The Wrapped Body: Linen, Concealment, and Mummification in Ancient Egypt

This project investigates the use of linen textiles as the material for wrapping - from mummy bandages to shrouded gods, and from temple veils to royal costumes. In ancient Egypt, wrapping and shrouding the body - whether living or dead, human or divine - was a cultural practice revealing how the Egyptians thought about the human body and how they experienced the sacred. Wrapping also helps us understand Egyptian ideas about 'secret' knowledge and initiation, and the role secrecy plays in the organization of a complex society.

The wrapping of bodies both concealed them and gave them power. The act of wrapping parallels other features of Egyptian society; for instance, the physical space inside temples, tombs, and palaces was designed to restrict access. Offerings in temples, or objects that were placed in tombs, including mirrors or statues, were often wrapped up, and the statues of gods were wrapped in fresh linen every morning and evening. Several aspects of learning were described as 'secret', such as reading and writing (fewer than 5% of the population were literate), art and manufacturing techniques, and mummification itself. The Egyptians also 'wrapped' the surfaces of buildings by decorating them with elaborate images and texts, and wrapping played a key role in medical treatments (e.g. bandaging wounds) as well as magic, where spells could be spoken over linen and knotted up to help them work.

Although human mummies are the best-known example of Egyptian wrapping practice, European interest in mummies has focused on their unwrapping, which physically reverses the ancient Egyptian ritual. Archaeologists often recorded how statues or other objects were wrapped when they found them, but the archaeologists usually unwrapped the objects and discarded the wrapping. In this context, it is also important to evaluate why and how the 19th and 20th century unwrapping of ancient remains relates to Europe's colonization of Egypt. Such destructive practices, and the display of unwrapped mummies in museums, are an ongoing legacy of this historical period, because owning and having power over the ancient remains helped justify owning and having power over Egypt itself in colonial times.

By analyzing wrapping and concealment in ancient Egypt as well as our own culture's practice of unwrapping the Egyptians, this project considers Egyptian mummies from the positive viewpoint of the ancient Egyptians, not as macabre objects of curiosity. Studying mummies and other wrapped bodes in this way offers essential new insights into both ancient Egyptian culture and our own.

This research project on the wrapped body in ancient Egypt will inform developments in professional practice in the UK and international museum sector, enhance public debate about the treatment of Egyptian mummies, and engage the wider public in a lively and informative way, with the potential to develop a better understanding of the relationship between ancient, colonial, and contemporary Egypt.

The project sets the unwrapping of Egyptian mummies in the framework of postcolonial studies, since 19th- and early 20th-century unwrappings took place in the context of colonization and contributed to then-current discourse on racial classification and gender difference, which can be documented through the publications of archaeologists such as W.M. Flinders Petrie, the first chair of Egyptian archaeology at University College London. The research is revealing that wrapping the body in linen was inalienable to the ancient Egyptian concept of what a 'mummy' was and what powers and cultural meanings the mummy had. However, neither the colonial context nor the ancient Egyptian perspective on wrapping has contributed to museum displays and interpretation. The research project can help address this oversight by enhancing debate within the museum profession and helping to inform relevant policies (cf. the DCMS report Guidance for the Care of Human Remains in Museums, 2005), effected through the dissemination of the research amongst curators and other museum professionals. In the UK, the professional network ACCES (Association of Curators of Collections of Egypt and Sudan) holds regular workshops attended by specialist curators and museum educators, where the PI plans to present the research during the AHRC-funded fellowship. Presenting the research in trade publications such as the Museums Journal or Museum Practice can also bring relevant parts of the project to bear on developments in professional practice.

The widespread popular appeal of Egyptology, and mummies in particular, offers an opportunity for public engagement on the basis of this research, by articulating and contextualizing issues around the collecting, study, and display of Egyptian mummies. The principal investigator will use existing press contacts, and the press office of the University of East Anglia, to target print, web, and broadcast media, for instance by publishing in periodicals such as Archaeology, BBC History, the Times Higher Education, and the Times Literary Supplement. The PI will also offer public lectures presenting the research, through regional archaeology and Egyptology societies, the Classical Association of the UK, and local and national museums, including the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (SCVA) at UEA. The research may also contribute to INSET training for primary and secondary school teachers, organized in conjunction with the Education office of the SCVA. In addition, the research outcomes will be presented in a public lecture series organized by the School of World Art Studies in central Norwich, and will be incorporated in outreach talks to secondary schools in East Anglia, both during the period of AHRC-funded leave and in subsequent years.