Material mainly used to make funerary masks and anthropoid sarcophagi in the Late Period. It was made by sticking several layers of papyrus together and then covering the result with a layer of plaster which could be painted. The material was cheaper than wood and therefore used frequently. The study and dismantling of cartonnage objects (which incidentally destroys the objects) provides a great deal of information about ancient Egypt because cartonnage was often made from superfluous pieces of inscribed papyrus. It is technically possible to separate the layers of papyrus from each other thus making the texts available for study. The term cartonnage is also sometimes used for a similar material made from linen instead of papyrus. This was already in use as early as the Old Kingdom.