Ancient Egyptian and Greek LoomsRoth, H. Ling (Henry Ling)
History
Ancient Egyptian and Greek Looms
Roth, H. Ling (Henry Ling)
Looms; Weaving
In spite of the evidence in favour of the existence of warp weighted
looms, the Director of the Hermannstadt Museum, Dr. v.
Kimakovicz-Winnicki, sees fit to deny their existence. He found that
in some parts of Transylvania the peasants use wooden pyramids (see
Fig. 18) similar to the Roman warp weights for winding the thread
from the spindle on to the shuttle. For this purpose sockets are
bored into the thin or top end of two pyramids, which are placed
just so far apart that a spindle can rest horizontally with one end
in the socket of one pyramid, and the other end of the spindle in
the socket of the other pyramid, and the thread in being wound off
on to the shuttle causes the spindle to revolve in the sockets. From
this he argues that what we have hitherto taken to be warp weights
are not warp weights at all (_Spinn-u. Webewerkzeuge_, Wuerzburg,
1911), and having denied these articles to be warp weights he gets
over the difficulty presented by the illustration of Penelope at her
loom, by attempting to prove that what we take to be a loom is no
loom at all but a _flechtrahm_, _i.e._ plaiting frame! He then
attempts to pull to pieces the idea that the Scandinavian loom in
the Copenhagen Museum is a loom and condemns it as unworkable. There
can be no doubt about his meaning as he defines his terms. The
principle of weaving (_Weben_) he describes "as the absorption of
two groups of parallel material elements (warp and weft) at right
angles to each other, and the principle of plaiting (_Flechten_) as
the absorption by itself in one plane of one group only of material
element, (warp)" and he gives diagrammatic illustrations showing
clearly what he means (_op. cit._ p. 31).[I] Judging from his
remarks one must conclude he has not seen a primitive loom of any
sort, and were it not for the official position he holds, his
remarks would not need answering.
It has, I believe, been suggested more than once that some of the
perforated stones, pieces of burnt clay, pieces of chalk and like
objects may be and are net-sinkers, and there is some justification
for Dr. Kimakovicz-Winnicki's statement that the pyramidic forms are
not warp weights; but it does not follow that all the perforated
articles are either spindle-holders or net-sinkers, yet that is what
his subsequent statements lead one to infer. It is, however, difficult
to prove that these perforated articles are warp weights.
[Illustration: Fig. 34.--Side view and section of chalk warp weight
found at Great Driffield. Of three of the weights the following
dimensions were taken:
7-3/4" (19·7 cm.) long, 2 lbs. 3 oz. (1·0 k)
6" (15·2 " ) " 1 lb. 8 oz. (0·7 k)
6-3/8" (16·2 " ) " 1 lb. 3 oz. (0·6 k)
Hull Museum.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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