In July 1995 the Department of Egyptian Antiquities, British Museum, London, organized a major colloquium on burial customs in Roman Egypt with particular emphasis on the use of life-like mummy portraits. This work contains 21 papers, consituting the majority of the proceedings and other relevant papers. The papers are wide ranging, covering the reasons behind the development of mummy portraits, both religious and social, and the society from which they emerged, as well as the artistic techniques employed. New discoveries on the archaeological background of the portraits and associated funerary masks are presented from archival sources and recent excavations. Advances in the conservation of the portraits and the scientific analysis of the portraits and the bodies of the portrait subjects are also outlined.