Mask of Yuya

This gilded cartonnage mask shows Yuya wearing a long wig. His eyebrows and eyes are inlaid with blue glass, marble and obsidian. He wears an elaborate collar that goes beneath his wig. It consists of eleven rows of golden beads and it ends in teardrop-shaped pendants. The inside of the mask is covered in bitumen.

Yuya was a courtier from Akhmim, Egypt, with titles such as “King’s Lieutenant Master of the Horse Father-of-the-god”, Yuya was a prophet of Min, the chief god of the area, and served as this deity’s “Superintendent of Cattle”.

Yuya & Thuya’s tomb was the most famous “untouched” tomb until 16 years later with the discovery of Tutankhamun’s a few years later (Thuya & Yuya’s great-grandson). The tomb of Yuya and Thuya was, until the discovery of Tutankhamun’s, one of the most spectacular ever found in the Valley of the Kings despite Yuya not being a king.

Although the burial site was robbed in antiquity, many objects not considered worth plundering by the robbers remained. Both the mummies were largely intact and were in an amazing state of preservation. Their faces in particular were relatively undistorted by the process of mummification, and provide an extraordinary insight into the actual appearance of the deceased while alive.

New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, reign of Amenhotep III, ca. 1391-1353 BC. Tomb of Yuya and Tuya (KV46), Valley of the Kings, West Thebes. Now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. CG51008 – JE 95316-SR93. Upper floor, gallery 43