Carter’s linen tunic

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. The reconstructed ‘bag-tunic’ belonging to Irtyru, discovered by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon. 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’, an