Spice Hill

Sculpture of the Painter Noel-Nicolas Coypel (1690-1734)

1728

Terracotta

By Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne the Younger (1704-1778)

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Drill Bow

about 1900

Walrus ivory, pigment

Unknown artist

Inuit culture, Alaska

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Ziggurat Brick from the Assyrian Capital City of Kalhu

859-825 B.C.E.

Ceramic

Unknown artist

Assyrian culture, Iraq

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Mask

about 1880

Wood, cord, feathers

Unknown artist

Yupik culture, Alaska

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House Ornaments

1927 (top), about 1880 (bottom)

Wood, paint

Dick Price (top)

Unknown artist (bottom)

Kwakiutl culture, Canada/United States

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Trolldom Teku Maku Maya Kon

2017-2018

Katsuyo Aoki

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Funerary Altar Inscribed to Mystes and Her Son Dorius

1st century C.E

White marble

Roman

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Portrait of a Woman

Roman Period, about C.E 50

Tempera on linden wood panel

Egyptian

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In Egypt, paintings have sometimes been preserved in dry desert tombs, such as this naturalistic portrait of a candid, plump, and middle-aged woman dressed in her best. Greeks and Romans who lived in Egypt after it became a Roman province adapted the ancient Egyptian custom of mummy portraits. The textured lower edge may indicate where a frame was removed when this family portrait was inserted in mummy wrappings. The earliest Roman mummy portraits were painted about 50 CE, but the practice ended in 392 when the Christian emperor Theodosius outlawed mummification.

Funerary Papyrus of Tamesia

Roman Period, about 100 C.E

India ink on papyrus

Egyptian

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Made for the tomb, this scroll was to help the woman Tamesia achieve a blessed afterlife. It is a late work derived from a long tradition for Egyptian funerary texts. The essential contents were magic spells, sometimes accompanied by illustrations.

The Beginning:

The sequence of images and texts takes Tamesia through a gate where she must speak a password. It then shows her mummification, reception of offerings, and entrance into the long Hall of Double Truth. There 42 gods who act as judges hear Tamesia’s “negative confession” (in which she denies a long list of various forms of wrongdoing).

The Weighing of Tamesia’s Heart and the Enthroned Osiris:

In a final trial, Tamesia’s heart is weighed against a tiny figure of Maat, goddess of truth. If they balance, she will pass. To the right stands the falcon-headed Imentet, who personifies the land of the dead, while on the scale’s balance beam sits the baboon-headed god Thoth, ready to record the verdict. Two gods stand just below: the jackal-headed Anubis, god of embalming, and the falcon-headed Horus. If all goes well, Horus will lead Tamesia into the presence of Osiris, enthroned in his shrine at far left. Represented as both mummy and king, Osiris will decide her fate. The Four Sons of Horus, protectors of the dead, stand on a lotus blossom in front of Osiris. Behind them crouches the frightening monster Ammit—part crocodile, lion, and hippopotamus—who is eager to eat the hearts of those Osiris finds unworthy.