Abstract
The Bologna Archaeological Museum, in cooperation with prestigious Italian universities, institutions, and independent scholars, recently began a vast investigation programme on a group of Egyptian coffins of Theban provenance dating to the first millennium BC, primarily the 25th–26th Dynasty (c. 746–525 BC). Herein, we present the results of the multidisciplinary investigation carried out on one of these coffins before its restoration intervention: the anthropoid wooden coffin of Un-Montu (Inv. MCABo EG1960). The integration of radiocarbon dating, wood species identification, and CT imaging enabled a deep understanding of the coffin’s wooden structure. In particular, we discuss the results of the tomographic investigation performed in situ. The use of a transportable X-ray facility largely reduced the risks associated with the transfer of the large object (1.80 cm tall) out of the museum without compromising image quality. Thanks to the 3D tomographic imaging, the coffin revealed the secrets of its construction technique, from the rational use of wood to the employment of canvas (incamottatura), from the use of dowels to the assembly procedure.
Highlights
Scientific analyses of works of art are widely used in the diagnostic phase prior to the restoration intervention, giving fundamental information about the materials and construction techniques and providing guidance for the best possible conservation methodology
We present the results of an investigation carried out on a interesting case study: the anthropoid wooden coffin of Un-Montu, belonging to the Egyptian collection of the Bologna Archaeological Museum
A wood sample, obtained from a mortise in the left side of the coffin box, was submitted to be radiocarbon dated at the Centre of Applied Physics, Dating, and Diagnostics (CEDAD) of the University of Salento, Lecce, Italy
Summary
Scientific analyses of works of art are widely used in the diagnostic phase prior to the restoration intervention, giving fundamental information about the materials and construction techniques and providing guidance for the best possible conservation methodology. The information obtained was fundamental to determine the type of interventions with which an object transferred to the museum’s warehouses in the 1990s was returned to the public in 2018 This project represented the ideal opportunity to codify the most appropriate methodological approaches to the study of the wooden structure and assembly techniques of another four anthropoid coffins from the Theban area, dating to the 25th–26th Dynasty As far as we were able to discern, the Un-Montu coffin was mentioned for the first time in the inventory of the Palagi museum in Milan [26,27], which was drawn up in 1860 after the painter’s death before his Egyptian collection was moved to Bologna The inventory describes it as a painted and varnished coffin, which is useful information for reconstructing its conservation history. Because the wings of Nut are subdivided into four sections and there is a repeating frieze of ankh-nebwas symbols on the front of the pedestal, the coffin is presumed to date to the early 26th Dynasty (664–525 BC)
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