Ancient Egyptian and Greek LoomsRoth, H. Ling (Henry Ling)
History
Ancient Egyptian and Greek Looms
Roth, H. Ling (Henry Ling)
Looms; Weaving
In consequence of this loom being represented as upright it is often
spoken of as an upright or vertical loom. But it is drawn upright
because the Egyptian artist did not understand perspective, and it was
only by making the loom upright that he was enabled to show the
details we have just been examining. For the same reason mat making is
illustrated edgeways. If the loom were an upright one the two women
weavers would have had their backs turned towards the onlooker as can
be seen in Fig. 9. Any doubt on the matter has however been set aside
by Prof. John Garstang's extremely interesting discovery of a wooden
model depicting a group of women spinning and weaving which he
illustrates in his work, _The Burial Customs of Ancient Egypt_,
London, 1907. After referring to the woman spinning, he continues:
"The other seated figures apparently represent women at work upon a
horizontal loom; the frame and the woof [_sic_, should be _warp_]
threads are faintly represented upon the board. It is possible that
they are making mats or, perhaps, weaving (p. 132)." He gives an
illustration of the group taken from a photograph, but as it does not
show the lines which indicate the loom lying horizontally on the
ground nor the warp threads, I have asked him to let me have a drawing
made of it and, with his kind permission, it is now reproduced here,
Fig. 10. The threads of the warp and the finished piece of cloth at
the breast beam end are clearly indicated. The whole model supports
conclusively the well founded supposition that the loom we have been
considering is a _horizontal_ one. Curiously enough, Prof. Garstang
does not appear to appreciate the important bearing of his discovery,
for on a later page (p. 134) in speaking of Lepsius' illustration,
discussed above, he says: "the weavers are seen at work at an upright
loom."
[Illustration: Fig. 10.--Horizontal Loom. Outline sketch by Miss Davey
of the original model of a group of one woman spinning and two women
weaving, found by Dr. John Garstang at Beni Hasan. The model is in the
Museum of the Liverpool Institute of Archæology.]
It must not be thought that the Beni Hasan representation is the only
one which illustrates a horizontal loom. A second one is reproduced by
Prof. Percy Newberry from the tomb of Tehuti-hetep _circa_ 1938-1849
B.C., see Fig. 11. In the upper portion the women are seen spinning
and preparing the thread generally, while in the lower portion two
women on the left are warping, and in the centre three apparently are
"beaming," _i.e._ putting the warp on to the beams preparatory to
commencing to weave, the warp threads being apparently drawn over pegs
to ensure the proper tension. This illustration shows the warp flat
against the wall like the mat making shown at Beni Hasan.
[Illustration: Fig. 11.--Tomb of Tehuti-hetep. Date about 1939-1849
B.C. From Professor Percy Newberry's _El Bersheh_ I. Pl. 26.
Note the woman on the top right hand corner holding a "beater-in."]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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