| Description |
“Oval pallium ornament. The design is based upon a slightly distorted dark purple circle with a tan, originally white, spiral-wave border. Its center is filled with a grid design. Alternate intersections of the grid lines are decorated with four-petaled rosettes. Figure-eight motifs occupy the grid rectangles. The ground has been completely removed; it was most probably linen rep. The ornament itself is tapestry, wool and linen weft on linen warp, 8 x 28 [warp : weft per square cm]. There is an extraordinary displacement of warp threads. The fine linear details of the design were worked in weft floats, the solid areas were carried out in tapestry. Abrupt changes in the warp direction are clearly visible in the border region. All yarn is S-twist. Fourth century. Related example: Moscow, Pushkin Museum inv. #362 (Shurinova 1967:64). Remarks: The warp displacement suggests that this piece was woven on a warp-weighted loom. The warp-weighted loom was retained by the Romans for weaving the garments worn by brides and those worn by young men when they came of age. Also, special types of weaving techniques are easier to carry out on this most ancient loom, a fact which might account for its continued preservation. The handsome appearance of this roundel, with its fine linear pattern, would certainly make it an appropriate decoration for a garment worn during a serious, formal ceremony. The textiles in this group [DL Carroll # 1-16 (CAS 0389-2375, -2376, -2377, -2394, -2397, -2398, -2402, -2403, -2406, -2407, -2413, -2421, -2425, -2426, -2583, -2586)] are the earliest in the collection and belong to the period dominated by Rome. A number of them represent types of garments that could have indicated social rank or would have been appropriate wear for persons with high positions in the extensive bureaucracy of the period.†[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 # 6, pp. 82, 88-89.] |
