Ancient Egyptian and Greek Looms

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Return to Book Page. Ancient Egyptian and Greek Looms by H. This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. Kindle Edition , 48 pages. Published May 12th first published October 4th To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

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Be the first to ask a question about Ancient Egyptian and Greek Looms. Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. This book, published in , is an interesting look at the way the ancient Egyptians wove their fabrics and the implements they used. The Kindle version does not have the important illustrations. Kenneth D Cole Jr rated it it was amazing Sep 17, Joe Gonzales rated it liked it Jul 04, Others may be due to ignorance of detail on the part of the secondary copyist—the man who prepared them for publication—so that he was unable to follow up the clues on the drawings laid before him.

Some of the differences are of minor importance, but a comparison will help materially to our understanding of the method of weaving adopted by the Egyptians from the XIIth to the XIXth Dynasties, or about B. To go into details, and taking Mr. A more pronounced difference is seen in the way in which the threads are attached to the warp beam A.

Neither Wilkinson nor Lepsius carry these threads over the beam, the former carrying them only as far as the laze threads C, while the latter carries them up to a line drawn parallel to and below the beam; Cailliaud and Rosellini carry them over the beam while Mr. Davies carries them half way only. The object of this half carrying over is not clear. The threads in chain-form at C are probably laze threads, apparently placed there so that in case of any disarrangement of the warp threads the weaver can from that point run her fingers along them and get them disentangled.

It has been suggested to me that this chain-form might be a tension chain for taking up slack warp, but the former explanation seems the more likely. The cross sticks D1, D2, look like laze rods. It may not be out of place here to point out that in primitive weaving laze rods serve two purposes, or one more than in the later somewhat more advanced looms.

Harrison by no means overstates the case when he says that the development of the heddle is the most important step in the evolution of the loom Horniman Museum Handbooks, No. We may now return to the drawing. Wilkinson shows the rod D1 indistinctly and the left hand end only of D2. Kennedy argues that these rods are in the wrong position and that D1 which is a heddle should be in the place of D2. Asiatic primitive looms, like those from Borneo and Bhutan, have two laze rods but no heddle; on the other hand many primitive African looms have one laze rod and one heddle as is the case with this Egyptian loom.

More threads are shown on the left hand end of D2 than on the right hand end. Davies informs me that the same quantity should be shown from end to end across the warp, but on the right hand side they are so indistinct that he was just able to detect but not to trace them and so he omitted them. We now come to the rod E. Cailliaud and Rosellini show an undulation at the one end a , but do not make the other end clear. Lepsius has altered the shape of the curve and transferred it from the end a to the opposite end. Cohausen Das Spinnen u.

Weben bei den Alten , in Ann. We have in another illustration, Fig. In all the illustrations, too, the pose of the hands of the women bearing on this stick is indicative of a downward pressure and not of a grasp. Date about end XI. In the lower illustration note the left hand figure holding the spool in her hand. Davies informs me that it is quite a distinct article, and that there can be no doubt about it. Just above the breast beam there are 8 or 9 threads of weft but they are too faint to be included.

The selvedge F on the one side of the cloth and not on both sides is also interesting from the fact that selvedges do not appear on the Egyptian cloths until the XVIII. Wilkinson omits this altogether, but in its place has two black pieces which also are still less clear. With him K takes quite a different form, in fact it looks very similar to an article which an attendant woman in another panel has close by her, see Fig.

It might perhaps be a rest to prevent the beater-in being driven home too forcibly—this, however, is still only a surmise—as the length of the beater-in makes it heavy at the far end. In Cailliaud the warp threads are coloured in pale blue and red on top of the black lines of the drawing; he has painted the selvedge and finished cloth a pale blue, as well as that portion of G2 which is covered by the cloth indicating that this is the breast beam, G3 and G1 are painted a dark red. This shows that K is distinct from E. From a drawing by Mr.

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In consequence of this loom being represented as upright it is often spoken of as an upright or vertical loom. But it is drawn upright because the Egyptian artist did not understand perspective, and it was only by making the loom upright that he was enabled to show the details we have just been examining.

For the same reason mat making is illustrated edgeways. Any doubt on the matter has however been set aside by Prof. After referring to the woman spinning, he continues: It is possible that they are making mats or, perhaps, weaving p. The threads of the warp and the finished piece of cloth at the breast beam end are clearly indicated. The whole model supports conclusively the well founded supposition that the loom we have been considering is a horizontal one.

