Mummy Portrait of a Boy

Because of a high mortality rate for infants and children in Roman Egypt, parents believed in protecting their offspring through various kinds of magic. Some children would wear a protective amulet on a necklace. Those who specifically came under the protection of the goddess Isis are easily recognized by the hairstyle associated with the child-god Horus, a shaved head with one long side-lock behind the ear. This mummy portrait of a young boy demonstrates that, despite the parents' efforts with magic amulets, children often died. Painted panels of mummy portraits were normally reduced in size before being wrapped with the body. This panel, however, is unusually small, even in proportion to a child's body.