The Fitzwilliam Museum - University of Cambridge

Conservator Lucy Skinner makes a detailed examination of the face of the inner coffin of Nespawershefyt
inside and out, with scenes taken from the Book of
the Dead and other funerary literature of the period.
The decoration has a characteristic almost golden
glow, largely due to the varnish used at the time. It is
likely to have been less yellow when originally
applied and has darkened over the centuries.
Studies of the coffins included x-radiography and CTscanning,
thanks to the co-operation of colleagues at
Addenbrooke’s hospital. These often revealed
constructional secrets hidden behind beautiful exteriors.
Wood has always been an expensive raw material in
Egypt and the ancient craftsmen were clearly careful to
keep offcuts to use as patches to fill gaps, and wood was
often reused. In the case of Nespawershefyt’s mummy
board, the x-rays revealed that the board is constructed
from two planks joined together using loose tenons and
dowels. Their exterior finish is so well preserved that
there is little hint of this fact from simple observation.
X-rays also showed that the lid of the inner coffin had
split whilst it was being assembled, possibly as the result
of drilling a dowel hole to affix the separately carved
face. The resulting repair was visible in the form of a
butterfly cramp joining the two parts of plank with the
gap between them being filled with a coarse plaster,
before the decoration was applied.
The x-rays and scans were also used to inform the
process of conservation; for example, they assisted in
identifying the precise location and nature of old
repairs, some of which involved the use of iron
screws liable to corrosion and therefore a potential
source of damage to the objects.
Conservation consisted of cleaning, stabilizing loose
elements, re-joining detached fragments and, where
appropriate, the removal of old restorations, for
example the screws already mentioned and a
substantial reconstruction and over-painting of the
wig lappets of Nespawershefyt’s inner coffin lid. A
detail noted by Lucy Skinner, the conservator
involved, was the application of an additional area of
varnish in certain areas, which proved to be the texts
containing Nespawershefyt’s job titles. After careful
study of all the examples of the titles on the coffin
set, Helen Strudwick, an Egyptologist working as
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Research