This 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 volumes 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.
Chapters 8 and 13 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
Acknowledgements.- Content warning.
Chapter
1. Introduction - Funerary
Textiles in situ. Archaeological Perspectives from Europe and the Nile Valley
(Elsa Yvanez and Magdalena M. Wozniak).- Part I: Aspects of theory and
methods.
Chapter
2. Theoretical Approaches to the Functions of Textiles in
Graves. Case Studies from 1000 BCE1000 CE in Central Europe (Karina
Grömer).
Chapter
3. Fabrics and Funerals: An Ethnographic Enquiry (Estella
Weiss-Krejci).- Part II: Case studies in Europe and the Nile Valley.
Chapter
4. Silk Textiles in Funerary Liturgical Garments in Poland (17th19th
Centuries) (Dawid Grupa).
Chapter
5. Research on Post-Medieval Funerary
Attire: Ethics, Challenges, and Successful Methods in Studying Coffin
Textiles Found Below Finnish Church Floors (Sana Lipkin).
Chapter
6.
Textiles and Bones on Site: A First-Hand Experience from the Cemeteries at
Naqlun (Egypt) and Crypts at Old Dongola (Sudan) (Barbara Czaja and Robert
Mahler).
Chapter
7. Grave Concerns: The Complexity of Recovery,
Documentation, and the Study of Funerary Textiles from Ancient Egyptian
Inhumations at Saqqara (Iwona Kozieradzka-Ogunmakin).
Chapter
8. Wrapping
Practices in Medieval Sudan. Case Studies from Gebel Adda (Magdalena
Wozniak).
Chapter
9. Conservation Approaches for Pyre-Burial Textiles
Excavated in Greece (Christina Margariti, Stella Spantidaki, Maria Kinti, and
Tina Chanialaki).
Chapter
10. The Stronghold Has Become a Grave
Preliminary Analysis of Fabrics from Early Medieval Trzcianka, Janów Commune,
Poland (Magorzata Grupa and Tomasz Kozowski).
Chapter
11. Two Mycenaean
Textile Imprints from Tomb XXI at Deiras, Argos (Greece) (Magorzata
Siennicka).
Chapter
12. Naked Graves? Thoughts on the Recording and
Reconstruction of Funerary Attire in the Early Iron Age of Southwestern
Iberia (Francisco Gomes).- Part III: Tools for the in situ analysis of
funerary textiles.
Chapter
13. Protocol for the Study and Analysis of
Funerary Textiles in situ (Elsa Yvanez, Valentina Turina, and editorial
committee).- Index.
Elsa Yvanez is an archaeologist specialised in the textile production of ancient Sudan and Nubia, in the chaīne opératoire and economic significance of spinning and weaving, as well as in the use of textiles for clothing and burial. After a Marie Skodowska-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 Skodowska-Curie grant from the European Unions Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme for the project Nubian Textiles: craft, trade, costume and identity in the medieval kingdom of Makuria.
