AN EXAMINATION OF FIFTEEN SPECIMENS OF MUMMY WRAPPINGS.

By W. W. Midgley, Curator, retired, The Museums, Bolton.

“So far back as 1834, Mummy cloths occupied the attention of James Thompson, F.R.S., who, after researches into their characteristics and structure wrote a paper on the subject, which appears in the London and Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine, Vol. V., page 355. From that time until quite recently, little additional knowledge on the subject has appeared. In the early part of 1910, Prof. W. M. Flinders Petrie, F.R.S., expressed a desire that the writer should undertake microscopic investigation of the body-wrappings of cloths of the III. and early IV. Dynasties (circa 2980-2750 B.C.) which he had brought home from excavations made at a cemetery near Meydum, Upper Egypt. The report upon them forms part of the “Historical Studies,” Vol. II., of the British School of Archæology in Egypt.

When Mr. Ling Roth suggested that some of the examples of Egyptian Mummy cloths in Bankfield Museum should be examined on similar lines, describing the construction of the fabrics and yarns, together with the characteristics of the fibres used, I undertook to carry out the work and forward to him the results for permanent reference.

Each of the fifteen cloths submitted was first examined by mounting about ¾" × 5/8" (20 mm. × 16 mm.) of the cloth on 3" × 1" (76 mm. × 25 mm.) glass slips, and covering with thin glass, so as to find out its plan of composition and the number of warp and weft threads per linear inch. Afterwards, a little of the warp threads as well as of the weft, was untwisted and the fibres separated, and these mounted apart on another 3" × 1" slip (76 × 25 mm.), so that the kind of textile fibre used and the diameter of the fibres could be measured. These microscopical preparations will be kept in Bankfield Museum, as they may be of interest to microscopists in the locality.

The cloths are from three sources:—Nos. 1 and 2 being from the private collection of Dr. Wallis-Budge, who has given the specimens to Bankfield Museum; Nos. 3 to 8 are from the old Meyer collection in the Liverpool Museum (unfortunately the origin of them is unknown); and those marked 9 to 15 were taken from a mummy of the XXVI. Dynasty, brought to this country by Lord Denbigh, and now also in the Liverpool Museum.

A.—Specimens of Mummy cloths from Theban Tombs date about B.C. 1400, presented by Dr. Wallis-Budge.

1. A plain “one-up-and-one-down” linen cloth. The yarns in this example are more irregular in diameter than usual—the warp strands varying from 1/25"th to 1/71"st (1 mm. to ·2/8 mm.) The warp has about half its strands doubled (that is twined together), whereas the weft has only about one in twenty doubled. See [Fig. 26].

2. This is a coarser fabric, has been dyed with saffron, and is somewhat brittle to tease out the fibres. Both these cloths had evidently absorbed some of the gums or balsams used in the process of embalming, and hence the difficulty of separating the fibres for identification is increased. The structure of the fabric is peculiar, and, indeed, the only instance I have seen in Egyptian cloths. A portion, near the middle of the piece sent, has the warp strands in pairs parallel to each other, a few of them being double yarns, while all the remainder are doubled. Of the weft, nearly half are double yarns. See [Fig. 27].

Fig. 26.—Magnified 10 diameters.

Fig. 27.—Magnified 10 diameters, showing the warp yarn in pairs.

B.—Specimens from the Meyer Collection, marked No. 11088. (Date of acquisition about 1856; date and place of origin unknown).

3. This is a beautifully soft, fine Wool fabric, containing no size or balsam. From the fineness of the yarn and of the individual fibres I have no doubt that the wool has been imported from India, or, more likely, that the cloth was made in Cashmere. The texture is a plain weave, has a selvedge edge, the warp yarns are doubled, while the weft is single yarn. It is much to be regretted that the particulars of locality, of burial, and the period of time to which this interesting fabric belongs has been lost. I assume from the general characteristics that it is of a late period—probably not earlier than the Ptolemaic.

4. This linen cloth has a plain selvedge, regular weave, and contains no size. About 25% of both warp and weft yarns are doubled, and all are very even in diameter.

5. A coarse linen cloth with plain selvedge. All the yarns are single and even in diameter.

6. This is a coarse, highly-sized linen cloth. The yarns are agglutinated, are brittle, and it is difficult to separate the fibres. The sample submitted has been cut from the end of the piece and shows the warp ends.

7. A coarse linen cloth, sized and brittle. No selvedge on the piece sent. Both warp and weft yarns are single, and even in diameter.

8. This is a very coarse linen fabric heavily sized and brittle. Both warp and weft yarns are single and very irregular in diameter.

C.—Lord Denbigh’s: XXVI. Dynasty.

9. A soft-spun linen cloth containing no size. Specimen has been cut from the body of the fabric, showing no selvedge. About half of the warp is composed of doubled yarns of irregular diameter; the weft is of doubled yarns and more regular in diameter.

