THE DOCUMENTATION AND TREATMENT OF A COPTIC CHILD'S TUNIC IN EGYPT

Abstract

Textiles are civilizational treasures and dresses are forms of cultural heritage, because clothing is a visual means of communicating ideas and values. It is very fragile, though, and can survive only in very good conservation conditions. Most become nearly completely destroyed due to ageing. This paper presents the documentation and conservation processes of a children Coptic tunic. The tunic is stored in the Egyptian textile museum. It dates to Coptic period, and it was made mostly of linen textile. Stereo microscopy was used in the identification of the textile structure and SEM microscopy associated with EDAX was used to identify the morphology of the fibers, reco-rding the deterioration levels, and analysis the dirty threads. The analytical results proved that the textile structure involves plain weave openwork technique. The tunic was made of linen fibers. There are traces of calcium, chlorine, silicon, sulphide, magnesium and aluminum, elements. Within the same context, it could be said that the main challenges of conservation were the poor condition of the tunic and the previous supporting. The main conservation treatments were surface cleaning and supporting the dress on silk crepeline. The previous supporting stitches were removed. Finally, the tunic was prepared for museum display.