In a label written to accompany a mummy mask displayed in our exhibition ‘Unearthed’, a schoolgirl wrote that she thought the mask in the case looked like it was “about to start speaking.” Although this is not the sort of label museum curators write, the girl highlights the essential function of one of the most important items of Pharaonic funerary equipment. The senses were required for a successful rebirth into in the afterlife as a fully-functioning person, as in life. An important part of the funeral ritual was a rite known as the ‘Opening of the Mouth’, which restored the power of speech, as well as the other senses to the mummy (set up outside the tomb, probably wearing the mummy mask). The spell emphasises the power of the mask to restore to the deceased the ability to see. As is common in such spells, the text is a command from a god to an inanimate object – divine authority used to spark to life a lifeless substance. The spell makes clear that the mask was to protect the deceased (magically) from their enemies. This text appears on the famous golden mask of Tutankhamun, inscribing an object with its function in order to ensure that it would ‘work’ for the dead king. You take the goodly way to the presence of Horus, the lord of the nobles.’ lead him on the goodly ways, you repel Seth’s band for him and cast his enemies under his feet for him in front of the Ennead of the great House of the Noble in Heliopolis.

You are in front of, he sees by means of you. The crown of your head is Anubis, the back of your head is Horus, your fingers are Thoth, your lock of hair is Ptah-Sokar. Your right eye is the night boat, your left eye is the day boat, your eyebrows are the Ennead. Spell 151 from the Book of the Dead – the ‘Spell for the Head-of-Mystery’ – makes the function of the mask explicit:Īnubis speaks, the embalmer, lord of the divine hall, when he has placed his hands on the coffin of and equipped him with what needs: ‘Hail, O beautiful of face, lord of vision, whom Ptah-Sokar has gathered together and whom Anubis has upraised, to whom Shu gave support, O beautiful of face among the gods! The use of gilding on masks of the wealthy symbolises the golden skin of the gods. They show the deceased in an idealised form, like a god who has triumphed over death. Masks were introduced in the First Intermediate Period (c. A mummy mask provided protection – both physical and magical – to the head of the mummy.

Gold mummy mask back