Crafted to Last

In todays episode, we welcome wood-and-coffin specialist Carrie Arbuckle McLeod for a deep dive into why ancient Egyptian coffins are basically time capsules: tiny wood samples reveal trade and value, tool marks preserve the hands-on actions of carpenters, and joints can map changing technology and belief. You’ll hear why cedar (often linked to Osiris) was a luxury imported “king of woods,” how local sycamore fig became the womb of Nut, and why coffins and boats share the same journey-to-the-afterlife logic—plus the surprising “magic” of red-painted and even inscribed joints.

We also unpack the messy afterlife of coffins in modern times: early excavators burning plain coffins for warmth, collectors mixing bodies and boxes, and over-conservation that can repaint or plasticize the past.

About Carrie

Caroline Arbuckle MacLeod is Assistant Professor of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology at St Thomas More College at the University of Saskatchewan. She specializes in the archaeology of wood and woodworking, focusing on the history of ancient Egyptian wooden coffin production. She has recently published Archaeological Wood and Woodworking, in the Cambridge University Press Elements series, and has won awards for her experiential approaches to teaching. She is part of the Turin-Leiden excavation team at Saqqara, and is currently working on a volume on the coffins from Assiut housed in the Museo Egizio, Turin.

Academia Page

Cambridge Elements: Archaeological Wood and Woodworking

Show Notes

Haida Woodworking

Medjehu Project

Trees of Egypt

Tamarisk

Acacia