mummy
mask from early Middle
Kingdom period (20461976BC).
3 UC45849 and UC
45926, mummy masks
from Ptolemaic period
(305-30BC).
4 UC28084 Mummy
mask from early Roman
period (late 1st century
AD).
2
5 UC79377 Mummy
mask from early Roman
period (on display when
not undergoing
conservation work).
6 Further cartonnage
on display in WEC10
and in storage.
1
Introduction
Funerary cartonnage in ancient Egypt
Ancient Egyptian cartonnage is a material made from layers of linen
or papyrus, coated with gesso then painted. It was used to make
‘masks’ (head or upper body covers), foot cases, shaped symbolic
plaques and even full body covers which were attached to the
mummy-wrapped body prior to burial. During manufacture, moist
layers of adhesive-soaked linen and gesso (either calcium
carbonate- or calcium sulphate-based), were moulded into a
particular shape. After drying, the gessoed surface was smoothed
before application of paint or gold leaf. A further layer of gesso was
often applied with a brush to the underside of the casing to give it
further strength and rigidity.
The main periods in which cartonnage was used in Egypt were the
Middle Kingdom (2025-1700 BC), Third Intermediate Period (1069664 BC) and Ptolemaic and Early Roman Periods (330 BC – c.250
AD). Each period produced it own distinct style of cartonnage
manufacture and decoration.
The Petrie Museum houses about 140 pieces of cartonnage, most
from the Ptolemaic and early Roman Periods. In 2002-3, the Friends
of the Petrie Museum funded a Cartonnage Conservation project,
resulting in reconstruction of about 40 cartonnage funerary masks,
some now on display in the museum.
Conservation processes: Understanding Materials and
Techniques of Manufacture
The first step in undertaking conservation is to examine an object
closely, both with the naked eye and under magnification. Careful
examination will often reveal a great deal of detail about the materials
and methods used in the manufacture of the object. It may also
reveal how the object was used in antiquity. This cartonnage, for
example, has holes at the bottom edges, which we suspect (from
comparison with other masks) were used to tie the mask to the body
before burial.
Many questions raised during close examination of the piece can
only be answered through scientific analysis. For example, with this
cartonnage mask, we wanted to know more about the specific
pigments used to paint the figure. We also wanted to know more
about what type of ‘stucco’ was used. Ruth Siddall, lecturer in
Geology at the UCL Department of Earth Science, is undertaking
analysis of these materials to help us answer some of these
questions.
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During the initial examination and study of an object, a conservator
documents any signs of deterioration. Documentation will include
written notes and photography and sometimes also x-radiography.
After a full assessment of the condition of an object has been drawn
up, the conservator will propose a course of action. Some of the
major cartonnage reconstruction projects on display in the museum
are discussed in this trail.
Conservator Barbara
Wills working on the
‘V&A’ mask and the
mask undergoing
conservation treatment.
The Objects
1 UC45931 Mummy mask, Roman period, probably from
Hawara. Linen based cartonnage.
Our trail of Egyptian cartonnage starts with a mummy mask – more
properly described as a head cover – discovered by archaeologist
Flinders Petrie at excavations of an elite Roman cemetery at
Hawara. News of the discovery of naturalistic painted wood mummy
portraits from the site caused great excitement in Europe. The gilt
cartonnage mummy masks, however, were not so well received.
Even Petrie referred to them as ‘wretched things with gilt faces and
painted head pieces’.
Mummy mask
UC45931 pictured
from the side and
from the top.
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This mask has a gilt front and Egyptian-style funerary motifs painted
on the back. It portrays a young man, with light beard.
Broken and distorted due to a long history above and below ground,
the mask was recently restored by conservator Richard Jaeschke.
The cartonnage structure had to be reinforced from behind. This was
accomplished with glass fibre tissue. Missing areas were filled with a
stable paste and toned to match the original colour on the back.
This work was part of the Cartonnage Conservation project funded
by the Friends of the Petrie Museum and carried out by Richard and
Helena Jaeschke in 2003-05.
2 UC31377 Mummy mask. Early Middle Kingdom (2046-1976
BC). Sedment, Tomb 2101. Linen-based.
This is the earliest cartonnage mask in the Petrie collection, from a
coffin for a man named ‘Dudufi’ or ‘Awyfy’ in a rich burial ground
discovered by Petrie at Sedment. Like other masks from this site, its
stylized facial features are painted primarily with light red ochre,
black and blue pigments; details of the broad collar are painted in
green, red, white and black
Organic artefacts from Sedment were generally well preserved, as
the site lies well above the Nile flood plain. When examined before
treatment in 1983 by conservator Helena Jaeschke, linen layers of
the mask were found bent over in areas but still had a flexible
condition. Loose and cracked stucco layers were reattached to the
linen layers and paint layers were relaxed and readhered to the
stucco. No restoration ‘fills’ were required to stabilise the structure.
Mummy mask UC31377
on the left.
On the right, examples
of materials used in ‘fill’
experiments on the
‘V&A’ mask.
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3 UC45849 and UC45926, Mummy masks. Ptolemaic (305 30BC), probably from Gurob. UC45849: papyrus-based
cartonnage; UC45926: linen-based cartonnage
In the Ptolemaic Period, both linen and papyrus were used to make
thin cartonnage. Papyrus-based cartonnage, produced c.250-50 BC,
was often disassembled in the past as the papyrus scroll supports
often contained ancient writing, including works of great interest,
notably lost poetry and plays by famous Greek authors.
