Illustrative model — an approximation, not a scan of the original object.
c. 1039 – 991 BCE
Gold Mask of Psusennes I
Twenty-first Dynasty; the museum dates his reign c. 1047–996 BCE.
- Material
- Gold, lapis lazuli and glass paste
- Dimensions
- Height 48 cm, width 38 cm
- Findspot
- Royal tomb NRT III, Tanis
- Discovery
- Uncovered by Pierre Montet in the intact burial of Psusennes I in 1939–40 (sources differ on the year).
- Held by
- Egyptian Museum, Cairo
- Inventory number
- JE 85913
A gold mask placed on the face of the king’s mummy inside a silver coffin, wearing the nemes headcloth topped by the royal cobra.
The Egyptian Museum describes it as one of the masterpieces of its collection — one of the few royal burial masks to survive intact.
Certainty: Established
The mask was found in tomb NRT III at Tanis; its Egyptian Museum inventory number is JE 85913.
- Egyptian Museum, Cairo “Funerary mask of King Psusennes I, JE 85913” egyptianmuseumcairo.eg
Certainty: Probable
Psusennes I was buried in an inner coffin of silver, a metal rarer than gold in Egypt.
Scholarly note: Silver’s rarity in ancient Egypt is widely noted because it was imported; how rare varied over time.
- K. A. Kitchen (1986) “The Third Intermediate Period in Egypt (1100–650 BC), 2nd edition” Aris & Phillips, Warminster
- Egyptian Museum, Cairo “Funerary mask of King Psusennes I, JE 85913” egyptianmuseumcairo.eg