Ancient Egyptian and Greek LoomsRoth, H. Ling (Henry Ling)
History
Ancient Egyptian and Greek Looms
Roth, H. Ling (Henry Ling)
Looms; Weaving
[Illustration: Fig. 35.--"Chalk weight, 6" × 4" × 2" (15·2 cm. × 10·2
× 5·1), similar to those found in pits, at Mount Caburn and Cissbury
near Worthing, Sussex. Found with eighteen more in the _filling_ of
pit 7, Winkelbury Hill." _Excavations in Winkelbury Camp_, by
Lieut.-Gen. Pitt-Rivers (_Excavations in Cranbourne Chase_, Vol. II.,
1888). As Pitt-Rivers also found at Winkelbury the fragment of a comb
and a chalk spindle whorl, which are textile tools, we may safely
presume these fashioned pieces of chalk are warp weights.]
In 1875 several flat irregular oblong perforated pieces of soft chalk
were found in enlarging the cattle market in Great Driffield,
Yorkshire; they were found in a hole about three feet deep with
Anglo-Saxon potsherds, animal remains, and bits of iron. They can now
be seen in the Mortimer Collection in the Hull Museum. They consist of
pieces of chalk, similar to those which drop annually in thousands
upon thousands down the cliffs from the boulder clay between
Bridlington and Flamborough. On some a shoulder has been cut, Fig. 34,
most have one perforation, but in a few specimens, where the thin
portion above the hole has been broken off, a second hole has been
made. None of them can stand unsupported. Owing to the soluble nature
of the chalk they could not have been used as net-sinkers in the sea
(about nine miles off) for they would quickly dissolve in salt water,
and the same holds good in regard to fresh water, although in a lesser
degree. But I do not think they were used even in fresh water as
net-sinkers, for it was a characteristic of primitive peoples, with
whom time was of no account, to do their work thoroughly--what they
made was intended to last, and chalk net-sinkers would not have
lasted. That these were found in a limited quantity, I believe about
seventeen in number, tends to show that they are warp weights, for
only a few are required for every loom, in spite of the considerable
number shown in the non-technical illustration of Penelope's loom. Not
being able to find any other use for these pieces of chalk, and
judging that they are suitable for the purpose, I should say they are
warp weights. In this case the weaver has made the most of what nature
has given him; in other parts of England he has had to fashion the
weight out of the rough chalk, Fig. 35.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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