Funerary Textiles in Situ: Towards a Better Method for the Study of Textile-related Burial Practices

This open access book explores the role of textiles in death to investigate questions into how the body was prepared before the funeral, how the body was seen and perceived by its relatives and community, and the role of textiles in its metamorphosis into a deceased.   The volume’s geographic coverage is broad, encompassing areas where textile and skeletal conservation is optimal (the ancient Nile Valley) and areas where only minute fragments could be preserved adhering to metal objects. The case-studies cover Egypt, Sudan, Greece, the Iberian Peninsula, Scandinavia, and Central Europe, ranging from the 12th century BCE to the end of the 19th century CE. Going beyond this geohistorical frameworks, the book presents new methods for the study, retrieval and conservation of funerary textiles in situ during excavations. It offers useful tools for future research in both textile archaeology and bioarcheology and promote interdisciplinary collaborations between the two fields for a better understanding of burial practices. Contributors to this volume include experts from the fields of bioanthropology, archaeology, textile research and conservation.

Elsa Yvanez is an archaeologist specialised in the textile production of ancient Sudan and Nubia, in the chaîne opératoire and economic significance of spinning and weaving, as well as in the use of textiles for clothing and burial. After a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship at the Centre for Textile Research, University of Copenhagen (TexMeroe MSCA 743420), she conducted the Unravelling Nubian Funerary Practices project at the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw. She is now leading the ERC project Fashioning Sudan. Archaeology of dress along the Middle Nile at the University of Copenhagen (ERS StG 101039416).

Magdalena M. Wozniak is a researcher at the Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw. Her research focuses on textile production, cloth consumption and the role of textiles in the visual expression of identity in medieval Sudan. She holds a PhD in Archaeology from Paris-Sorbonne University. In 2016-2019 she was awarded a POLONEZ post-doctoral grant from the National Science Centre, Poland and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme for the project “Nubian Textiles: craft, trade, costume and identity in the medieval kingdom of Makuria.