Ancient Egyptian and Greek LoomsRoth, H. Ling (Henry Ling)
History
Ancient Egyptian and Greek Looms
Roth, H. Ling (Henry Ling)
Looms; Weaving
The cross sticks D1, D2, look like laze rods. It may not be out of
place here to point out that in primitive weaving laze rods serve two
purposes, or one more than in the later somewhat more advanced looms.
They serve throughout to keep the warp threads in place, and they
serve to separate the odd threads from the even (1, 3, 5, 7 from 2, 4,
6, 8, &c.), and in so doing take the place of the fingers in making
the "shed," _i.e._, the opening through which the "weft (or woof)" is
passed, a function which in turn is usurped by the "heald (or
heddle)." The heddle therefore becomes a very important factor, and
Dr. H. G. Harrison by no means overstates the case when he says that
the development of the heddle is the most important step in the
evolution of the loom (Horniman Museum Handbooks, No. 10, pp. 47-49).
We may now return to the drawing. Wilkinson shows the rod D1
indistinctly and the left hand end only of D2. Lepsius' artist seems
to have taken a liberty with D1 but in the right direction, by making
it more definitely into an early form of heddle--the loop and rod--but
he shows D2 the same as Cailliaud and Rosellini. Prof. Kennedy argues
that these rods are in the wrong position and that D1 which is a
heddle should be in the place of D2. Mr. Davies' drawing as well as
those of Cailliaud and Rosellini show that D1 is a heddle while D2 is
shown to be a laze rod. Asiatic primitive looms, like those from
Borneo and Bhutan, have two laze rods but no heddle; on the other hand
many primitive African looms have one laze rod and one heddle as is
the case with this Egyptian loom. More threads are shown on the left
hand end of D2 than on the right hand end. Mr. Davies informs me that
the same quantity should be shown from end to end across the warp, but
on the right hand side they are so indistinct that he was just able to
detect but not to trace them and so he omitted them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account