Cartonnage and Mummy of an Anonymous Man
Description
Object Label: This cartonnage illustrates the combination of Egyptian with Classical art in the Roman Period: the idealized portrait includes the hieroglyph for “protection” (a symbol of Isis) as well as a wreath (in the Greek or Roman style). The red symbol on the left shoulder, which can easily be mistaken for a swastika, is actually an ancient Greek symbol for holiness, while at the bottom, the boat of Sokar (a form of the Egyptian sun god) is flanked by jackals. Mummy of an Anonymous Man was unwrapped in the 1950s and rewrapped in 2010 for this exhibition. Carbon-14 dating conducted in 2009 suggests that this man died between 259 and 398 c.e., confirming the third-century century date suggested by the style of the cartonnage. Caption: Cartonnage and Mummy of an Anonymous Man, 3rd century C.E.. Human remains, wood (Ficus sycomorus, sycamore fig), grass, linen, plaster, pigment, a: cartonnage: 13 1/4 x 35 7/16 in. (33.7 x 90.0 cm) b: necklace: 34 1/4 in. (87 cm) c-d: sheets: 39 3/8 x 84 1/4 in. (100.0 x 214.0 cm) c-d: fringe: 6 1/8 in. (15.6 cm) e: approx. height through nose: 8 in. (20.3 cm) e: approx. width at shoulders: 20 in. (50.8 cm) e: approx. length: 62 in. (157.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 52.128a-e. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
AI image analysis GPT-4o-2024-08-06
Machine-generated from the object's image on May 2026. Not curatorial; treat deities, names, and signs below as the model's best reading, not authority.
Painted mummy portrait depicting a man holding objects.
The image shows a Roman-era Egyptian mummy portrait featuring a man with large, expressive eyes and distinct facial features. He is depicted wearing a richly decorated tunic with geometric patterns, and he holds a small vessel and a cluster of dates. The bottom section includes a painted depiction of traditional Egyptian symbols and possibly deities, painted in vibrant colors.
Cross-references (2)
- BKM-Accession 52.128a-e tier-2
- BKM-Object 194065 tier-2
About this record's data
- From the source institution — accession, description, dimensions, and dating are as catalogued by Brooklyn Museum — Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art.
- AI-inferred — the image-analysis panel (deities, names, signs) is machine-generated and may be wrong.
- Approximate location — most map points are plotted at the site centroid, not the exact findspot.
- Inferred links — cross-references marked with a match method other than explicit-source-field were matched by us, not stated by the source.