The West Berkshire Museum, in the English market town of Newbury, has a small collection of about 300 ancient Egyptian artefacts, which will be on temporary display as part of the exhibition From the Nile to Newbury until mid-November 2024. The highlight is a linen ‘bag-tunic’ found in the mummy wrappings of a lady named Irtyru, who lived during the Third Intermediate Period, c.800 BC.
Discovery
The woven linen bag-tunic was discovered at Deir el-Bahri by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon in 1909. Carter labelled the Theban tomb where this bag-tunic was found as ‘Site 5’, and described it as ‘a rock-cut court with sepulchral chambers on both sides and at its northern end’. It belonged to an Egyptian woman who was about 35 years old when she died. Her tunic and other household linens were ripped up after she died and used to wrap her embalmed body. Irtyru and her husband Padekhonsu were buried next to each other, while their son Padeamun was buried in a separate room. Several other mummies were buried at the northern end of the tomb, although their relationship to Irtyru and her family is unknown.
Carter describes the coffin of Irtyru as elaborate and well-painted. He describes the mummy of Irtyru as follows:
Excavating the Hebrides