'Quite a work of art': the votive animal mummies’ bandage weaves

Lecture by Diletta Publico.

Abstract

IVotive animal mummies represent one of the largest categories of artefacts produced in ancient Egypt, which offers a rich source of information about a variety of aspects of ancient Egyptian civilization. Unfortunately, a great deal of data was lost through the wild exploitation and trade in animal mummies for a variety of purposes as well as the unconventional and unrecorded removal of them from their burial places especially during the 19th and early 20th centuries. As a result, the vast majority are unprovenanced and it is difficult to connect them with specific places of production and/or within a more refined time frame. The SEAMS project focuses on the study of the only aspect on which who produced these mummies in a precise place and period left his signature, namely the wrapping patterns, in order to understand whether they could be markers of dating and geographic provenience. In doing so, SEAMS seeks to address the current knowledge gap on contextual data of votive animal mummies and provide a thorough insight into their manufacturing process using an interdisciplinary approach that blends traditional research methods with new technologies.