This is an ancient Egyptian wooden sarcophagus mask showing the frontal view of an idealized face. Although they seldom portrayed a true portrait of the deceased, funerary masks were an essential component of the mummy, providing a visual representation of the deceased during their journey through the afterlife—a state of transfiguration. These masks presented an idealized version of the deceased and were believed to ensure they would continue to breathe, eat, hear, see, and speak in the next life. Preserving the body and its individual parts through mummification or depiction was essential to life after death in ancient Egypt. The face mask was the head piece mounted on the outside of a sarcophagus of the ancient Egyptians. Such painted face masks were attached to the coffin by wooden pins. The head dress was formed out of stucco and applied above the mask.

This fine piece depicts the facial features of a young male individual. His traits are rendered with great sensitivity, particularly his slightly arched eyebrows, slender nose and slightly pursed lips set in a faint smile. Heavy eyelids shape his solemn eyes, which preserve some detailing to the dark pupils. The remarkable black outline of the eyes is after real life. In ancient Egypt, men and women alike painted kohl around their eyes to make them look larger as well as to protect them from the evil eye The mask is carved from a single wood core and overlaid with a thin layer of gesso, a combination of chalk and glue often used in woodworking to provide a smooth painting surface. Based on the stylistic and technical criteria, it may be in the genre of types produced in the Late Period (circa 664–332 BCE) or Ptolemaic Period (332-30 BCE). It is difficult to provide a date with absolute certainty, lacking a known provenance.