The earliest known writing referring ancient mummy portraiture is a brief note in the elder Pliny's Naturalis Historia, which dates to the first century CE. 1,2 The portraits from Roman Imperial Egypt, such as the example under discussion shown in Figure 1, Portrait of a Bearded Man, were intended to reflect not only the age, gender, and likeness of the individual, but the real or aspirational status of the subject of the portrait, both in his or her life on earth and anticipated rebirth in the next world. These funerary portraits were ultimately affixed to the exterior of the mummified individual using wrappings or to the sarcophagus of the deceased. 2-4 The practice of such portraiture is known to date from shortly after Egypt became a Roman province in 30 BCE, into the third century CE. 2