Garstang does not appear to appreciate the important bearing of his discovery, for on a later page p. Outline sketch by Miss Davey of the original model of a group of one woman spinning and two women weaving, found by Dr. John Garstang at Beni Hasan. It must not be thought that the Beni Hasan representation is the only one which illustrates a horizontal loom.

A second one is reproduced by Prof. Percy Newberry from the tomb of Tehuti-hetep circa B. This illustration shows the warp flat against the wall like the mat making shown at Beni Hasan. Date about B. A third representation of a horizontal loom is reproduced from the forthcoming volume of the Egypt Exploration Fund by kind permission of Mr. Davies, who made the copy. The cloth is not shown contracted as in the Beni Hasan representation, the two laze rods are drawn close to each other and here also an attempt appears to have been made to show the over and under lapping warp threads; the laze rods appear each with a hook, the hook on the upper rod turned upwards and the hook if it be one on the lower rod turned downwards.

It is possible these hooks may be pegs to prevent the shifting of the laze rods. It may be that one of the two rods is a heddle rod the indication being the fine double lines, but this may not be compatible with the hook at the end of the rod. The weaver on the left holds a spool in her hand, evidently a piece of stick with the weft thread wound round it, which she is pushing through with her fingers.

The weaver on the right holds a beater-in as shown in the Beni Hasan drawing. The breast beam is held in position by two pegs near the right one of which there is a curved article of indeterminate use. The original sketch is in Bankfield Museum. The weaver appears to be provided with one heddle and a beater-in.

A modified form of this horizontal loom has been met with in recent years among the Bedawin Arabs, as shown in the illustration of a study sketch, Fig. Similar looms are still used for mat making by the Egyptian fellah. Apart from the horizontal loom Wilkinson and Robert Hay [C] also recorded the existence of an illustration of an upright loom, said in error to be at Eileithyias El Kab.

Davies informs me that the original is not at Eileithyias, but in the tomb of Nefer-hotep at Thebes. Wilkinson in regard to this illustration quotes the oft-repeated statement of Herodotus circa B. But I am unable to follow Wilkinson in this, for I can find no indication in his illustration which shows how the beating-in of the weft is accomplished. From the illustration all one can say is that it might have been done either way. He does not show the hooks in his illustration. Davies of the remains of the original from which Wilkinson made his illustration.

Drawn when in a better state by Wilkinson, Fig. A more satisfactory drawing of upright looms is that which Mr. Davies has placed at my disposal for reproduction here. I append his description, Fig. In his tomb his house is shown. He himself sits in the hall, while inside some servants spin and weave, make bread, store the grain, etc. The roof of the chambers is supported on pillars, and between two of these the looms are set up which are here depicted.

They are not attached however, either to the roof or the pillars. Faint sketching lines are mixed up with the darker reds in which the picture was re-drawn, and the whole very simply and carelessly executed. I have found it difficult to make it clear. In my sketch the first faint sketching outlines appear as lines. The horizontal lines which cross the web are very faintly drawn and almost as good as obliterated by the white paint which had been put on the web.

I have put them in just to show that the bars were conceived of as passing behind or under the web and concealed by it. The looms consist of an oblong frame A set up on two stones B. The warp is attached to the warp beam C on top and the breast beam D at the bottom. The threads of the warp are not shown, no difference being made between any woven part and the warp threads; to all is given one smear of white paint.

Two discs E are seen hanging against the frame posts, one on each side, the earlier sketch showing a larger disc than the final drawing in dark red. The diagonal line N on the left I do not understand, it does not seem an accidental one. Behind him two girls are breaking up the flax and two others are making coarse threads of the fibres, almost exactly like those in the tomb of Daga No.

Davies I would like to add a word about the discs E. Wilkinson indicates these as rings apparently joining the horizontal beam to the post of the frame, the form of the ring being arrived at as explained by Mr. Davies by the original outline of the sketch having been made larger than the final drawing of the circle, or disc, and not obliterated. It is also very clear that these Egyptian vertical looms are very different from the Greek looms in so far as we know anything about them. The Greek looms had an upper beam only and the warp threads were bunched at the lower end and weighted with metal or clay balls to keep them taut, Fig.

The individual warp threads were not weighted; they were bunched and then weighted. The pyramidal shaped clay warp weights found in Egypt are I understand considered by Egyptologists to belong to the Roman period, but in the Manchester University Museum there is a mud article which Miss M. Murray describes as a warp weight, Fig. Illustration on a skyphos van Branteghem vase in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Since writing the above Mr. Davies has very kindly sent me on a new set of illustrations, Fig. The scenes which represent the preparation of the flax and the stretching of the warp are almost replicas of those in the tomb of Daga of the Middle Kingdom, so far as we can judge, while the pictures of the looms resemble closely those in the tombs of Thot-nefer and Nefer-hotep.

