ANCIENT ART

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	FAYUM PORTRAITS Bible Study Resource
WHAT	The Fayum Portraits are coffin paintings showing the head and shoulders of a dead person
WHERE	Found in Egypt, particularly at the oasis of al-Fayyûm
WHEN	From the 1st to the 4th century AD
BIBLE LINKS	Painted at the time the Gnostic gospels were written in the 2nd century AD
	See end of page for information on painting techniques
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What are they?	The Fayum (or Fayyûm) portraits were made during the period from the 1st to the 4th century AD. Found in Egyptian tombs particularly at the oasis of al-Fayyûm, they showed the head and shoulders of the dead person, and were painted on wooden tablets using tempera or pigments mixed with liquid beeswax. They were placed on the outer coffin (see below right). They give a good idea of what wealthy Middle Eastern people looked like a century or so after the death of Jesus. Strictly speaking, they were painted outside the biblical period, at the time the Gnostic gospels were being written in the 2nd century AD. Gnostic Christian sects had developed their own theology about Jesus, based on the idea that all matter was evil and only things of the spirit were good - which meant, to their way of thinking, that Jesus couldn't really have had a human body (matter) and therefore could not really have died.

	_________________________________________________________________ RELATED WEBSITES - photographs, reconstructions, ideas BIBLE ARCHAEOLOGY: TOMBS AND CATACOMBS Houses of the dead in biblical times WOMEN IN THE BIBLE: MAJOR EVENTS: DEATH AND BURIAL Customs relating to care of a dead family member BIBLE ART: MARTHA AND MARY Paintings of Lazarus emerging from the tomb __________________________________________________________________ The Fayum (Fayyum) Portraits - Archaeology of The Bible - Bible Study Resource Men and women of the ancient world
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