10. The selvedge of this linen fabric is peculiar and somewhat elaborate. The outer margin is composed of four sets of ten yarns parallel to each other, forming one strand of warp; then comes a space of 19/10" (48 mm.) where the warp yarns are dyed red; then occurs three more sets of ten parallel yarns (the object being to strengthen the selvedge), followed by the general body of the fabric. The entire selvedge is 2¼" (57 mm.) wide. About half the warp yarns are doubled, while all the weft are composed of doubled yarns, both being fairly even in diameter, and not sized.

11. A fine, soft, linen cloth, with selvedge 11/8" (29 mm.) wide; the three outer and the two inner strands of the warp are made up of many parallel yarns, as in No. 10, with an interspace of 3/8" (10 mm.) All the warp yarns are dyed red, about 25% of them being doubled; the weft is peculiar in having five or six strands of single yarns alternating with six or seven double yarns, giving a faint stripe in the fabric.

12. A linen cloth, with no selvedge edge. It has been dyed red, probably ferum, a dye which I find uniformly associated with friable or decomposing fibres.

13. A peculiarly coloured fine linen cloth; the pattern is caused by some of the warp yarns being dyed, and occurring sometimes of four, two, or one red strands, with grey ones intermixed. A few of the warp yarns are doubled. The weft is composed of single yarns and are all in the grey.

14. A coarse soft-woven linen fabric, containing no size. Lines are indicated at irregular distances along the cloth, varying from 5/16" to 9/16" (8 to 14 mm.); these are caused by the introduction of three strands of doubled yarn in the warp while the remainder are single yarns. The weft is all of doubled yarns; both warp and weft are very regular in diameter.

15. This is a variegated linen fabric with warps coloured something like No. 13, but the red strands of warp are more irregular in distribution. Like it, a few of the warp yarns are doubled, both the red and the grey; while the weft is all of single yarns and in the grey.”

[A considerable quantity of specimens of the cloths which were woven by the Ancient Egyptians has been examined both in this country and abroad. I may, however, call special attention to the results of examination published in Miss M. A. Murray’s excellent little work The Tomb of Two Brothers, Manchester Museum Publications, No. 68, 1910.—H.L.R.]

Details of the Composition of the Body Wrappings.

Specimen No.Nature of Textile Fibre.Warp Ends per inch.Weft Picks per inch.Micro Measurements of Ten Fibres.
Weft.Warp.Mean of
Max.Min.Max.Min.Weft.Warp.
in.in.in.in.in.in.
A. 1Linen44321/14001/33331/14241/33301/17681/1786
2”10171/17861/33301/17801/28601/20201/1905
B. 3Wool224 401/833 1/25001/833 1/20001/13511/1429
4Linen64321/14291/25001/12501/50001/18181/1754
5”56201/12501/33331/12501/25001/17541/1724
6”48241/12501/25001/10001/25001/16401/1594
7”48201/11111/25001/10001/25001/14081/1428
8”36161/833 1/33331/11111/25001/14561/1613
C. 9”48241/16661/33331/16661/33331/22221/1860
10”32601/833 1/33331/908 1/33331/17241/1613
11”80361/14291/33331/10001/33331/18871/1784
12”96401/11111/25001/12501/25001/17241/1695
13”80361/11111/25001/14291/25001/16401/2040
14”56241/909 1/33331/12501/25001/15941/1695
15”64361/12501/20001/14291/25001/17241/1818

The above converted into Metrical Measurements.

Specimen No.Nature of Textile Fibre.Warp Ends per Centim.Weft Picks per Centim.Micro Measurements of Ten Fibres in Millimetres.
Weft.Warp.Mean of
Max.Min.Max.Min.Weft.Warp.
1Linen1712·6·0181·0076·0178·0076·0144·0142
2” 4 6·7·0142·0076·0143·0089·0126·0133
3Wool8815·6·0305·0101·0305·0127·0188·0178
4Linen2512·6·0178·0101·0203·0050·0140·0145
5”22 7·8 ·0203·0076·0203·0101·0145·0147
6”19 9·5·0203·0101·0254·0101·0155·0159
7”19 7·8·0229·0101·0254·0101·0180·0178
8” 14·1 6·3·0305·0076·0229·0101·0174·0157
9”19 9·5·0152·0076·0152·0076·0208·0130
10” 12·623·6·0305·0076·0278·0076·0147·0157
11” 31·514·1·0178·0076·0254·0076·0135·0142
12” 37·415·6·0229·0101·0203·0101·0147·0149
13”1914·1·0229·0101·0178·0101·0155·0124
14”22 9·5·0278·0076·0203·0101·0159·0149
15”2514·1·0203·0127·0178·0101·0147·0140

It is very obvious they had no scale to work to.