About this artwork
Painted to emulate the features of a human face, this mummy mask also has fringe suggestive of hair, this mask probably was part of a mummy bundle. When the Paracas buried their dead, they placed the deceased in a seated position and wrapped it in layers of woven garments; masks were placed atop the bundle and served as a reminder of the human body within the many layers of wrapped cloth.
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Status
- Currently Off View
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Department
- Textiles
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Culture
- Paracas
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Title
- Mummy Mask
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Place
- Peru (Object made in)
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Date
- Made 200 BCE–100 BCE
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Medium
- Cotton, plain weave with bundles of extended warps; painted
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Dimensions
- Without extended warps: 20.8 × 20.7 cm (8 3/16 × 8 1/8 in.)
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Credit Line
- Simeon B. Williams Fund
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Reference Number
- 1957.77
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IIIF Manifest
- https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/5371/manifest.json