The silver funerary mask of Queen Malakaye, 7th century BC, from the Kushite royal necropolis of Nuri, Upper Nubia, Sudan, and the silver funerary mask and trappings of Princess Mernua, 6th century BC, from the Kushite royal necropolis of Begrawiya, also Upper Nubia, Sudan.

The silver funerary mask of Queen Malakaye, 7th century BC, from the Kushite royal necropolis of Nuri, Upper Nubia, Sudan, and the silver funerary mask and trappings of Princess Mernua, 6th century BC, from the Kushite royal necropolis of Begrawiya, also Upper Nubia, Sudan.  

In Upper Nubia, which stretched across much of northern and central Sudan, the heartland of the ancient Kingdom of Kush, gold was in plentiful supply, which rather caused silver, which was relatively rare, to be considered more valuable. This makes the silver funerary masks, or mummy masks of Queen Malakaye and Princess Mernua of the Napatan period of Kushite history, true expressions of wealth and power.

The mummy mask of Malakaye was excavated at the royal necropolis of Nuri, near the religious capital of Napata, in pyramid 59 in 1918, by the Harvard University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition, while the mummy mask of Mernua was excavated at the royal necropolis of the royal city of Meroë, Begrawiya South, tomb 85 in 1923, also by the Harvard University–Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition.   

The mask of Malakaye is associated with the tumultuous reign of her husband, King Tantamani, c. 664–653 B.C., of the Kushite 25th Dynasty, who was embroiled in a bloody conflict over Egypt with the Assyrian Empire, while the mask of Mernua is associated with the reign of King Aspelta or Anlamani, c. 593-568 B.C., of the Napatan period post-25th Dynasty, illustrating a continuation of pharaonic traditions in Nubia even after their loss of Egypt.