Completing the treatment of Tawahibre’s coffin

Things have been pretty busy around here lately, and I almost forgot to post some updates about several projects. One project in particular is the treatment of Tawahibre’s coffin. We have been working on this 2-part painted wooden coffin in the lab for the last year, and we recently completed its treatment.

As you may remember, when the coffin first came up here, it was covered with a thick layer of dust and grime, the paint was badly flaking in areas, several large pieces of painted gesso were pulling away from the wood support, and there were large cracks throughout.

Before treatment photos (clockwise from left): upper half of coffin showing layer of dust and large cracks and losses; large piece of painted gesso partially detached from top of head; large loss on wig, showing old animal glue adhesive from a previous restoration

Before treatment photos (clockwise from left): upper half of coffin showing layer of dust and large cracks and losses; large piece of painted gesso partially detached from top of head; large loss on wig, showing old, shiny animal glue adhesive from a previous restoration

After cleaning the surface with a brush and vacuum, followed by cosmetic sponges, I consolidated the paint with a methyl cellulose solution, filled in cracks and gaps using Japanese tissue paper and a mixture of methyl cellulose bulked with cellulose powder and glass microballoons, and then toned the fills with acrylic paint. This work is explained in further detail in previous posts, which you can find by clicking on the links included in blue above.

fillingcracks

A detail shot of the wig showing an area with several large open cracks before and after filling with Japanese tissue paper and methyl cellulose/cellulose powder/glass microballoons mixture

Based on a discussion with our Egyptian section curators, I also made some aesthetic fills to mask some large losses, including 2 losses on the wig. We chose not to fill the losses on the nose and chin because filling these losses would require too much guess-work as to the original contours of these features.

Large loss on wig before (left), after application of Japanese tissue paper layer (middle), and after application of fill mixture (right)

Large loss on wig before (left), after application of Japanese tissue paper layer (middle), and during application of fill mixture (right)

Detail of the head and wig before (left) and after (right) conservation treatment, with losses in before treatment photo outlined in red

Detail of the head and wig before (left) and after (right) conservation treatment, with losses on the wig outlined in red. The larger loss on the right is the featured in the previous series of images.

I carried out similar work on the base of the coffin, and now both are complete:

Tawahibre's coffin lid before (left) and after (right) conservation treatment

Tawahibre’s coffin lid before (left) and after (right) conservation treatment

The coffin base before (left) and after (right) conservation treatment.

The coffin base before (left) and after (right) conservation treatment

As you can see, we chose not to fill many of the losses, focusing instead on stabilization.

This work will enable future exhibition of the coffin, and just as importantly, it will make further study of the coffin possible. All along there have been some discrepancies between the name that has always been associated with the coffin (Tawahibre, a woman’s name) and a previous translation in 1946 of the hieroglyphic text on the coffin (which identified the name of a male court official, the son of J-se(t)-N-Ese). There has also been some confusion about the remains once housed in the coffin, which were previously identified as male, but in a 1975 autopsy the remains were confirmed as belonging to a female in her mid-30s. A bit confusing, but hopefully we’re now one step closer to getting this all straightened out!

 

What is under the paraffin ?

Egyptian wooden statue of Ka-Aper, also named  the Sheikh-el-beled, from the Vth Dynasty, decorated with inlaid eyes.

Egyptian wooden statue of Ka-Aper, also named
the Sheikh-el-beled, from the Vth Dynasty,
decorated with inlaid eyes.

Quite a while ago, we dealt with the treatment chosen for the two Egyptian wooden heads and now it’s time to talk about its results. Let’s focus on the cleaning of the surface: the goal was to remove the paraffin that certainly masked other remains of the painted layer.

First of all, we have to talk about the notion of original surface and original level.

> The original surface is composed of the original materials, before they were buried and underwent an alteration process. Concerning the heads, it corresponds to the paint layer they were decorated with.

> The original level is a layer of altered material that took the place of the original material but remained at the same level as the original surface. A good way to understand this is to think about a fossil: it is no longer the original animal, insect or plant made of flesh, bones, shell that it used to be…but you can still identify its shape since it was precisely petrified by another material. That’s what we can call the original level of an object surface.

Nouvelle image (2)It was necessary to define what the original level was on the heads, so as to know how deep the cleaning could go. It had to keep its meaning regarding the object itself. The paint layer was a good clue since these colored patches were all that remained from the original surface. As far as we could see, the rest of the surface was more or less corresponding to the original level. Indeed, there was no important gap between the painted areas and the present surface.

Sans titre - 1

Original surface and original level near the wig of E17911, x7.5 magnification.

