IT is hard to believe these fragments of cloth are almost 2,000 years old and originate from the Coptic period of Egyptian history.

Would that the cotton clothes we wear today lasted so long.

These well-preserved fragments are the latest in our series of Hidden Treasures, featuring objects of historical interest and artworks in Bolton Museum and Art Gallery that cannot be shown in the immediate future because of lack of space.

Our main picture shows an Egyptian wool bag or "Sprang" hairnet. Sprang is an openwork braiding technique which produces a knitted stretchy fabric ideal for the likes of stockings and hairnets.

The second photograph shows a wool fragment of a tunic, with fringed edge and tapestry band with human and floral decoration.

This sprang, or bag, would have been found on the head of an excavated body and was used to cover their hair.

Both of these textiles date to the Roman and Coptic periods, probably around 300 AD, a time when the rise of Christianity led to the ancient Egyptian practice of mummification being abandoned in favour of plainer burial.

While mummy wrappings were specially woven or made of shredded strips of discarded fabric, bodies at this period would be dressed in their smartest clothes - often several layers of tunics at once - helping to keep them intact for excavators.

The desert land in Egypt offers almost perfect conditions for the preservation of organic material, and archaeologists have found large quantities of cloth, papyrus, and leather objects.

Bolton Egyptology department has several fragments of textiles which are an astonishing 6,000 years-old.

Tom Hardwick, keeper of Egyptology at Bolton Museum and Art Gallery, says: "Bolton subscribed to excavations from the 1880s onwards - instigated and supported by Bolton benefactor Annie Barlow - and so was entitled to a significant share of the finds.

"As a textile town, Bolton was especially interested in acquiring objects which would be relevant and useful to local industry.

"Thomas Midgely, the second curator of the Chadwick Museum - and son of the first curator, William Midgely - was an expert on weaving techniques and ancient fibres.

"He provided analyses of textiles for excavators in return for keeping the samples he was sent and as a result our collection of Egyptian textiles is among the most important in the world."

"In those days, the working classes toiled away for hours producing textiles.

"But then they would go and visit the museum in what little free time they had and educate themselves by peering at the old remains of ancient weaving techniques," Mr Hardwick said.

"They could look at the fragments with some expertise, given their background of weaving techniques."

In the old Chadwick Museum the textiles were displayed framed with enlarged photographic details, to show more clearly how they were woven. They were technical aids to the weaving industry first and works of art second.

Tom says: "Organic material is especially vulnerable to changes in temperature and humidity, and light can seriously affect dyed or painted surfaces.

"As a consequence, our textile collection is not on permanent display, but is kept in conservation approved storage in a stable environment. In the future we hope to have a case in the Egyptian galleries devoted to rotating displays of highlights from the textile collection."