The work is done by both men and women. Men prepare the flax while women stretch the warp. Men mostly work the loom, either singly or with a companion.

But in one case a woman is seen at work at one of the upright looms. She is shewn sitting sideways on the low bench and is not pictured in a back view with widely spread legs like the men. There are also superfluous lines in red colour which confuse the picture. The tomb is Ramesside in date circa B.

The inscription over the seated man is too broken to be read. The drawings appear to confirm generally what we have gathered from Mr. In so far as I know, not many loom parts have yet been discovered, and those which I have had an opportunity of studying do not assist us to much knowledge beyond that which we have gained by a study of the wall paintings. We have the article from Kahun already mentioned, which may possibly be a warp weight, as it somewhat resembles the later warp weights found elsewhere. It is of hardened mud with a perforation at the thin end through which a piece of string has been passed and knotted Fig.

On the other hand the material is not suitable for a net-sinker , nor is it intended to be made to stand up. Possibly a warp weight, 10 cm. Weight gramms 1 lb. Another form of warp weight, of burnt clay, is somewhat frequently met with, Fig. These pegs may appear to be rather short for the purpose, but in very primitive looms the warp is not kept so taut as might and should be, and hence there is not the same heavy strain on the pegs as we should deem necessary. The way to settle their use would be to fix them in solid ground and test them. Dynasty about B.

At Kahun a long straight lath, Fig.

Ancient Egyptian and Greek looms,

Another long but curved lath, Fig. Most large Egyptian collections contain one or more specimens of wooden combs, which are generally called weavers combs, and ascribed to Roman times. But one at least, Fig. None of these so-called combs, for they are really embryo reeds, are shown on the wall illustrations so that they no doubt belong to a later date than that of the XIIth Dynasty. For, on trying to use such a comb on a replica of a Scandinavian upright loom provided with warp weights instead of with the breast beam I can get no good result, in fact rather the opposite, but tried on a primitive horizontal loom provided with a breast beam the comb is found to be of some assistance, especially if the warp is not very taut as is generally the case with primitive looms.

At Bankfield we have an Indian rug loom, already referred to, with warp and breast beam on which a somewhat similar instrument, but of iron, was used. The slots are 6 mm. From Gurob but probably Roman. An article which Prof. At Bankfield we have an old local hand loom the warp beam of which is provided with a series of holes in which pegs were once inserted to keep the coloured warp threads in position. A long piece of perforated wood described by Prof. Flinders Petrie, Kahun , p. A piece of frame, Fig. It is provided with 28 holes which are arranged about 27 to 40 mm. The holes may have been more or less circular originally, and worn into present shape by threads, etc.

Flinders Petrie seems to think it resembles the frame on which the modern Egyptian mat is made.

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John Garstang discovered near Abu Kirkas, tomb No. They are constructed on a system of nineteen or twenty reeds to the inch, and they may be seen to be exactly similar to the modern reed taken from a loom in the village of Abu Kirkas. It is not possible, unfortunately, to assign a precise date to these objects. Since, in general, few tombs of this site show signs of intrusive burial of a later age, there is no reason to suppose that these objects are of any date later than the XII. The horizontal looms we have been describing belong to this period, and the artists have not shown any reeds with them.

My studies of primitive looms lead me to think that these Egyptian looms are of a date far anterior to the invention or the application of a reed. It has also, I believe, been remarked by those who have examined cloths of this date, that the irregular array of the warp threads is good proof that reeds could not have been in use. I have already pointed out that in the evolution of the loom the reed puts in a late appearance, but apart from this fact, I do not think the artist would have omitted such an important tool had it been in use in his time. It consists of two wooden frames fitted with flat iron wires.

String is wound round the frames binding them together. Then a kind of canvas? Garstang points out that although the surrounding tombs contained Middle Empire objects, the reeds were found in a tomb without any other remains. This can hardly be considered evidence tending to prove that they belonged to the period named, and it is certainly weakened by the accompanying statement that the reeds are exactly similar to the modern reed, for that is almost sufficient to prove that they are not years old. To me they seem comparatively modern and very similar to one in the Cairo Museum which MM.

Brugsch and Quibell are inclined to think is Coptic with this difference, that in Dr. The sketch of this Coptic reed, Fig. Crompton, Assistant Keeper in Egyptology in the Manchester University Museum, has kindly examined the sketch with the article and pronounced it correct.

