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Of the Warp-weighted Loom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

Extract

The ancient world had three chief types of loom, the horizontal ground loom, the vertical loom with upper and lower beams, and the vertical loom with warp weights. The third is the subject of this study, but for a clear understanding of it the character of the other two looms must be understood, and diagrams of all three types are therefore included.

The horizontal ground loom is the older of the looms of Ancient Egypt. It is known to us already from a painting on a dish of the Predynastic period, but our chief knowledge of it comes from Tomb scenes and models of the twelfth dynasty.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1937

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References

page 36 note 1 Brunton and Caton Thompson, The Badarian Civilisation, Pl. 48.

page 36 note 2 Tombs of Chnem-hotep, Baqt and Khety. Cf. Newberry, Beni Hasan I, Pl. 29; II, Pl. 13; Tomb of Daga. N. de G. Davies, Five Theban Tombs, Pl. 37. Also see Ling Roth, Ancient Egyptian and Greek Looms, Figs. 1–7. Johl, Altägyptische Webestühle, pp. 8–39. For the model from the Tomb of Mehenkwetre see Bulletin Met. Mus. New Tork, Dec. 1920.

page 36 note 3 Tombs of Thotnefer, eighteenth dynasty; Nefer hotep, end of eighteenth dynasty; Nefer Ronpet, nineteenth dynasty, all at Thebes. See Ling Roth, op. cit. Figs. 9, 13, 14, 16. Johl, op. cit. pp. 39–58.

page 36 note 4 Vatican MSS. See Smith, Gr. & R. Ant. p. 941. For the tomb painting of a loom at Rome (second half of second century A.D.), see Bendinelli, G. in Art & Arch. XI, No. 4, 1921Google Scholar, and Wilson, Lillian M., The Clothing of the Ancient Romans (1938) Pl. X, p. 21.Google Scholar Tomb of Severa Seleuciana. See Rossi, De, Inscriptiones urbis Romae I p. 21 (18571861).Google Scholar

page 36 note 5 Herod. II 35.

page 36 note 6 Hoernes, M., Urgeschichte der bildenden Kunst in Europa, 1909, p. 29.Google Scholar Urn from Oedenburg, Hungary.

page 36 note 7 According to Blinkenberg, quoting from Shetelig, in Nordhordland there were people still alive in 1910 who knew how to work this loom, cf. Mitteilungen des K.D.A. Inst. Athen Abt. XXXVI (1911) pp. 145–52.

page 36 note 8 The looms in the Museums of Copenhagen (Denmark); of Bergen, Amble i Sogn, Christiania, and Lillehammer (Norway); of Stockholm (Sweden), and of Reykjavik (Iceland).

page 38 note 1 There is no article or book giving complete information. For a good collection of references see Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Robinson Coll., fase. I, III, G, p. 38.

page 38 note 2 H. Blümner, Technologie und Terminologie der Gewerbe und Künste bei Griechen und Römern. 1875 and 1912. Also Johl, Die Webestühle der Griechen und Römer. Privately printed, 1917.

page 38 note 3 Vogt, , Geflechte und Gewebe der Steinzeit p. 103. (1938).Google Scholar “Man sollte meinen, dass wenigstens über die Weberei der griechisch-römischen Welt etwas Sicheres auszusagen sei. Dies ist leider nicht der Fall. Man ist dabei auf einige wenige, nicht übermässig genaue Darstellungen und die Schriftquellen angewiesen, die aber sehr schwer zu verwerten sind, da nirgends eine bewusst erklärende Darstellung des Webstuhles gegeben werden sollte.”

page 38 note 4 The Chilkat blanket loom is sometimes quoted as an equivalent, with its great balls of wool acting as weights, but the weave is exclusively a twined weave put in by hand and so the loom can give us no help on debateable points.

page 40 note 1 A variety of this loom with no side beams, simpler and more primitive than the Ancient Egyptian loom, is still also in existence. This is the loom of the New World, which can be studied in America, Africa and other lands. Our first knowledge of this type comes from the Proto-Chimu period in Peru, c. first century B.C. to first century A.D. See T. A. Joyce, Man. Dec. 1921. No. 106.

