Shirt

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This shirt was made of a single length of closely woven linen fabric that was folded crosswise and sewn together along the selvages with gaps left near the fold for the arms. A hole was cut at the front for the head and the edges were finished with a rolled hem. At the back, the lower edge of the shirt was formed by the beam end of the fabric; at the front it was finished with a rolled hem. There are two woven repairs (see attached photographs), evidence that the shirt was used and valued by its owner. The shirt had been folded into a rectangular pad and used in the wrappings of a middle-aged man. The stains are from resins employed in the mummification process. A bundle of linen containing a similar shirt and a kilt (36.3.76) was found lying on top of the mummy. The man had been buried on the hillside below the tomb of Senenmut (see 36.3.252) in western Thebes. A number of burials were discovered on this hillside, including a small tomb containing Senenmut's mother, Hatnefer (36.3.1), his father, Ramose, and six other family members. It is possible that the un-named man was another relative or a member of Senenmut's household, who was buried where his spirit could benefit from the daily offerings that would be presented at Senenmut's offering chapel (TT 71).

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