A condensed edition of this highly acclaimed research on the Fayum portraits, the enigmatic and fascinating funerary depictions created by the inhabitants of Roman Egypt in the 1st century AD. These remarkable depictions are named after a region of Roman Egypt, whose inhabitants in the first three centuries AD included Greeks, Egyptians, Romans, Syrians, Libyans, Nubians, and Jews. In the Egyptian tradition, their dead were embalmed, but then a painted portrait was placed over the mummy, preserving the memory of each individual to a striking degree. Over 1000 have been discovered so far - men, women, and children of all ages. Illustrating nearly 200 of the depictions, Euphrosyne Doxiadis's book combines breathtaking beauty with contemporary science. By selecting the best and most interesting ones, she has grouped them according to the areas where they were found. Many new photographs have been commissioned, and some are shown after cleaning. Doxiadis's text places the people and their paintings in their social, artistic, and geographical context, describing the techniques used and showing how the Fayum portraits relate to the iconography of Byzantine art, in a tradition that extends from ancient Greece to the Renaissance and modern times.