In a recent book, I argued that the Fayyum portraits are not ancient, but modern objects, created in the 19th century as wonder-machines
I love seeing them at work in the wild
Ellen Muehlberger
Fayum Mummy Portraits
They come from Roman Egypt, mostly dating from the 1st to 3rd centuries CE.
Painted on wooden panels, many were placed over the faces of mummified bodies, giving the dead an astonishingly life like presence.
#History #HistoryMatters
