We see Coptic faces in funeral portraits and tapestry in the earlier Christian centuries in Egypt, and quite often we are struck by the similarity between the faces on them and the faces of modern Copts – how often we see a relative or a friend or a known person to us in these faces. As an example, take the following Coptic woman (who appears with her little baptised child)[1]:
… and then compare her with the Coptic face below of a woman in a fragment of woolen tapestry from the 3rd-4th century[2]!
I hope the reader will see the physiognomic similarity!
[1] The author would like to say he does not personally know the Coptic woman, and he found her picture on the net when he was doing research on Coptic baptism. The reader can find her photo here. The photographer is Photogeniks from the Philippines.
[2] The fragment is kept at the Benaky Museum in Athens, Greece.
