NARRATOR: The massive body of this woman’s mummy covering is fairly plain, but the mask depicting her face and upper torso are lavishly decorated. Notice her elaborate hairstyle. The rows of tight curls above her forehead mimic the style of fashionable Roman women at the end of the first century AD, the time in which she lived. But the long corkscrew locks hanging down are typically Egyptian—a style harkening back nearly two thousand years.

If you look behind her head, at the vertical section, you will see a pantheon of Egyptian gods. There’s also a particularly beautiful bright blue scarab beetle, symbol of rebirth. Now, move towards her feet, and look at the bottom of the foot-case. Marsha Hill, a curator in the Egyptian Art Department, is intrigued by the jackal-headed figure we see there. He is Anubis, god of embalming. Marsha Hill.

MARSHA HILL: This isn’t the Egyptian Anubis we know very well, but it is Anubis as you know him in the Greco-Roman period. He’s become a very important figure, kind of a new personality. He’s taken on elements from the Greek Hermes, who is a god who sees people from life into death, kind of an escort. And here he’s carrying the moon as a symbol of waxing and waning, which is another emblem, or idea, that’s assimilated with death and rebirth.

NARRATOR: Above him is a Greek inscription. It says, “Artemidora, daughter of Harpokras, died untimely, aged twenty-seven. Farewell.”

If you’d like to know why this and other inscriptions in this room are in Greek, press the green play button.