Catalog Number
|
Catalog Number |
CAS 0389-2420 | |
| Category | Textiles | |
| Object Name | Coptic textile fragment | |
| Culture | Coptic Egyptian | |
| Global Region | North Africa | |
| Country | Egypt | |
| State/Prov./Dist. | ||
| County | ||
| Other Geographic Data | unknown | |
| Maker's Name | Unknown | |
| Date of Manufacture | ca. 900-1000 CE | |
| Collection Name | Rietz Collection of Textiles | |
| Materials | Wool | |
| Description | “Tunic sleeve fragment. Originally there were two bands with similar ornamentation; now, only a ragged portion of one remains. The bands were divided by a strip of battlement meander. The outer edge of the extant band is decorated by a wave meander. The decorative motifs consist of guineafowl (sic), plants, and fish (?) (sic) worked in medium brown on a beige ground. Woven entirely in wool, the part remaining is tapestry, with some double warps, 10 x 24 [warp : weft per square cm]. The warp yarn was dyed a dark yellow. It does not show in the extant fragment because of the closely packed weft yarns characteristic of the tapestry technique, but the use of colored warp implies that the body of the textile was woven in rep or tabby in weft dyed to match. All yarn is S-twist. Tenth century. Remarks: The yellow color postulated for the missing body of the tunic may indicate that this piece was woven during the Ikhshidid dynasty [935-969 CE] when Coptic Christians were required to wear yellow garments. [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 # 53, pp. 136, 158-159.] | |
| Dimensions (cm) | Width = 26.0, Length = 10.0 | |