Status

• King Tut's death mask shows his deity-like social status.Brand X Pictures/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images
  
  An Egyptian person's death mask told a great deal about his social status. The higher the social status, the more elaborate his death mask. During the middle kingdom years of Egypt's history (between 3,000 B.C. and 500 B.C.) death masks were labor-intensive and difficult to make, requiring an artist to make a plaster cast of the person's actual face and then casting the resulting mold in gold or another material appropriate to the person's status. Those of very high social status had precious gemstones such as lapis lazuli embedded in their masks.
  
  

Personalization

• Death masks were meant to show the personality and facial features of the dead.Photos.com/Photos.com/Getty Images
  
  Because the death mask was intended to identify the dead person in the afterlife, every attempt was made to make the mask resemble the person in life. Therefore, pains were taken to include personalized details such as eye shape, nose shape, hairstyles, makeup and even facial expressions. This is one reason that death masks are such treasures for archaeologist who want to learn about specific people from Egyptian history.
  
  

Animal Influences

• During the Predynastic age, between 5,500 and 3,100 B.C., death masks featured animal-like beings. Some of these death masks looked like animals, birds or even imaginary creatures. Scholars believe that Egyptians during this time period probably saw themselves as representations of their gods. Their death masks, therefore, may have bridged the gap between Earth life and the afterlife by converting the dead into images of their gods.
  
  

Greco-Roman Influence

• During the Greco-Roman period, in the first century B.C., Egyptian death masks became increasingly realistic. Instead of using metals for the masks, artists made the masks of plaster or wood and then painted them to look like the dead. Using paint, artists could use shading and realistic skin tones. They could also add more minute details than they could previously. Wood and plaster are also easier to work with, so the shapes of the ears and the fine lines around the lips could be more easily worked into the masks.