| Description |
“Fragments of tunic clavi. The design is worked in brownish purple on a beige ground. The band has spiral-wave edge borders enclosing motifs of warriors and lions. The warriors hold their right hands in the air. The lions are positioned at right angles to the ground lines of the warriors. The piece was woven in tapestry with wool warp and weft, 7 x 40 [warp : weft per square cm]. The details are worked in weft floats. There are some grouped wefts in the ground. All yarn is S-twist. [A] late example of a common sixth-century design. It may be ninth century in date. Remarks: The two fragments belong to the same garment but are not continuous. [Regarding textiles in this group, DL Carroll # 27-40 (CAS 0389-2378, -2380, -2385, -2386, -2388, -2400, -2404, -2412, -2429, -2430, -2433, -2451, -2452, -2539, -2584, -2585):] By the sixth century two basic types of textile ornaments were used to decorate garments. One, which was in use before the fourth century, was essentially monochrome. Designs in the monochrome class were both non-representational and figurative - the latter included a wide range of subject matter: plant, animal, human, and mythological. The second type is polychrome. Polychrome textiles had been made earlier, but not for use as garments. Extant examples are thought to have been decorative hangings, woven pictures as it were, that are commonly called tapestries. The use of what are essentially miniature tapestries for embellishing clothing is believed to have begun in the sixth century and to have lasted well into the Muslim 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 # 32, pp. 116, 124-125.] |
