Section of a shroud



Accession Number
W651
Current Location
House of Death (ground floor), Cartonnage display
Object Type
Tomb equipment, Mummy trappings, Cloth/shroud
Period
Graeco-Roman Period
Material
Textile/fibres (Linen)
Provenance
Egypt
Measurements
Length: 250mm | Width: 225mm
Number of Elements
1
Animal
Monkey/baboon
Divine Name
Horus | Thoth

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Description

A section of a shroud with hieroglyphs painted scene depicting a dead woman, Tashay, having her heart weighed, against the feather of truth and righteousness in a scale by Thoth and Horus, while Thoth in his baboon form is also sitting on the top of the scale. This scene relates to spell 125 in the Book of the Dead. The piece is dated by her hairstyle to 140-160 AD, and was purchased by Wellcome at auction in 1931.

Bibliography

Griffiths, J. Gwyn 1982. Eight funerary paintings with judgement scenes in the Swansea Wellcome Museum. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 68, 228–252. Ortiz-García, Jónatan and Ann-Katrin Gill 2018. Newly identified fragments of a Roman painted shroud from the Centre de Documentació i Museu Tèxtil of Terrassa, Spain. In Busana, Maria Stella, Margarita Gleba, Francesco Meo, and Anna Rosa Tricomi (eds), Textiles and dyes in the Mediterranean economy and society: proceedings of the VIth international symposium on textiles and dyes in the ancient Mediterranean world (Padova - Este - Altino, Italy, 17–20 October 2016), 491–495. Zaragoza: Libros Pórtico.

Other Identity
A103583
Auction
J. C. Stevens. Auction and Sale Rooms: 13 Jan 1931, Lot 314
Auction Details
Eight fine pieces of Coptic cloth, with paintings of figures, etc.
Previous Owner
Sir Henry Solomon Wellcome (1853–1936)
Acquisition
Long-term loan, The Wellcome Trust (15 Feb 1971)

Language
Egyptian
Script
Hieroglyphic
Personal Name
Tashay (tꜣ-šꜣ)
Last modified: 01 Dec 2021

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