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Primary sourceArtifactc. 1333 BCE

Mask of Tutankhamun

c. 1333 BCE

The gold-and-lapis funerary mask placed on Tutankhamun's mummy, one of the most famous images of ancient Egypt.

The mask was made for Tutankhamun's own mummy and shows his idealised face as king of the afterlife.

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Photograph of the gold funerary mask of Tutankhamun against a black background. The mask shows a stylized face with inlaid blue eyes and eyebrows, a striped blue and gold headdress, a vulture and cobra emblem on the brow, a blue false beard, and a collar of colored inlays.
Funerary mask of Tutankhamun, c. 1333 BCE. Egyptian Museum/Grand Egyptian Museum, Cairo.

About this source

What it is

This gold funerary mask was made for Tutankhamun's mummy around 1333 BCE. It was found in 1922-1925 by Howard Carter's team in the king's tomb in the Valley of the Kings and is now in Cairo.

The mask is made of two layers of gold inlaid with lapis lazuli, quartz, obsidian, carnelian, turquoise and glass. It shows the king's face wearing the royal nemes headcloth with a cobra and vulture, the symbols of Upper and Lower Egypt, plus a plaited false beard. A protective spell is inscribed in hieroglyphs on the shoulders.

Why it matters

The mask is an idealised royal portrait meant to help the king live forever as Osiris, god of the afterlife. Some Egyptologists think it may originally have been made for another ruler and reused for Tutankhamun, showing how royal workshops recycled costly objects.

Look closer

  • What does the choice of materials tell you about how important this burial was?
  • Why might the mask show an idealised face rather than a realistic one?
  • What does the possibility of reuse suggest about how we should read ancient objects?

This artifact is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Tutankhamun and Queen Nefereti on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Photograph of Tutankhamun's Shawabti Figure

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Tomb of Tutankhamun

14th century BCE

Black and white photograph of two men inside a tomb opening the carved, hieroglyph-covered gilded doors of a shrine. One man in a light cap kneels and reaches toward the doors, while another man in a jacket leans over from the right. Carved relief figures and inscriptions cover the panels.Photograph

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Opening the Doors of the Fourth Shrine in Tutankhamun's Tomb

Harry Burton · 1920s

Photo of the Restoration Stela, a tall round-topped reddish stone stele in a museum with carved relief figures at the top and rows of hieroglyphic text below, with a diagonal crack running through it.Document

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Restoration Stela

Tutankhamun · c. 1326 BCE

Black and white photograph of an ancient Egyptian shrine interior. Carved hieroglyphic panels line open gilded doors, and a stone sarcophagus with a winged carved design is visible between them in shadow.Photograph

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First Published View of Tutankhamun's Sarcophagus Between the Shrine Doors

Harry Burton · 1920s

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