40 ELLIOT SMITH, Distribution of Mummification. 



A number of interesting developments occurred at 

 about this time to overcome these defects. In one case 

 (85), found at Medum by Flinders Petrie, the superficial 

 bandages were saturated with a paste of resin and soda, 

 and the same material was applied to the surface of the 

 wrappings, which, while still in a plastic condition, was 

 very skilfully moulded to form a life-like statue. The 

 resinous carapace thus built up set to form a covering of 

 stony hardness. Special care was devoted to the model- 

 ling of the head (sometimes the face only) and the 

 genitalia, no doubt to serve as the means of identifying 

 the individual and indicating the sex respectively. 



The hair (or, perhaps, it would be more correct to say, 

 the wig) and the moustache were painted with a dark 

 brown or black resinous mixture, and the pupils, eyelids 

 and eyebrows were represented by painting with a mix- 

 ture of malachite powder and resinous paste. In other 

 cases, recently described by Junker (40), plaster was used 

 for the same purpose as the resinous paste in Petrie's 

 mummy. In two of the four instances of this practice 

 found by Junker, only the head was modelled. 



The special importance assigned to the head is one 

 of the outstanding features of ancient Egyptian statuary. 

 It was exemplified in another way in the tombs of the 

 early part of the Old Kingdom, as Junker has recalled in 

 his memoir, by the construction of stone portrait-statues 

 of the head only, which were made life-size and placed in 

 the burial chamber alongside the mummy. It seems to 

 me that Junker overlooks an essential, if not the chief, 

 reason for the special importance assigned to the head 

 when he attributes it to the fact that the head contained 

 the organs of sight, smell, hearing and taste. There can 

 be no doubt that the head was modelled because it affords 

 the chief means of recognising an individual. This por- 



