Details

LOT 0504

Egyptian Faience Mummy Bead Mask with Scarab and Four Sons of Horus

PTOLEMAIC PERIOD, 332-30 B.C.

10 in. (58 grams, 25.5 cm).

A netted beadwork panel of annular and tubular glazed composition beads in blues, greens, black, cream and red-brown colours, depicting a mummy face mask with false beard, a scarab with extended wings below, the 'Four Sons of Horus’ beneath the scarab, joined together with areas of open netting of tubular beads; restrung with some later beads.

Provenance

Ex Mariaud de Serres, Paris, France, 1980-1990s.
From a London, UK, collection.

Literature

Cf. Manley, B., and Dodson, A., Life Everlasting. National Museum of Scotland Collection of Ancient Egyptian Coffins, Edinburgh, 2010, p.114, no.43, for a bead-work shroud incorporating the mask, winged scarab, and Four Sons of Horus.

Footnotes

Winged scarabs were often used as funerary amulets and believed to symbolise the deceased's rebirth and regeneration.
The Four Sons of Horus were deities responsible for protecting the deceased's internal organs. Here, on the left, is the baboon-headed Hapy, protector of the lungs, then the human-headed Imsety, protector of the liver, followed by the falcon-headed Qebehsenuef, who protects the intestines and, finally, the jackal-headed Duamutef on the right (note his erect ears are indicated), who protected the stomach. These internal organs were often placed in canopic jars with the head of the respective Son of Horus. Amulets depicting these deities were placed within the mummy wrappings.