subject: Mask Of Satdjehuty [print this page] Burial Equipment in any condition from the early Eighteenth Dynasty is seldom found, and such a superb piece as the mask of satdjehuty is extremely rare. The wig is painted blue, in imitation of lapis lazuli; this and the gold leaf of which much of the decoration is composed symbolize the flesh of a divine being, expressing the wish for eternal life with the gods.
Below the wig is a gilded collar, representing a mass of small gold beads with petal- shaped beads at the ends. The beginnings of tow columns of texts with offering prayers are also visible .These would have continued on a protruding tab which has been broken off, but was perhaps originally similar in length to the tab at the back .The feather effect of the winged headdress on this mask should perhaps be associated with the so-called rishi-type coffin popular in Thebes at the very end of the Second Intermediate Period and the early New Kingdom (see the coffin of king Nubkheperre Inyotef, Ea6652,pages 112-13 ). It has been suggested that the feathered headdress is also a mark of royalty or at least high status , but in the case of satdjehuty , status would have been amply indicated by the opulence of the mask . there is little doubt that the masks style date it to the early Eighteenth Dynasty. The owners name is not written on it, but from an inscription on a mass of linen which came to the British Museum with the mask , it is known that the linen was given to Stadjehuty in the favor of the gods wife, kings mother Ahomse-nefertari Ahmose-Nefertari was the wife of Ahmose, the first king of dynasty, and the mother of Amenhotep I, with whom she subsequently became associated as a local deity. That satdjehuty should have received such an honor shows she was a women of the highest rank .However , her name was quite popular in the early part of the dynasty, and it has not been possible to identify her further .
The burial was discovered about 1820 , and probably consisted of at least a coffin ,the mummy, papyri ,a heart scarab, this mask ,and a quantity of linen .Only the mask and linen are in the British Museum ; the other items are presumed lost, but the mummy at least seems to have been purchased by an enterprising beerhouse keeper in Uxbridge, Middlesex.