Another issue with paraffin was to think about how much of it we wanted to remove. Indeed, this sticky layer seemed to be what was holding the elements of the current surface together. That was especially true about the painted areas. Concerning the wood, we could only suppose that the paraffin had penetrated inside on a few millimeters only (thanks to a few articles that were published and gave estimations of paraffin migration inside archaeological wood) since we had no way to obtain an accurate estimation of this. Therefore, we didn’t want to remove it completely from the wood because it could threaten its stability and cause the wood to crumble.

That’s why the cleaning began with the known rather than with the unknown: the painted areas were cleaned from the paraffin that covered them. Thus, we could see their real extent. However, the pigments remain stuck in a thin paraffin layer but their legibility was improved, as you can see on these pictures:

Pictures of E17911’s right cheek before and after cleaning, x7.5.

Pictures of E17911’s right cheek before and after cleaning, x7.5 magnification

Nouvelle image (15)

Pictures of E17910’s chin before and after cleaning, x7.5 magnification.

E17910’s right eye, before and after cleaning.

E17910’s right eye, before and after cleaning.

Then began the exploration of the unknown side of the heads, meaning the rest of the surface, where the presence of areas of paint was only a supposition.

This part of the work was really the longest since we couldn’t know what to expect under the paraffin and sediment layer. Some days, only a centimeter square could be cleaned ! Cleaning was carried out using a binocular microscope, in order to see precisely what happened under the scalpel blade and to be able to stop whenever it was necessary.

We found some new paint areas, generally rather small, sometimes buried under a rather important depth of sediment.

Example of two new painted areas on E17911, on the wig (on the left) and next to the right ear (on the right).

Example of two new painted areas on E17911, on the wig (on the left) and next to the right ear (on the right).

The biggest surprise happened with E17910 :

E17910 before and after treatment: a wig is now visible.

E17910 before and after treatment: a wig is now visible.

Close-up on the wig on the right part of E17910.

Close-up on the wig on the right part of E17910.

E17910’s face before and after, with other remains of a wig.

E17910’s face before and after, with other remains of a wig.

The cleaning allowed us to reveal a wig on the right side of E17910 and some other elements belonging to it on the face. We now know more details about the heads and they are almost able to be studied.

See you at our next post to learn more about the remaining steps of this treatment.

Fragmentary painted coffin from Abydos

If you are a member of the museum, you may have already seen some information about these painted coffin board fragments in the most recent issue of Expedition magazine:

E12505_2These fragments, which date to the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2000-1700 BCE), were excavated from the North Cemetery of Abydos in 1901 by John Garstang. The museum supported Garstang’s work through the Egypt Exploration Fund.

Despite the severe insect damage, the preservation of the painted details on these fragments is remarkable.

This fragment features 3 usekh collars, which were often reserved for nobility. Beside each collar is a mankhet, or counterpoise. The hieroglyphs above are the names of each of the collars, which are slightly different.

This fragment features 3 usekh collars, which were often reserved for nobility. Beside each collar is a mankhet, or counterpoise. The hieroglyphs above are the names of each of the collars, which are slightly different.

A detail of the usekh en nebti, the collar of the two mistresses that incorporates the uraeus and the vulture

A detail of the usekh en nebti, the collar of the two mistresses that incorporates the uraeus
and the vulture (7.5x magnification)

These coffin board fragments have never been exhibited, and our renewed interest in them is due to the fact that we are currently excavating tombs from the same time period in South Abydos, including the funerary complex of Senwosret III. You can read a lot more about this project in the recent Expedition issue and on the museum blog by following this link.

In order to exhibit the coffin fragments, they need some extensive conservation treatment. Their surfaces are dirty, the paint is cracked, cupped and lifting from the wood support, and is very fragile, and some of the boards are structurally unstable due to the extensive insect damage.

We are currently working on these boards in the lab, and we have made some good progress. We are cleaning the painted surfaces with a kneaded rubber eraser. The eraser can be shaped to a fine point, and working under the binocular microscope, it is possible to remove the dirt from most of the painted surface without disturbing the fragile paint.

We are using kneaded erasers (left) to clean the delicate painted surface of these coffin boards (right)

We are using kneaded erasers (left) to clean the delicate painted surface of these coffin boards (right)

Some areas of paint need to be stabilized before they can be cleaned. After testing a variety of adhesive solutions, I settled on my old friend methyl cellulose, a 2% solution of methyl cellulose in water to be exact, to consolidate fragile areas.

Paint consolidation is being carried out under the microscope with a fine brush

Paint consolidation is being carried out under the microscope with a fine brush

I am now working on testing some fill materials, both to stabilize the edges of lifting paint and also to stabilize the fragile wood. I will post an update as soon as I make some decisions and proceed with this part of the treatment!