Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (18.2006(2008))

NAQLUN

EGYPT

no. 15). The full dimensions of this piece
(2.30 m by 1.30 m length-to-width) are
close to the size of the Naqlun textile. It is
dated to the second half of the 5 th century.
Other textiles with similar decoration from
the Vatican Museum collection have been
preserved in small fragments (Renner 1982:
54-56, 65, Cat. nos 16, 28, 29). Small
fragments of utilitarian textiles with
parallel decoration from The Henry Art
Gallery at the University of Washington
come from Albert Gayet's excavations at
Antinoe (Hoskins, 2004: Pis 22, 83.7-35A).
The next four shrouds completed the
outer cartonnage. Two wrapped the feet and
reached to the chin of the deceased and the
outermost two covered the whole body and
were bundled up at the ends. The eleventh
shroud was carefully tied up at the neck and
feet and along the entire length of the body.
Despite this layer of tapes being partly
damaged, it is clear that they formed a more
elaborate network than on the surface of the
fifth shroud. It was most certainly not the
outer binding of the cartonnage.
This had been ripped off by the grave
robbers. A few bundled up pieces of
shrouds, between 0.10 and 0.35 m long,
were found in the fill of the shaft. They
could have come from cartonnage M.l as
well as from M.2, but they were used most
certainly as the filling of the contraption
above the head and feet of the deceased in
likeness to that on the intact cartonnages
from tombs C.T.3 and C.T. 13. These
fillings are made of the same kind of fabric
as that used for the shrouds — linen in plain
or warp-faced plain weave and they were
most definitely prepared at the under-
takers. They were cut from bigger textiles,
folded in four and sometimes occasionally
twisted tightly, and only then used in the
process of shaping the cartonnage [Fig 17].
The finished cartonnage was then wrapped

in one or more outer shrouds and tied with
tapes arranged in a careful ornamental
pattern. When undamaged, it can be
assumed to have looked very much like the
well preserved cartonnage from tomb
C.T. 13 [Fig. 181
Anthropomorphic cartonnages with
a raised construction above the head and
feet of the deceased, formed of a number of
shrouds, are known from a few cemeteries
from Egypt. In 1913, H. Ranke uncovered
a few dozen cartonnages at the cemetery in
Karara (Ranke 1926: 2-3, Pis 1-2 and 10).
The form and execution resemble closely
the cartonnages from Naqlun, although
they were never described in detail and
published only as photos. At Dayr al-
Qarabin, B. Huber discovered damaged
cartonnages in a crypt excavated in the
rock under the church; the published
fragment above the head of a male body is
practically identical with the cartonnages
from Naqlun (Huber 2006: 64-67, Figs 7
and 8). Similar cartonnages were found at
the cemetery in Bawit (Benazeth 2000:
105-107; Cledat 1999: 195, Figs 165-
166), the cemetery at El-Bagawat (Kajitani
2006: 95-112, Figs 5 and 6) and the
monastic cemeteries in West Thebes: Deir
el-Bahari (Godlewski 1986: 48, Fig. 25),
the hermitage of St Epiphanius (Winlock,
Crum 1926: I, 45-50 and 76-78, Pis XI-
XII and XXVI-XXVII) and Qurnet Mar'y
(Castel 1979: II, 121-153, Pis X-XVII).
The cartonnage was stiffened with
wooden boards or panels made of jar ids tied
together with palm-fiber string at three
points along the length, as well as single
jarids inserted between the layers of shrouds
making up the cartonnage. At Naqlun, they
have been confirmed by finds from other
tombs at cemetery C in Naqlun: C.T.5, but
also the damaged burial from tomb C.T.2
(board Nd.04.324: F. 1.76 m; W. 0.24 m;

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