cartonnage Archæol.
(ˈkɑːtənɪdʒ)
Also cartonage.
[Fr., f. carton: see prec. and -age.]
An Egyptian mummy-case made of layers of linen or papyrus tightly pressed and glued together and fitting closely to the embalmed body; also, the material thus used. Also attrib.
| [1834 T. J. Pettigrew Egypt. Mummies 116 The case I am describing is called by the French the ‘Cartonage’, from the resemblance of its composition to pasteboard.] 1841 J. G. Wilkinson Anc. Egyptians II. 477 The innermost covering of the body..was the cartonage. This was a pasteboard case fitting exactly to its shape. 1881 Rawlinson Hist. Anc. Egypt. I. 512 The swathed body was covered by a ‘cartonnage’, consisting of twenty or forty layers of linen tightly pressed and glued together, so as to form a sort of pasteboard envelope, which then received a thin coating of stucco, and was painted in bright colours with hieroglyphics and figures of deities. 1889 Petrie Hawara 15 Mummies with gilt cartonnage heads. 1957 G. Clark Archaeol. & Society (ed. 3) iii. 78 A number of papyri..were recovered from the cartonnage of a mummy excavated by Flinders Petrie. |