ABSTRACT
This chapter shows the benefits of wrapping as a conservation treatment for ancient mummies. These benefits are explored using case studies from the British Museum and discussed in the context of other contemporary and historical practices used to conserve mummies. Although often treated as primarily a textile conservation problem, mummies are of course composite, made from a range of materials in addition to the human remains. For ancient Egyptian mummies, that range includes textiles, various resins, cartonnage casings and amulets of various materials, such as ceramic, glass, and metal, either in or on the wrappings. Mummies are bodily remains that include the preservation of soft tissues along with the skeletal remains. Thus mummified material retains significant supplementary information held within the soft tissues and accompanying wrappings. Physical unwrapping is no longer necessary, since internal structures may be viewed using other techniques that have often been derived from medical investigation, such as computer-aided tomography scanning, which makes visible subtle interior forms.
