Egyptian Mummy Shroud Section with Hieratic Text. Late-Ptolemaic Period, circa 480-30 B.C. A narrow strip of woven linen textile featuring two lines of neatly written hieratic text in black. Cf. A. De Caluwe, A., Un Livre des Morts sur bandelette de momie, Brussels, 1991, for a discussion of the longest known mummy bandage. 3.74 grams, 40 cm (15 3/4 in.).

From the collection of a gentleman, acquired on the London art market in the 1990s. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

From the fifth century B.C., mummy wrappings often feature hieratic script—a cursive form of Egyptian hieroglyphs used for daily and religious texts. These include excerpts from funerary works like the Book of the Dead, alongside prayers meant to protect the deceased in the afterlife. Often with vignettes, these texts were inscribed directly on linen strips during the mummification. Some bandages were notably long; one from Brussels, 6.2 cm wide, measures an incredible 26 metres.

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