Tutankhamun’s Linen

An impressive amount of fabric was discovered from Tutankhamun’s tomb. From the moment of its discovery in 1922, Howard Carter realized that the funerary equipment of the king would have great importance for the history of textiles and that it must be studied in minute detail. In spite of this observation, Carter did not have the time to launch a detailed study, which was also made difficult by the poor state of conservation and the fragility of the pieces unearthed. At Carter’s death in 1939, the archaeologist’s archives relating to the textiles of Tutankhamun, containing 1,500 photographs, countless drawings, and 2,500 handwritten notes, were deposited at the University of Oxford’s Griffith Institute in England.The entire collection of textiles found in the tomb is made of linen. It includes clothing, shrouds, cloth covers for statues, loincloths, headgear, belts, shawls, rolls of gauze, a necklace, gauntlets and gloves, a scarf, as well as objects made of various types of fabrics, such as quivers, ropes, pads, and others used to wrap and cover funerary equipment. This large number of textile pieces provides a valu able insight into the use of fabrics in ancient Egypt, particularly in the Eighteenth Dynasty. It is the only royal wardrobe that has come to us from the pharaonic period.