A badly damaged gilt cartonnage mask. Gold leaf covers the face of this item. The use of gold mirrors the belief that the blessed dead, one of whom the deceased wished to be, and the gods, were shining. The mask would have been made by forming wet, gummed linen over a mould. The surface would then have been coated with gesso (plaster), and then decorated with paint and gold leaf. This dates to the Graeco-Roman Period, from the late first century BCE to the end of the first century AD.