In Egypt, however, archaeologists are celebrating the discovery of a brilliantly coloured mummy whose gilded mask and decorative bands have prompted them to declare it the most beautiful ever found.

Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council for Antiquities, said yesterday that the 2,300-year-old coffin had “maybe the most beautiful scenes I have ever seen in my life on a mummy”.

The find, near the Saqqara pyramids on the edge of the desert 25km (15.5 miles) south of Cairo, dates to the Thirtieth Dynasty, which reigned from 381BC to 343BC under the Pharaohs Nectanebo I, Teos, and Nectanebo II.

There is no indication yet of the sex or rank of the deceased, but Dr Hawass believes that the mummy is probably that of a wealthly male. He hopes that electronic scans to be conducted over the coming week will reveal details of how he had lived and died.

The burial was found within the reused royal necropolis enclosure of King Teti, who reigned two millennia before this interment took place. The coffin was found at the bottom of a shaft 6m (20ft) deep, suggesting that the person was rich enough to enjoy a fairly elaborate burial. A plain outer coffin, believed to be of cedar wood, protected the decorated inner container made of cartonnage — probably a mixture of linen and papyrus.

The shoulders and shins were covered with a plain textile, but the head, body and feet were brightly painted. The face was covered with a gilded mask with startling black eyes, framed by a painted blue wig.

Multiple bands across the torso and upper legs show many of the deities connected with the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead and the transition to the afterlife. At the top is a winged scarab pushing the sun disk. The beetle’s habit of rolling its eggs in a ball of dung and then burying them until they hatched was a symbol of rebirth.

The next band is an imitation of an elaborate necklace, with nine bands of jewels that in life would have been made of gold beads interspersed with blue faience, or possibly even lapis lazuli from Afghanistan. Such necklaces would be found within the cartonnage on the mummy itself. Whether this individual has one remains to be seen. Over the stomach area is Ma’at, the goddess of right, truth and balance. She is shown with spread wings, her arms outstretched and each hand holding a tall feather, one dark blue and one light. The blue and gold wings are similar in appearance to jewelled pectorals, using blue glass or lapis often found within mummy wrappings.

Four bands of figures recall the illustrations in the Book of the Dead. In the uppermost, the god Anubis, the jackal-headed patron of mummification and burial, is shown bending over the mummy as it lies on a funerary couch. Below, three more tiers show the Sons of Horus, protective deities, their bodies painted alternately blue and yellow against a background of red or blue.

“The artists who made this mummy demonstrated the brilliance of the Ancient Egyptians by using stunning colours and by depicting his face so graphically,” Dr Hawass said.

The Sebennytos dynasty was one of several short-lived local lines of kings who ruled between the end of the first period of Persian occupation, ending in 405BC, and the Persian reconquest in 343BC. Alexander the Great took Egypt from the Persians in 332BC and had himself declared a god.

Whether the mummy bundle inside the cartonnage coffin will be found wearing a more lifelike portrayal, such as the famous Fayum portaits from slightly later Egyptian burials, remains to be seen. For the moment, we must be satisfied with this surprisingly colourful and well-preserved outer semblance of man launched into immortality.

FROM RAMESES TO MATA HARI

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