Every museum strives to enrich its collection even further, but
acquiring new objects is not always possible. Luckily, our
storerooms have much to offer and with new research and
conservation we are able to supplement the galleries with
interesting and beautiful objects that have never been on
display before. Recently, we had the opportunity to conserve an
extraordinary plaster mummy mask from the Old Kingdom and we are
especially excited about being able to share this mask with you
because it is so rare. The fragility of the material, plaster,
is probably the reason for the scarcity of such masks today.
Such masks appear to have been created by coating the linen
wrappings on the head of a mummy with plaster. So, while it’s
not a “death mask” in the modern Western sense of the term, it
was meant to portray the deceased. Only a few such plaster masks
are known, and most of them date to the Old Kingdom (circa
2675–2170 B.C.E.). Very soon after, plaster masks went out of
fashion, and were replaced by more elabor