<P> Mummy portraits or Fayum mummy portraits (also Faiyum mummy portraits) is the modern term given to a type of naturalistic painted portrait on wooden boards attached to Egyptian mummies from Roman Egypt . They belong to the tradition of panel painting, one of the most highly regarded forms of art in the Classical world . In fact, the Fayum portraits are the only large body of art from that tradition to have survived . </P> <P> Mummy portraits have been found across Egypt, but are most common in the Faiyum Basin, particularly from Hawara in the Fayum Basin (hence the common name) and the Hadrianic Roman city Antinoopolis . "Faiyum Portraits" is generally thought of as a stylistic, rather than a geographic, description . While painted cartonnage mummy cases date back to pharaonic times, the Faiyum mummy portraits were an innovation dating to the time of the Roman occupation of Egypt . </P>

Naturalistic encaustic portraits of the roman era from the fayum oasis in egypt were created as