In the Late Period, some mummy-wrappings were inscribed in hieratic with Book of the Dead material, turning individual textiles into portable spell texts. These bandages show that writing was integrated into the physical layers around the body, not just placed beside it as a papyrus roll. Museums preserve examples labeled explicitly as Book of the Dead texts written on linen.
By the Old Kingdom, Egyptians relied on linen (from flax) as the main cloth for wrapping and covering the dead. Linen’s clean, bright appearance fit religious ideas about purity and a properly prepared body. This set a long-lasting pattern: most later funerary textiles—bandages, shrouds, and cartonnage (linen hardened with plaster)—were linen-based.
Old Kingdom funerary practice increasingly emphasized preserving the body through wrapping and careful preparation, especially for elites. Large linen cloths and layered wrappings helped shape and protect the body for burial. These choices tied textile use to status: more and finer linen generally meant a more expensive funeral.
Cartonnage—layers of linen (or papyrus) stiffened with plaster—was used to form masks and cases that protected and “idealized” the deceased. This technique is often compared to papier-mâché, but made with ancient materials and methods. It allowed burials to combine textiles with painted and gilded religious imagery.
By the Middle Kingdom, linen used in burials could carry ink marks that functioned like labels, sometimes noting quality, people, or dates. These marks suggest funeral textiles were managed through estates, workshops, and administrators rather than gathered casually. Textile preparation became part of a larger system supporting royal and elite burial programs.
Near the end of the Middle Kingdom and into the early New Kingdom, funerary texts began appearing not only on papyrus but also on linen shrouds. This changed burial textiles from purely protective coverings into text-bearing religious objects. Writing spells on cloth helped connect the wrapped body to spoken and written ritual power.
New Kingdom burials often used many layers of linen bandages plus an outer linen shroud to cover and secure the wrapped body. The shroud could be arranged in structured ways (with bands and ties) that helped keep the wrappings in place and present the body properly for burial. This demonstrates how textiles served both practical protection and public-facing ritual display.
During the New Kingdom, mummification generated large amounts of used and unused linen, natron (drying salts), and other materials. Some of this “embalming refuse” was sealed in jars and pits near royal tombs, showing how tightly managed the process could be. A bandage from Tutankhamun’s embalming cache includes hieratic notes dated to specific regnal years, linking textiles to official record-keeping.
In later periods, cartonnage elements could replace or supplement inner coffins, placing more religious imagery directly on the mummy covering. These linen-and-plaster shells provided a painted surface for gods, protective symbols, and inscriptions, reinforcing the deceased’s identity as a blessed spirit. The approach also reflects changing burial economics and fashions: decorated coverings could be assembled from separate pieces.
From about the 4th to the 2nd centuries BCE, some communities wrote long sequences of Book of the Dead spells across mummy bandages as if the bandages were scrolls. This practice seems concentrated in northern regions such as Memphis and the Fayum, suggesting local schools and workshop traditions. It marks a peak moment when burial textiles functioned simultaneously as wrapping, display, and readable manuscript.
In the Ptolemaic Period, mummies were often equipped with multiple cartonnage elements—like masks, plaques, collars, and foot coverings—rather than a single fully decorated outer case. These pieces were molded from linen stiffened with plaster and then painted and sometimes gilded, combining textile craft with sculptural decoration. The result was a modular funerary outfit that emphasized key religious motifs on specific parts of the body.
By the late Ptolemaic decades and into the Roman era, cartonnage masks and coverings continued, often with gilded faces that linked the deceased to divine, imperishable bodies. Scientific analyses confirm these objects’ layered construction (linen/papyrus with gesso and pigments), highlighting how textiles sat at the center of complex mixed-media funerary art. By about 30 BCE, Egyptian burial textiles had evolved into a long tradition where linen served as cloth, “paper,” and structural core for painted funerary identity.
Ancient Egyptian funerary garments and burial textiles (Old Kingdom–Ptolemaic, c. 2600–30 BCE)