The ancient Egyptians had an elaborate set of funerary practices that they believed were necessary to ensure their immortality after death. These rituals included mummifying the body, casting magic sp
The Opening of the Mouth ceremony being performed on a mummy before the tomb. Extract from the Papyrus of Hunefer, a 19th-Dynasty Book of the Dead (c.1300 BCE)
Depiction of professional mourners
Relief of Men Presenting Oxen, c. 2500–2350 BCE Limestone. In this relief, three men bring cattle to the tomb owner, "from the towns of the estate", as the inscription says. Two of these balding, rustic laborers wear kilts of coarse material and the other wears nothing at all. A fragmentary scene below shows men bringing cranes, which Egyptians penned and raised for food. Artisans carved images of live food animals in tombs to supply the deceased with an eternal source of provisions.
Mask from a coffin. Middle Kingdom (12th or 13th Dynasty, c. 19th century BCE). Cartonnage, 37.1387E, Brooklyn Museum
Mask of Tutankhamun
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The mask of Tutankhamun is a gold funerary mask that belonged to Tutankhamun, who reigned over the New Kingdom of Egypt from 1332 BC to 1323 BC, during the Eighteenth Dynasty. After being buried with
Ancient Egyptian funerary practices
…of Predynastic and even earlier periods. New Kingdom, new object purposes Tutankhamun's tomb was provided with vast quantities of wealth, such as the mask of Tutankhamun. The majority of elite tombs in the New Kingdom were rock-cut chambers. Kings were buried in multi-roomed, rock-cut tombs in the Valley of the Kings…
Cairo Eg Museum Taa Mask Mostly Photographed
Back of the mask
The gold mask in situ, 1925
The mask on display at the Grand Egyptian Museum, 2026