Conservation of a Rare Painted Ancient Egyptian Textile Object from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo

This study describes conservation of a painted ancientEgyptian textile object from the collection of Osiris clothsin the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Egypt. An evaluation ofthe reactivation consolidation technique to reinforcementof ancient Egyptian painted textiles was performed.Various investigation methods were carried out to identifythe fibres, paints, and other materials, which are part ofthe selected object. The condition of the object was alsoinvestigated. Newly prepared painted linen textile sampleswere artificially deteriorated to be used for evaluation ofthe suggested reactivation consolidation technique. Theaged textile samples were treated with three selectedadhesives in three different concentrations and the sampleswere evaluated. The results show that the tested consolidationtechnique is suitable to reinforce deterioratedlinen textiles. The evaluated consolidation technique issimple, effective and can be applied using simple tools thatare common to many conservation labs.