The conference.

In early September, I attended a conference called Decorated Surfaces on Ancient Egyptian Artifacts: Technology, Deterioration, and Conservation (much more interesting than it sounds), held in Cambridge, England. It was the third in a series of conferences on conservation of Egyptian artifacts (the others were held in 1988 and 1995). There were over 100 attendees, including conservators, students, Egyptologists, scientists and administrators, from 16 countries.

There were 18 papers on subjects ranging from red shroud mummies, cartonnage, Egyptian pigments, metal treatments, etc. One paper, by Egyptian conservator Nadia Lokma, was especially lively, relating her team's efforts to save termite-riddled coffins from the new tomb (click here) found at the Valley of the Kings, all the while fending off hoards of media and VIPs. In addition to the papers, there were great posters (both the papers and posters will be published next year) as well as a public lecture on Amarna by Professor Barry Kemp, tours of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and workshops.

I went to three workshops, two serious and one 'fun'. The first was on Egyptian bronzes, discussing methods of casting and how to identify them as well as identifying metal polychromy on Egyptian artifacts (the ancient Egyptians often used different colors of copper alloys or different metals as inlays or attachments on their sculptures giving them a multi-colored effect that could be obscured by corrosion or poor choices of conservation treatment.
Here's one example of the multi-color effect achieved by using different metals.













The second workshop was on cartonnage mummy cases. Apparently the full body cases came into use as a response to the practice of re-cycling painted coffins, dumping the original inhabitant, and replacing his/her name in the decoration, leaving him/her nameless (and therefore lost) in the afterlife. The cases were not reusable and a properly labelled mummy case ensured one's identity in the afterlife even if you were turfed out of your coffin. Something I never knew was that the cases lace up the back:















The British Museum has been doing some work to figure out exactly how such cases were made by recreating them.

They start with a straw form, cover it with mud shaped to the desired contours, and cover it with linen wrappings. Once the wrappings are firm, the straw and mud is removed from the inside and the outside is covered with gesso and painted. They're still not sure whether the mummified body is inserted before the gessoing or after.