Catalog Number
|
Catalog Number |
CAS 0389-2579 | |
| 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 | Linen; Wool | |
| Description | “Belt (?) (sic) fragment. The design is organized as a continuous band with spiral-wave borders. The center is divided into alternate squares and rectangles, each containing an amoeba-like motif ornamented with X and O figures. Colors are yellow, red, medium green, and dark gray. The textile is a narrow tapestry weave with edge selvedges, one strongly reinforced with extra warp threads. The textile is made of wool and linen weft on linen warp, 9 x 39 [warp : weft per square cm]. All yarn is S-twist. Tenth century. Remarks: This piece would have been equally useful as a belt or as garment trimming. The one heavily reinforced edge would make the band suitable for edging a tunic neck. The design is, perhaps, derived from a floral motif of the type decorating the previous specimen [CAS 0389-2436], but considerably debased. [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 # 47, pp. 136, 150-151.] | |
| Dimensions (cm) | Width = 6.2, Length = 20.2 | |