Page 47 - Archaeology - October 2017

TO DIE

LIKE AN

EGYPTIAN

An ancient burial shroud offers insights into belief
and identity at the beginning of Roman-era Egypt

by Marley Brown

bundle of textiles.” That is how a parcel containing an arresting and
remarkably intact Egyptian burial shroud was described some 70 years
ago, before being carefully put into storage in an Edinburgh museum. It
was rediscovered this year as curators at National Museums Scotland were
taking stock of their holdings. The shroud, according to Margaret Maitland,
A senior curator of ancient Mediterranean collections, had originally been
excavated from a tomb in Thebes (modern-day Luxor). The body-length painted linen shroud
names its owner, the previously unknown son of a high-ranking Roman-era Egyptian official,
and holds clues to the beliefs of a family caught in a wave of cultural and political change.
In addition, it reveals much about the tomb itself, which had been in use for 1,000 years.
Aaemka, a Roman-era
Egyptian who died
around a.d. 10, as
depicted (opposite)
on his burial shroud.
A conservator (left)
at National Museums
Scotland in Edinburgh
removes the shroud
from the brown paper
parcel in which it was
stored for more than
70 years.

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