One of my most loved items in the world are Fayoum Portraits. They range from in poor shape and fragmenting to could have been painted last week. What are they? They are a result of a remarkable fusion of cultures, Egyptian, Greek and Roman and date from the late classical (200 BC) to later Roman (350AD) They are mainly small (lifesize) and are painting on wood panels with a paint that combines wax with pigment giving the sort of texual depth not seen until oil paints. They are this size because they were placed over the real person face and then the mummy wrappings wrapt around them so they looked as though a live person head was emerging from the wrappings (this must have incredibly startling for archeologists entering tombs) . Work calls