Length of Very Sheer Linen Cloth

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The earliest Egyptian funerary texts list linen cloth among the principal offerings for the deceased, and price lists indicate that the finest quality fabric was highly prized. The tomb of Hatnefer and Ramose contained a variety of linen sheets that came from the storehouses of Queen Hatshepsut, a funerary gift for the parents of Senenmut, one of her favorite courtiers. This sheet was woven of superfine thread that must have been spun from flax harvested when the plants were very young. The length of cloth would have taken months of constant industry to weave. The upper left corner has a series of inlaid weaver's marks, and the right corner, a single cross. One end of the sheet has a warp selvage; the other is finished with a plied fringe; and one weft selvage is decorated with an inlaid fringe. This cloth must be that described by the Egyptians as "royal linen," the highest quality. The sheerness of the featherweight fabric and its silken softness lend credence to New Kingdom representations of elaborately pleated garments that allow the contours of the body and even the color of the skin to show through. The cloth was repaired and laundered in ancient times.

Egyptian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met collection of ancient Egyptian art consists of approximately 30,000 objects of artistic, historical, and cultural importance, dating from about 300,000 BCE to the 4th century CE. A signifcant percentage of the collection is derived from the Museum's three decades of archaeological work in Egypt, initiated in 1906 in response to increasing interest in the culture of ancient Egypt.

Metropolitan Museum of Art