Study and analysis of plant remains and organic residues from the tomb of Tutankhamun

The present PhD thesis concerns the study and conservation of the Tutankhamun collection, with particular emphasis on the analysis of plant remains and textiles swept from the rooms ground surface of Tutankhamun tomb. The arid environmental conditions present in Egypt have allowed to perfectly preserve desiccated botanical materials from a wide range of contexts and time periods, spanning from the Predynastic Period to the Ottoman one. An interesting case study in this sense is represented by the tomb of the 18th Dynasty pharaoh Tutankhamun, who reigned between 1334 and 1325 BC. Other than the golden objects and the rich funerary assemblage, the tomb was also full of plant remains. The ancient Egyptians stored food crops in Tutankhamun's tomb for his afterlife. The food crops and plant remain were found in the form of already well documented flower garlands and stored in numerous containers as funerary offerings. An immense “natural” treasure was recently recovered from the storerooms of the Luxor Museum. Once moved to the new seat and museum, the Grand Egyptian Museum, it was time to start studying this precious “rubbish” recovered one century ago, at the end of the archaeological excavation of the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun by Howard Carter’s team. In fact, after cataloguing the most interesting findings, Howard Carter and his collaborators swept the remaining material from the surfaces of the tomb, including numerous plant parts, and stored them in a wooden box, initially found in the Luxor Museum in Luxor and recently moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza. The carpological remains deposited in this wooden box in 1933 are still in excellent condition and allowed identification at a species level. Over 9000 plant remains were identified, including food, medicinal and ornamental plants. These include taxa not previously recorded in the tomb (such as Beta vulgaris L.). Although plant remains do not carry the same monetary value as the golden artefacts, they can impart incredible knowledge about Tutankhamun and his time. They can provide us with clues for anything from the pharaoh’s life and health to greater socio-political issues like who Ancient Egypt traded with and how the well-to-do upper classes lived. Plant remains also include reeds, which were used in ancient Egypt for the construction of wide variety of objects, such as baskets, ropes, nets, sandals, fishing rods, walking sticks, arrows, and other objects. In this study, μ-MRI was used for the identification of an archaeological reed allowing not only to identify a species used in the tomb of Tutankhamun, but also proposing a new tool for archaeobotanical and archaeological analysis. Organic remains in the studied archaeological context are not only represented by archaeobotanical evidence, but also by wooden artifacts, textile fragments and organic dyes. These were also analyzed within the present thesis, providing complementary information to the carpological study. The definition of clear, novel protocols for scientific analyses represents a strength of this thesis, which goes beyond the sole identification of materials. When dealing with such archaeological artifacts, conservation issues should not be marginalized. In fact, these are also discussed in the present thesis, proposing preservation protocols to ensure the materials’ accessibility by future generations.