False Head for Burial Bundle or Mummy Mask Item Number: 41.428 from the Brooklyn Museum
Description
Mummy mask of woven cotton, filled with cotton padding, and painted with features of the Oculate Being, two felines, and three double-headed snakes. Size: adult. Probable wearer: likely male. Vertical cotton warp. Cotton weft. Plain weave, predominantly warp-faced. Pigments with binding medium, hand-drawn.
Credit Line
Henry L. Batterman Fund
Label
The Oculate Being is depicted on this Paracas funerary mask, which was filled with cotton padding to give it a rounded appearance and was probably sewn to the outer wrapping of a mummy bundle. The mask also shows a pair of facing felines and double-headed serpents, creatures that represent power, perhaps to give the deceased potent attributes.
El Ser Oculado está representado en esta máscara funeraria Paracas, la cual tenía un forro de algodón para darle una apariencia redondeada y estaba probablemente cosida a la envoltura externa de un fardo funerario. La máscara además muestra un par de felinos enfrentados y serpientes bicéfalas, criaturas que representan poder, quizás para otorgarle al muerto atributos poderosos.
Item History
- Made between 201 BCE and 101 BCE
What
- Name
- False Head for Burial Bundle or Mummy Mask
- Identification Number
- 41.428
- Type of Item
- burial, bundle, head, mask and or
- Material
- cotton and pigment
- Measurements
- “13 1/2 x 7 1/4 x 3 in. (34.3 x 18.4 x 7.6 cm) warp (woven part): 9 13/16 in. (25 cm) unwoven warps, more than: 11 13/16 in. (30 cm) weft: 7 1/2 in. (19 cm)” ?
Who
- Culture
- Paracas Ocucaje
Where
- Holding Institution
- Brooklyn Museum
When
- Creation Date
- between 201 BCE and 101 BCE
Other
- Classification
- Masks