Monday, March 02, 2009

KV63 - A Special Report by Textile Specialist Elise van Rooij

KV-63

This season, in addition to examining our tenth pillow (from Jar #13) and a multitude of other textiles from KV-63, I came upon one item of particular interest to report on.

This object appears to be some kind of ‘rug or towel’ found inside Coffin A in 2006. Although this item exhibits significant decomposition enough is salvageable to recognize its original intent and form.

It is a ‘pile’ textile, whereby extra strands or loops of thread were woven into the cloth or attached afterwards to project or stick out, to create a pile effect that gave the textile absorbent and isolating qualities (similar to our modern bathroom floor rugs). Other examples of this type of textile were found in the tomb of Kha (laid over a bed) at Deir el Medina, in a eleventh dynasty tomb at Deir el Bahari and in the mass–burial of soldiers in the same area.

The actual size of the ‘rug’ is unknown but probably measured at least one square meter judging by the amount of decay and surviving material. A few photos of this remarkable ‘find’ have been made available, under ‘2009 ~ Photos’, courtesy of Elise van Rooij.


There's also an update about KV-63 in the media (publications and tv) on the above page.

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