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\"In ancient Egypt, wrapping sacred objects, including mummified bodies, in layers of cloth was a ritual that lay at the core of Egyptian society. Yet in the modern world, attention has focused instead on unwrapping all the careful arrangements of linen textiles the Egyptians had put in place.This book breaks new ground by looking at the significance of textile wrappings in ancient Egypt, and at the way their unwrapping has shaped the way we think about the Egyptian past. Wrapping mummified bodies and divine statues in linen reflected the cultural values attached to this textile, with implications for understanding gender, materiality and hierarchy in Egyptian society. Unwrapping mummies and statues similarly reflects the values attached to Egyptian antiquities in the West, where the colonial legacies of archaeology, egyptology and racial science still influence how Egypt appears in museums and the press.From the tomb of Tutankhamun to the Arab Spring, Unwrapping Ancient Egypt raises critical questions about the deep-seated fascination with this culture - and what that fascination says about our own\"-- Provided by publisher.

In order to determine whether ancient Egyptians had already selected and cultivated very specialized flax types according to their purpose for textile or oil production, respectively, we compared archaeobotanical flax finds with nearly 3000 diverse genebank accessions kept at the Plant Gene Resources of Canada (PGRC). The main result was that fibre flax was most probably already cultivated during the 3rd millennium BC, whereas in later periods an intermediate flax and/or oil type was in use. The collaboration between archaeobotanists and genebank curators shows how our knowledge about ancient usage of plants can be improved by interpreting observations made on ancient findings using recent characterization data obtained from diverse genebank material.

High-performance liquid chromatography coupled to a diode-array detector (HPLC-DAD) is used to investigate 30 samples which were removed from 27 ancient Egyptian fabrics of the Fill-Trevisiol collection. Attention is focused in this paper on fabrics of the Roman and Byzantine periods, with red and deep violet–blue wool weft threads which are Z-spun. The following dyes are identified in fabrics which date to the Roman period (first–fifth c. ad ): mollusc purple, madder, and indigo/woad ( Indigofera species and other, Isatis tinctoria L.). The results for the Byzantine (fifth–seventh c. ad ) fabrics are richer in terms of identified dyes: apart from the three aforementioned dyes, the use of kermes ( Kermes vermilio Planchon) and cochineal is revealed as the two coccid dyes have been detected in six Egyptian–Byzantine fabrics. Moreover, a yellow dye (probably Reseda luteola L.) is identified in one sample. Finally, samples taken from two fabrics, which date to the Islamic period, were dyed using indigo/woad and lac ( Kerria lacca , Kerr). Mixing madder and indigo/woad to imitate true purple was a common practice in ancient Egypt and this is confirmed by the HPLC results in several samples. Semi-quantitative results are obtained from the HPLC peak areas and lead to the following conclusions. Madder dyes which were rich or poor in alizarin, compared to purpurin, and could have been therefore obtained from Rubia tinctorum L. and Rubia peregrina L., respectively are detected in Byzantine fabrics. Only alizarin-rich madder dyes are identified in some samples from Roman fabrics, but in some other samples the relative alizarin-to-purpurin ratio cannot be measured with confidence. Cochineal is found in two samples. The biological source of cochineal ( Porphyrophora hamelii Brandt) is possible to be chemically identified only in one sample. The HPLC results of the molluscan dye detected in a Roman fabric are compared with the relative compositions of extracts of the three Mediterranean molluscs leading to the speculation that the Roman purple sample was probably dyed using Hexaplex trunculus L. The molluscan dye was furthermore detected in a Byzantine sample where it was combined with madder. Finally, it is reported that the standard (hydrochloric) acid hydrolysis method which is commonly applied to extract dyes from archaeological samples does not have any noticeable effect on the relative composition of the molluscan dye.

A detailed technical and artistic analysis is done on a group of Eighteenth Dynasty painted votive textiles from Deir el-Bahri, Egypt. All dedicated to the goddess Hathor, these unique pieces are votive in the sense that they were donated either in the hope of obtaining the goddess' favour or in thanks for favours already received. A detailed catalogue of the pieces, listing their current location (where known), date and place of origin, measurements, materials used and condition as well as a technical and artistic description of each article is included. The catalogue is followed by a technical discussion of spinning, weaving and painting which, in turn, is followed by a discussion of the painted scenes and their accompanying inscriptions. Conclusions are made regarding their production, nature and use and whether or not they can be considered as evidence of early personal piety.