Catalog Number
|
Catalog Number |
CAS 0389-2389 | |
| Category | Textiles | |
| Object Name | Coptic textile fragment | |
| Culture | Coptic Egyptian | |
| Global Region | North Africa | |
| Country | Egypt | |
| State/Prov./Dist. | ||
| County | ||
| Other Geographic Data | Akhmîm (Panopolis) | |
| Maker's Name | Unknown | |
| Date of Manufacture | ca. 800-900 CE, probably | |
| Collection Name | Rietz Collection of Textiles | |
| Materials | Linen; Wool | |
| Description | “Tunic roundel from Akhmîm. The roundel has a wide, dark pink border decorated with an arcade, each arch containing a ‘pearl.’ In the center is a dark pink motif on a tan ground that may represent a man attacking a lion. There is one filler-motif, a small quatrefoil. Made of wool and linen weft on dyed linen warp, 7 x 50 [warp : weft per square cm], the roundel was woven in a normal tapestry technique. The dyed warps are of three different colors, dark blue, dark yellow, and light brown, regularly arranged. Since this has no visible effect so far as the tapestry roundel is concerned, it is probable that the garment ornamented by the roundel was woven in a pattern weave, for example, a three-rod twill, which would have made effective use of the three colors. All yarn is S-twist. Ninth century (?) (sic). Remarks: At present, the roundel is mounted on a linen textile, possibly ancient, but not related to it. For information about the site, see remarks for Number 34 [CAS 0389-2386]. [Regarding textiles in this group, DL Carroll # 41-72 (CAS 0389-2382, -2384, -2389, -2390, -2391, -2392, -2393, -2396, -2399, -2401, -2405, -2409, -2410, -2411, -2414, -2415, -2416, -2417, -2419, -2420, -2422, -2423, -2424, -2427, -2434, -2435, -2436, -2453, -2454, -2457, -2579, -2580, -2581, -2582, -2599):] After the Arab conquest in the mid-seventh century, Coptic textile design changed its character, moving ever more distant from its classical Roman and Greek sources. In part, this was a reaction against Byzantine culture, associated in the Coptic mind with oppression. Contributing to the change may have been Islamic prohibitions against depicting human and animal figures. Such figures when they appear in Coptic textiles of the later periods become increasingly abstract to the point of being virtually unrecognizable.†[From Looms and Textiles of the Copts by Diane Lee Carroll (San Francisco, CA: Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences, No. 11, 1988); Catalog # 58, pp. 136, 166-167.] | |
| Dimensions (cm) | Width = 15.5, Length = 15.5 | |