Catalog Number
|
Catalog Number |
CAS 0389-2411 | |
| Category | Textiles | |
| Object Name | Coptic textile fragment | |
| Culture | Coptic Egyptian | |
| Global Region | North Africa | |
| Country | Egypt | |
| State/Prov./Dist. | ||
| County | ||
| Other Geographic Data | al-BahnasÄ (al-Bahnasa aka Oxyrhynchus) | |
| Maker's Name | Unknown | |
| Date of Manufacture | ca. 1000-1100 CE, probably | |
| Collection Name | Rietz Collection of Textiles | |
| Materials | Wool | |
| Description | “Tunic yoke fragment from al-BahnasÄ. The dull purple band ornament is bordered with a spiral-wave design. The interior is divided into three small bands, two plain ones framing a third containing symmetrical linear motifs representing stylized grapevines. Shortly past the point where the band turns the corner is a different motif, perhaps an amphora. These designs are worked in cream color. A small fragment of the body of the tunic remains, indicating that it was dark orange. The tunic was woven in the tapestry technique with wool warp and weft, 6 x 40 [warp : weft per square cm]. All yarn is S-twist. Eleventh century (?) (sic). Remarks: When complete, this garment must have been both colorful and elegant with its color scheme of dull purple and dark orange. The amphora and vine symbol was a common Christian motif. Al-BahnasÄ, better known as Oxyrhynchus, was one of the great weaving centers of Egypt in the Coptic period. [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 # 68, pp. 136, 178, 193.] | |
| Dimensions (cm) | Width = 9.0, Length = 41.0 | |