- Cartonnage -
A combination of plaster, linen, papyrus and other pliable materials used for the manufacturing of sarcophagi, mummy masks and canopic jars. Linen sheets were glued together with resins or gums and covered with plaster in order to shape the masks to the contours of the head and shoulders of the mummies. The mummies were then gilded or painted.
By the end of the Middle Kingdom, the cartonnage was extended to cover the entire body.
Gilded cartonnage mummy mask of a Middle Kingdom queen or princess.
