Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (18.2006(2008))

NAQLUN

EGYPT

been a cruel joke of the grave robbers). Palm
leaf midribs were used freely as a measure
designed to add stiffness to the mummy
forms. Long jarids could be inserted inside
or between the wrappings, placed along the
sides of a body (C.T.8, C.T.9), down the
backbone (C.T.9), in replacement of a mis-
sing limb, to support the lower jaw in
position (C.T. 10) [Fig. 11, top left and
bottom). In C.T.7 (first burial) a board of
palm-leaf midribs (jarids) was wrapped
inside the outer wrappings in order to create
a stiff mummy case. There were 19 such
jarids laid together in this case, with the
thicker ends alternating from side to side,
tied with palm rope in an ornamental way;
the width of this “board” was 24.5 cm,
thickness 1.5 cm [Fig. 13]. Another pre-
sumed board of jarids tied together with
brown linen cartonnage tapes, was found in
C.T.8. Such jarid boards and loose jarids


Fig. 10. Toes intertwined with string from the
mummy in C.T.9 (Photo I. Zych)

could be used concurrently in the making of
a mummy-cartonnage (e.g. C.T.8).
Customary for the mummies of the
period, the foot end is padded with folded
cloth, while the head part is built up of
characteristic padding elements made of
twisted linen cloth or linen or palm fibers
{Fig. 12}. These elements were placed
around the head and over it, crosswise and
lengthwise, in tiers forming a pyramid-like
shape above the face. Short jarids, some
20 cm long, appear to have been used to
create a skeleton for this construction.
Wrapping shrouds enveloped this padding,
the ornamental tapes keeping the structure
in place and creating intricate and colorful
patterns on the surface, not the least in
imitation of the traditional coffered pattern
of bandages on mummies from the
Ptolemaic and Greco-Roman periods. More
can be said about this particular form of
wrapping once one of the mummies has
been unwrapped under laboratory condi-
tions.
Examples of the twisted padding, as well
as loose bundles of fibers of various kinds
(palm, flax in various stages) found next to
the bodies and in the fill, indicate that the
mummies in the simple grave pits, despite
not being as externally ornamental as the
mummy-cartonnages from the chamber
tombs, also had the characteristic peaked
padding above the face.
GRAVE EQUIPMENT
None of the burials in the present
excavation had any grave equipment, but
then all of them (with the exception of the
mummies from C.T. 13 and these were not
unwrapped) had been more or less violated.
That objects could have been included with
the burials is proven by earlier finds of

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