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What are Fayum mummy portraits? Why don't more people know about them? And why are they important for art educators to know about and to integrate into their curricula? In this article, the author aims to answer each of these questions.

The Fayum mummy portraits from ancient Greco-Roman Egypt are exceptional in that they are the only surviving classical (ancient Greek and Roman) panel paintings from antiquity and are antecedents of Byzantine icons. Moreover, they hold important implications for art educators regarding multicultural education. They spotlight an exemplary pathway toward breaking free of ancient Egyptian stereotypes found in the most commonly used attempts to integrate multicultural content into curriculum. This article describes Fayum mummy portraits, and why they are important in a multicultural art curriculum.