Graeco-Roman Cartonnage, Research and Conservation, World Cultures Collection, Australian Museum Blog Post
The Australian Museum acquired three cartonnage masks and a foot-case in the early 20th century. The cartonnage pieces have been recently restored and they are ready for display.
Quite fragile compared to wooden coffins or stone sarcophagi, many cartonnage masks survived surprisingly well preserved for some millennia. They proliferated in the Greco-Roman period of Egyptian history and hundreds were recovered from ancient cemeteries. Relatively little research was completed on these funerary accessories but in recent times scholars have begun to show more interest, as is attested by a study conducted by Dr. Carlo Rindi Nuzzolo who examined our masks in April 2022.
Cartonnage (cardboard) - a word derived from French – describes a material made of layers of linen or papyrus covered with plaster and used in ancient Egyptian funerary masks and full-body casing from the First Intermediate Period (c. 2181–2055 BCE) to the Roman era (332 BC -395 AD).
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