Mummy cloth

On this fragment of a painted shroud, the upper body of a young man can be seen. He wears a tunic with vertical clavi over the shoulders. Clavi are decorative bands extending from top to bottom, from hem to hem, which indicated the wearer’s status. The representation of the face is highly stylised and the hair is short, with what is probably a youthful lock of hair at the side of the head − indicating that the figure is a young man. In his right hand he holds a kantharos, a two-handled beaker. In the (invisible) left hand, a floral wreath can be seen. Two thin stems project above the shoulders with a stylised flower, probably a lotus. The fragment has clearly been cut from a larger cloth. Similar shrouds are known from Deir el-Bahari. They all display the same attributes in the hands, but the faces are often modelled in relief.