Coptic Burial Wrapping

Abstract

“Bandages of fine linen cloth, smeared over with gum”—how frequent is the refrain and how quintessentially Egyptian. However, the Herodotean account of Egyptian embalming (The Persian Wars Book II, 86) is quoted so often as to almost disguise its own significance. Of the three embalming standards Herodotus addresses, only his “most perfect” one includes wrapping as part of the service. Furthermore, Herodotus leaves us with the distinct impression that wrapping is as basic as evisceration and embalming to really approaching the “manner” of Osiris and that only by providing a decent wrapping job will one have a shot at practical preservation and ritual conquest of oblivion.1 To the extent that this properly represents an ongoing ancient Egyptian tradition and not just one current around 440 BCE, what effect would such ideas have on funerary wrapping in the Christian era and at Naga ed-Deir in particular?2 In speaking about Christian funerary behavior, there is a tendency to refer to earlier traditions as “pagan” as if there had been a clean break with all ancient rites once monotheism was adopted. The notion of a “clean break” associated with new religious sensibilities is misleading and in view of the difficulty in recognizing the practices of “Early Christianity” archaeologically inside Egypt, it will be preferable to discuss wrapping methods at Naga ed-Deir in a stylistic or methodological way, and simply say “Coptic Egyptian” when referring to wrapped bodies prepared under the Byzantine hegemony.3 In view of the complex array of wrapping methods, there is clearly a need to understand