We may, I think, safely conclude that the reed found by Dr. Garstang is Coptic and not Ancient Egyptian. As regards the actual work of weaving, balls of thread have been found and so have very flat bobbins and pieces of stick with thread wound round which may have been spools as indicated in the drawing, Fig. There is no reason why balls of thread should not have been used as they are in uncivilised countries at the present day, as, for instance, in Tibet, as reported by W.

I am unable to agree with a recently made statement published in The Labyrinth, Gerzeh and Marghuneh , by Prof.

Ancient Egyptian and Greek Looms ,Henry Ling Roth

When I noticed the peculiarity first, I thought it might have arisen through distortion by stretching over the body, but repeated examples of the same fact have led me to consider other causes. In the childhood of weaving we should expect different methods, and it may be, seeing that we have no selvedged cloth until very long after this time, that they experimented with a diagonal weft to see if it would not reduce the tendency to fray out at the sides. The specimen shown me under the microscope indicated clearly that the warp and weft were not at right angles and that the interstices were not square but diamond shaped.

It is possible to arrange the warp threads diagonally from beam to beam, but with continuous weft that is in weaving so as to get selvedges the weft has the tendency to slip up on one side and down on the other, hence the weaving is made laborious. With a separate weft for each pick, i. We must give the Egyptians credit for using the least laborious of two methods, that is if the second one were known to them.

The probability is that the specimen of cloth, without a selvedge, having been stretched over the body for a long period of time, has, in the course of that time lost its nature and when removed it has retained its altered form and gives us the impression of having been woven diagonally. In the foregoing I have shown how extremely simple was the whole apparatus for weaving in use by the Ancient Egyptians, and one is rather surprised to be told that about B.

Lee tells us pp. The characteristics of this girdle are its great length, 17 feet 5 m. Perhaps the chief of these characteristics is the taper. It is most probable, as Mr. Lee points out, that in the weaving the warp threads have been gradually dropped out to make the taper, rather than that additional warp threads have been added.

As it is easy to drop a warp thread, and almost impossible to add one while weaving is in progress, Mr. It would also be almost impossible to keep the warp taut if the number of warp threads were increased as the work went on. This means that the girdle was commenced at the wide end and finished at the narrow end. It is common knowledge that when a warp thread drops out, its place is indicated by a thinness or fine opening for the whole length of the missing warp, and this is so because the reed, besides pushing the weft into position, also acts as a warp spacer, that is to say it keeps the warp threads properly apart, every one being properly aligned.

When no reed is used the warp threads are not so evenly placed—they are not so parallel to one another for there is nothing but their tautness to keep them in position. Hence there is every reason to conclude that when, on a loom provided with a reed, warp threads have been removed their position must be indicated, and vice versa if no reed has been used the position of the removed threads will not be so clearly indicated, but there will be a more marked shrinkage in the width of the cloth as well as in the pattern, and this is what has taken place in the girdle giving us the diminishing taper.

It does not follow that because a loom was not provided with a reed it was without heddles. But the heddles are all extremely primitive, and in my experience do not exceed four in number where there is no reed. Such a quantity of heddles with its complicated harness as Mr. Lee considers necessary is quite out of the question with a loom so undeveloped as not to be provided with a reed. Hence the indication is that the girdle was woven on a loom of a primitive character. In carrying out the work the weaver has made many mistakes.

On the same row of crosses three white threads show above and below, while on the left hand row of crosses there are five white threads above and below. The crosses are neither the same size nor shape in the two columns and curiously their white hafts in both columns point to the left instead of one row pointing to the left and the other to the right. Then again the white point at the right apex of the zigzag on the left corresponds to a red point at the left apex of the right hand zigzag, but if the girdle had been woven on an advanced loom with dobby and harness these points would have been red in both places.

As regards the large number of warp threads to the inch which Mr. Lee puts down as per cm. The greater the number of threads to the inch the finer must the threads be in order to get them into the allotted space, and in the weaving there will be so many more threads to raise and lower in order to make the shed opening.

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It means multiplying the work but does not necessarily mean that a more complicated loom must be used in the weaving. It is not possible without opening the fabric to be quite positive on the many points which are raised, but there seems nothing about it which should prevent its having been made on a simple loom. Although superior to most, but not all, of the well known Coptic cloths in Bankfield and in many other museums, it very closely resembles some of them in many respects excepting in the taper.

I should add that in making my examination of this girdle I was kindly assisted by Mr. Trigg, a well known Halifax mill manager and designer. We made the examination independently and on comparing notes afterwards found that we agreed in all essential points.