​​In the first three centuries A.D. in a fertile district of Roman Egypt called the Fayum a diverse community along the upper Nile Valley of Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, Syrians, Libyans, Nubians and Jews flourished. 
These people and many of their contemporaries throughout the Nile Valley embalmed the bodies of their dead and then placed over the coffin face portraits painted on wooden panels or linen. 
These paintings today known as Fayum or Mummy portraits were created to preserve the memory of each individual. These are some of the most important portraitures to have survived antiquity. There are more than 1,000 of these images in museums across the globe and in private collections. As a whole they represent men, women and children, young and old, plane and beautiful who seem to still be alive.
We have selected here a cross section of those who lived in died in the first century A.D. as a representative of how people looked during the New Testament Period. The painting style used in this period was the classic Greek style of portraiture that the Romans admired. However, the portraits from the 2nd and 3rd centuries loose detail and sophistication as also seen in Roman architecture.
We have printed the portraits onto Egyptian made Papyrus made using the Papyrus plant grown in Egypt and according to the same methods used by the ancient Egyptians long ago.