Dated to around the 6-7th century AD, this Coptic textile displays Orpheus, center, playing the lyre while surrounded by animals and satyrs. The relief, cut out of a larger textile, seems to be in style of a tunic panel. The motifs are traditional to the type, as floral decorations frame the dancing figures within the square outline. Sea monster surround the border of the inner roundel. While the monochromatic purple/black pigment was made by dyeing the textile in madder and indigo, then setting the color into the garment with alum, ferric salt, or copper salt.

The staining across the panel in the ovular appearance (as if wrapped) seemingly indicates this tunic was used as a funerary garment. The corpse would have been salted and wrapped before being entombed.

References

  • Han Jungim, “A Study on the Characteristics of the Designs on Coptic Textiles of Ancient Egypt,” Journal of Fashion Business 15, no. 3 (2011): 112-124.
  • Jonathan P. Elias, “Coptic Burial Wrapping,” in The Phoebe A. Hearst Expedition to Naga ed-Deir Cemeteries N 2000 and N 2500, ed. Vanessa Davies (Leiden: Brill, 2021), 453-482.