Can Mummified Cats Help Unravel the Mysteries of Ancient Dyes?
Museum preservation specialists have demonstrated that these remains
help us reconstruct the history and meaning of dyes used in animal
burials.
by Sarah E. Bond
Thousands of animals — from crocodiles to cobras, down to scarab
beetles — were once mummified in ancient Egypt. New analysis of the
dyes on the textiles that tightly bound these mummies is now helping
scientists rewrite the history of color.
Recent finds have increased the number and type of mummified animals
known today. Archaeologists working at Saqqara, south of Cairo, in
2019 discovered dozens of mummified animals. The necropolis finds
included two lion cubs dating to the 26th Dynasty (664–525 BCE), only
the second time lion mummies have been found. The use of CT scans have
commonly revealed the bones within these objects, yet questions about
the use of color and dyed fabrics on the outside of these objects
remained.
Work to reconstruct the techniques of fabrication and materiality of
the textiles used on animal mummies has a long history. In 1999,
Egyptologist Salima Ikram began to reconstruct the ancient techniques
for the mummification of animals along with her students at the
American University in Cairo. The research would eventually lead to
Divine Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt. The study explored
the four different types of offerings for which the researchers
concluded these animal mummies were used: food offerings, sacred
animals, votive offerings, and as pets.
CT scans of the ibis at the Brooklyn Museum have revealed that the
herringbone pattern on the linen, resin, beak, and crown all cover a
mummy made only from ibis feathers (30 BCE–100 CE) Abydos, Egypt, now
at the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY (image courtesy the Brooklyn
Museum).
These remains of ibises, cats, calves, crocodiles, and various birds
of prey have generally been studied for their ability to reveal the
structures of Egyptian religion and ancient embalming techniques, but
museum preservation specialists and digital humanists interested in
the history of color have demonstrated that these remains can also
help us reconstruct the history and meaning of the dyes, tannins, and
patterns used in animal burials.
In order to reconstruct the colors that once decorated animal mummies,
museum conservators and preservation experts have increasingly turned
to non-invasive digital techniques. A new article from researchers at
scientific labs within London’s British Museum and the Museo Egizio in
Turin analyzes the colorants used on textile wrappings of animal
mummies originally excavated from Ancient Egypt and held within museum
collections.
Diego Tamburini, Joanne Dyer, and the rest of the authors of the open
access study note that the linen wrappings used on these animals were
often thrown away and undervalued as items of interest in their own
right by modern archaeologists.
[T]he use of bands of different colours (black, brown, orange,
pinkish/red) could create many variations of the same pattern.
Additionally, dyed textiles and painted motifs were used to
reconstruct some of the anatomical parts of the animal (eyes, ears,
beak, etc.) …
In order to examine the chemical nature of the colorants used on
mostly linen textiles created from flax plants, scientists used
broadband multispectral imaging (MSI) and then fiber optic reflectance
spectroscopy (FORS) technology. Optical microscopy with visible or UV
light (called Vis-OM, UV-OM), as well as advanced analytical chemistry
methods such as high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass
spectrometry (HPLC–MS/MS) all aided the museum scientists in
identifying the chemicals used on these delicate linen wrappings.
Dyes responded differently to variant types of UV irradiation. The
luminescence given off by each dye is a type of signature that can
indicate when and where it was used. For the animal mummy study, the
scientists discovered use of safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L) and
red ochre as two of the primary colorants identified among the 20
specimens examined by the museums. When used as a dye, safflower tends
to provide a nice pinkish hue. However, it is very sensitive to UV
rays and thus fades quickly following exposure to the light sources.
Dyes responding differently to differing types of UV irradiation: a,
Visible-reflected (VIS); b, UV-induced visible luminescence (UVL); c,
infrared-reflected false colour (IRRFC); d, UV-reflected false colour
(UVRFC) images of the proper right top section of C2 (2021) (image
courtesy Tamburini et al., and the Heritage Science journal)
In addition to dyes, analysis of the brown and black linens indicated
the use of tannins. These tannins were used by those in ancient Egypt
to bind dyes — thus acting as a mordant — to the fibrous materials
being stained. Darker colors in the study were found to often have a
tannin combined with an additional iron mordant, whereas the brown
linen samples tended not to have iron added. Iron triggers
autoxidation on these textiles. This often leads to quicker breakdown
of them. That is why darkly colored linens from antiquity are often so
difficult to preserve.
It is important to understand color not only in terms of accurate
reconstruction, but also as a means of connecting these objects to
Egyptian religion. Christina Riggs, a professor at Durham University
and historian of ancient Egypt who specializes in its visual culture,
spoke to Hyperallergic about the reasons behind these colorful and
complex wrappings.
The dyed colors of the linen textiles on these embalmed animals often
goes together with intricate patterns of folds and wrappings.
Handbooks that explain how to wrap animal mummies survive from ancient
Egypt. Magic phrases were spoken by priests while the wrapping and
interlacing took place. Something similar might have taken place when
wrapping smaller animals or bundles of animal parts, helping these
objects function as thanksgiving offerings for the gods. The intricate
patterns perhaps also had a protective (apotropaic) function,
confusing any harmful forces that would threaten the sacred.
The partnership between labs at the British Museum and those in Torino
are increasingly revealing that mummy wrappings themselves were much
more colorful than we might have thought. Despite the widespread
perception that inside sarcophagi lay only drably covered bodies, new
chemical analysis of these mummies, along with earlier work on the red
colorants on dyed shrouds, have established that these wrappings
deserve a second look.
The intricate patterns and strategic colors of the linens used on
mummified remains have only begun to be understood by humanists,
museum specialists, and chemists working together. What is apparent is
that like literary texts, color does not exist within a vacuum and its
meaning must be translated. Color reconstruction is important not only
to revivifying our reimagination of the past, but also to decoding the
complex lexicon spoken by both the absence and the addition of colored
patterns in the ancient world
