The Veil Behind the Mask: Scientific insights into Tutankhamun’s Textile Collection

With trembling hands, I made a tiny breach in the upper left hand corner… widening the hole a little, I inserted the candle and peered in… at first I could see nothing, the hot air escaping from the chamber causing the candle to flicker. Presently, details of the room emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues and gold – everywhere the glint of gold.

For the moment – an eternity it must have seemed to the others standing by – I was struck dumb with amazement, and when Lord Carnarvon, unable to stand in suspense any longer, inquired anxiously “Can you see anything?”, it was all I could do to get out the words “Yes, wonderful things” (Carter’s Diary, 26 November 1922).

With these famous words Howard Carter (1874-1939) recorded the first impressions he received when he finally managed to peek inside the tomb of Tutankhamun, which he had searched for strenuously and had finally found. Needless to say, some of the objects found in the tomb are among the most iconic of Egyptian culture, making it one of the most famous archaeological discoveries of all time, also for its fundamental contribution to the knowledge of numerous classes of materials.

Unsurprisingly, in the decades that followed, the attention of scholars was focused on coffins and jewellery (including the famous gold funerary mask), burial beds and trunks, weapons and statues, while the extraordinary textiles (tunics, aprons, scarves, socks, gloves, loincloths, headbands, etc.) were almost completely neglected. A veritable treasure trove of information – another category of “wonderful things” – that has remained unexplored for a long time.

Our knowledge of ancient Egyptian textiles and clothing is based on three main sources: representations of cloth production, written descriptions and surviving textiles, the main source for this research. Hundreds of cloths and textiles were found scattered around in Tutankhamun’s tomb, tied around the necks of statues and in large trunks. In some cases, they are simply small rolls of cloth, in others they are part of elaborate ceremonial robes covered with gold sequins and embroidery.

The examination and analysis of archaeological textile remains aims to identify the manufacturing technique and provide valuable information about the fabric construction, thread structure, fibres, dyes, sewing techniques and sewing thread.

Tutankhamun’s tomb contains several garments decorated with different patterns of dyed thread. The differences between the patterns raise many questions about their origins, whether there were influences from different civilisations at the time, and whether these links can be traced by analysing their dyes and construction methods. Their deterioration is now significant and their conservation critical. Conservation efforts are further hampered by a lack of analysis of the tunics themselves, which have never been scientifically studied.

This project will therefore apply multidisciplinary methods to understand, for the first time, the materials and construction techniques of young pharaoh’s textiles. Such a study will provide new information about 18th Dynasty, including possible trade routes for exotic sources in a period characterised by expansion and international trade. Understanding dyeing technology will further our understanding of social, political and religious ideology, as well as technical innovations in textile manufacture and spinning, and dye recipes and application.

Despite their fragile nature textiles were deeply interwoven into the cultural and social fabric of ancient Egypt. Their material properties and life-cycles were embedded in a vibrant system of values, norms and practices that reinforced their centrality in different contexts of use and spheres of signification, and emphasised their close interrelation with the living, dead, divine, artistic bodies they wrapped and clothed.

Textiles were powerful markers of personal, gender, socio-economic identity, communicating difference in role and status through their cost, quality, design as well as the ways and occasions in which they were worn.

Among Egyptian fabrics, linen was the most highly evaluated and culturally salient, with an essential role in both rituals and beliefs. Linen provided a valuable writing medium: inscribed bandages occurred in devotional and funerary practices (e.g. in temple petitions and mummy wrappings), but also the custom of marking textiles with their ownership, provenance, quality was less a record of practical information than an effective way of merging subject and object, with their biographies, into one inseparable and meaningful unity (e.g. establishing connections between people, attributes, and places related to the garments). Similarly, the well-known linen list with its distinctive tabular form detailing the various types of clothes as a core component of funerary compositions reflected their relevance for the élite literary culture and displayed social status, wealth, and prestige. Moreover, the actual deposition of linen in the tomb strategically contributed to refigure the deceased’s position both in the afterlife (as the beneficiary of the offering, like the gods) and in the society of the living (via the exchange between donors and recipient).

Finally, linen wrapping was integral to cultic and funerary rites, especially to mummification and the preparation of the dead body. Such practice underscored beliefs in purity and rebirth: robes, garments, and bandages were associated with divine agencies to conceptualise their ritual efficacy and the very act of wrapping served as a protective and transformative process making the deceased into a godlike being. Likewise, divine statues, votive and sacred objects inside temples could be shrouded in linen to signal their secluded and powerful state. In all these instances, the notion of concealment (often addressed in texts) was crucial, emphasising how wrapping and covering enveloped bodies and images with layers of meaning, both literally and metaphorically, that created around them a powerful aura of secrecy and reverence. The wide range of cloaked artefacts from Tutankhamon’s tomb stands as an evocative statement of such significance.