Art Institute of Chicago

Funerary Shroud Fragment

Egypt

Date

Ptolemaic Period (332-30 BCE)

Medium

Linen, plain weave; painted; warp fringe

Culture

Egypt

Department

Textiles

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

For thousands of years ancient Egyptians used linen for clothing and other purposes. Such textiles included mummy wrappings and funerary shrouds, like this fragmentary example, that were essential to preserving the body after death. The images of gods, goddesses, and other sacred symbols painted onto this shroud magically protected its owner, ensuring their access to a corporeal form in the afterlife. Along the sides, alternating panels depict deities with their hands raised in worship and gods carrying long folded strips of cloth to be used in the mummification process. The decoration at the center of the shroud replicates the form of the mummified body that once lay below, with the contours of the legs (covered in a beaded net) still preserved on this fragment.

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