Both the linen and papyrus based masks displayed in this case are
decorated in a traditional Egyptianising style, with ‘lappets’ of
blue/black hair or headcloth falling in front of the shoulders and
chest, and a wedjat eye placed at the centre of a diadem above the
forehead. Gilding on the linen-based example may reflect the belief
in immortal life, as gold does not tarnish.
Both masks underwent conservation in the 1990s with financial
support from the Friends of the Petrie Museum. UC45926 was in
particularly poor condition due to damage from salt contamination in
burial and then water damage in the museum caused by a leaky roof.
Extensive analytical work was carried out on this piece, revealing
interesting details about the materials and techniques used making it.
The square, black and white stickers placed around the mask on its
mount are guidelines for an ongoing 3D photographic imaging
project. A 3D image of this mask can be viewed on the computer
monitor in the museum’s Pottery Gallery.
Mask UC45849 on the
left and mask 45926 on
the right.
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4 UC28084 Mummy mask. Early Roman period, late first
century AD, from Hawara. Linen-based cartonnage with further
plant fibre stuffing
This cartonnage mask is likely to have been made in the same
period as the famous painted panel portraits from Hawara (see
showcase Object by Site: Hawara WEC11) as well as plaster portrait
heads such as UC19622, also in this showcase. The individualised
features of all of these works suggest that, within an iconographic
framework, an attempt was made to create images which reflected
the appearance of individual people.
Cartonnage from this time period tends to be produced from coarse
fibrous support materials and thicker layers of stucco. This example
is gilt except for details of the garland of red immortelle flowers in the
right hand, and the purple band of the garment; the eyes (only the
proper right eye is original) are made of glass and calcite stone, with
bronze for the eyeframe and lashes.
This mask was conserved by the Jaeschke’s in the late 1990s and
again in 2005, the latter in preparation for a travelling exhibition,
when the proper right eye was restored by conservator Renee Stein
using modern resins for the eye and tinted Japanese tissue paper for
the eye lashes. It was felt that visitors would find the face disturbing
without restoration to the eye. Would you?
A fragment of a gilt footcase displayed next to this mask, UC28085,
is also from Hawara. A more complete footcase is temporarily on
view in the Pottery Gallery, along with a 3D model of the footcase.
Mummy mask UC28084
on the left and gilt
footcase UC28085 on
the right.
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5 UC79377 Mummy mask
Early Roman period, probably from Hawara. Linen-based, further
bulked with plant fibre.
In 2002, Rebecca Naylor, a curator at the Victoria and Albert
Museum, notified the Petrie Museum that there was an old crate
there of unregistered material from the 1888 excavations directed by
Flinders Petrie at the Roman cemeteries of Hawara. The contents
were part of an allotment of finds given to Jesse Haworth, one of
Petrie’s sponsors, and apparently sent to the V&A for study. The
crate contents were transferred to the Petrie Museum in 2004 for
registration and conservation and among them, was a cartonnage
upper body cover depicting a lady in a red garment, carrying pink
immortelles. This mask has recently been conserved with funds from
the Friends of the Petrie Museum.
On the left the
cartonnage mask
before
conservation. On
the right
cartonnage mask
after conservation.
In 2009 Conservator Barbara Wills was commissioned to carry out
conservation work on this badly damaged mummy mask. After
cleaning and stabilisation, large areas of loss to the lips and chin
have been filled. An educated guess has been made in determing
the shape of the lips and chin.
6 Further cartonnage on display in WEC10 and in storage
Further cartonnage artefacts including masks, footcases and
fragments are exhibited on the lower shelf of WEC10. Most of there
are from Hawara.
The Petrie Museum houses many more cartonnage artefacts in
storage; some 140 pieces have been registered in all. Most of these
are from Ptolemaic and Roman Period cemeteries at Hawara and
Gurob. Among the fragments, some are recognizably from upper
body covers, others from footcases, all requiring study and
conservation.
We are interested in your thoughts about restoration. How do you
think the ‘faces’ should be restored? Let us know. . .
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The mask before
conservation and after
some treatment with a
blank space for her
mouth.
How should the mouth,
be restored? Should it
even be restored?
Do conservators and
museum professionals
impose an ‘identity’ onto
the person underrneath
the mask?
Does a ‘new’ mouth tell
us who she was? Or tell
us who we are?
Conservation treatment
For the cartonnage mummy masks, the following general steps were
proposed:
1 Stabilise and clean, as much as possible, all of the layers of the
cartonnage
2. Reattach any loose fragments and realign breaks to the stucco
layers as much as possible, introducing an adhesive and support
materials where necessary.
3. Create a support mount for the object, which can be used to
transport, store and display the mask.
As with all conservation treaments, the materials used in treating the
object must not harm any of the original materials used to make the
mask and must be able to be removed at a later date with as little
interference with the original materials as possible.
After cleaning and stabilization, the conservators and curators
initiated discussions as to whether to fill large losses to the face.
There was a consensus of opinion that creating a ‘fill’ around the
nose, mouth and chin mouth would improve the viewer’s ability to
understand the object as a whole. However, it was also agreed that it
is imperative to be able to distinguish the original gilded surface of
the face from the modern fill.
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Many conversations ensued and after examining the mouths and
chins of a number of gilt cartonnage masks from other collections,
we settled on the realization that masks from this period have a high
degree of individuality, and we will have to make an educated guess
as to what the dead woman’s face may have looked like. We would
like to know, though, what our visitors would expect to see!
Please let us know what you think!
Image on the left
shows the
different bits
being pieced
together and the
mask undergoing
cleaning.
Further Reading
For further information on Egyptian cartonnage masks in the Petrie Museum, see:
http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/
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