Nik Williams

view of the front	view from the back

closeup view from the back

Pictures of Hor supplied by Nik Williams
Copyright © 1996 Nik Williams and the Swansea Museum.
Presented here with permission.



From: Nik Williams
Organization: Nik Williams Broadcast
To: landrigan@valley.uml.edu
Subject: Illusion
(note edited)

Dave,

I made a video last year for the Swansea museum to run alongside their
exhibit of Hor - a two thousand year old Egyptian Mummy. The gist of
the story was the restoration and during the restoration work it was
necessary to remove the mask. I decided it would be a good idea to show
the inside of the mask and have it turned around to camera, so we could
see the gold leaf shlne as it caught the lights. 

The effect of filming the inside of the mask is very strange. Although
the face is impressed when looking inside, there are not visual cues as
to exactly what you are looking at other than its a face, so it pops out
at you, and looks unnervingly real. Even as it moves around in the
restorers hands, and even though you know its impressed, the
illusion persists.

As the mask is drawn away from camera, and turned around, the inside of
the mask becomes once 'normal' (concave) again! . . . Wierd or what? 

The tears are the remains of the special glue the restorer used to
consolidate the very old papyrus that actually makes up the mask, they
may have faded by now. These pictures were taken in the summer of 1995.

If you look at the wider of the two shots, even though the face is
clearly visible as the inside of the mask, with all the surrounding bits
providing all the visual clues you need, its still hard to see the face
as depressed. It still seems to stick out at you. 

We think we were the first people to see inside the mask and underneath
the mummy for over two thousand years. The accepted opinion is that the face
is actually that of a statue, used to mould the mask when it was being created,
rather than that of a real face.

Regards,

Nik.

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