page 40 note 2 ΧατƷη-Ζωγίδου, N., Θεσσαλικά Ζητήματα. Αθηνα X. 1898. pp. 541–55Google Scholar. I have seen this loom in Athens and also in Mitylene at the village of lasso.

page 40 note 3 Dalman, Arbeit und Sitte in Palästina, V.

page 40 note 4 A simple method of bringing the work down is used by the Navaho Indians on their type of vertical loom, which also has no revolving beam. They let down the upper beam, make a fold in the loosened web, and sew it tightly to the lower beam. Navaho Weaving, C. A. Amsden, p. 42.

page 40 note 5 Dalman, op. cit. pp. 107–112.

page 40 note 6 They were “woven upwards by those standing.” See Festus. Pauli Exc. 286 – 89. Quoted by Lillian M. Wilson, op. cit. pp. 21 and 57.

page 40 note 7 Servius. Ad Aen. VII 14.

page 40 note 8 Olavius, Oeconomische Reise durch Island, 1787, translated from the Danish edition of 1780.

page 40 note 9 See Bulletin. Met. Mus. New York, Dec. 1931, p. 291; March 1932, pp. 70 ff. For vase, showing another part of scene, see G. Richter, Shapes and Names of Athenian Vases, Fig. 93, Type II.

page 42 note 1 See Ling Roth, op. cit. p. 40, Fig. 38, for hand of Penelope holding a spool, on a relief from Gomphoi.

page 42 note 2 See B.M. Guide, Greek and Roman Life, Fig. 151: for photograph see Lillian M. Wilson, op. cit. Pl. V.

page 42 note 3 See Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Robinson collection, fase. 2, III. I. PI. XLIII, pp. 31, 32. This red-figured hydria shows a charming domestic scene of mother, nurse and babe, with a small loom beside them. The loom has one shed rod lashed to the side beams, and a roll of cloth at the top with a pattern on it very similar to that shown on the dress of the nurse. Ten small loom weights are said to hang from the loom, but these cannot be well made out on the illustration.

page 42 note 4 Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Robinson collection, fase. 1. Ill G. PI. XVIII. 2a. Scene probably represents Circe and Odysseus.

page 42 note 5 I am taking the upper line across the loom as one long rod in spite of the break in the line, but if there were two short rods, as in the reconstruction, Fig. 3, it would make no great difference to the shedding.

page 43 note 1 Il. 23, 761.

page 43 note 2 For shedding diagrams see Fig. 2.

page 43 note 3 Robinson, Excavations at Olynthus, Part II, p. 119.

page 44 note 1 For discussion of warping on Scandinavian looms see G. Broholm and Margarethe Hald, Danske Bronzealders Dragter, 1935.

page 44 note 2 M. Lois Kissell, Yarn and Cloth Making, p. 105. ‘The short bodkin, or slender pointed stick, was an early tool for packing fine weft, especially in pattern making. It is thrust between the warp strands, which drives home in a better way than do the fingers.’

page 45 note 1 Because it fell from the hand of Hector's wife. See Il. 22, 448.

page 45 note 2 Plat. Cratyl. 389.

page 45 note 3 Hesych. S.V. .

page 45 note 4 E.g. by Calypso, Od. 5, 62.

page 45 note 5 Eyes were put out by the points of these tools in the legend. Soph. Antig. 976. Also Apollod. II 8. Geopon. XII 29, 3.

page 45 note 6 Soph. Fr. 522.

page 45 note 7 Arist. Ran. 1315.

page 45 note 8 Soph. Fr. 909.

page 45 note 9 Anth. P. VI 47, 1: 174, 11.

page 45 note 10 Anth. P. VI. 247, 1.

page 45 note 11 Anth. P. VI 174, 11.

page 45 note 12 Anth. P. VI 288, 4.

page 45 note 13 Anth. P. 174, 11.

page 46 note 1 Plat. Cratyl. 389. Unfortunately I have so far found no interpretation of the earlier passage, 388, where the function of the tool is mentioned. Jowett's translation does not seem to make sense.

page 46 note 2 Il. 1 31; 6, 491; Od. 1 357; 5, 62; Hes. Op. 777, etc.

page 46 note 3 Ar. Thesm. 822. Poll. 10, 125.

page 46 note 4 Anth. P. VII 424. Poll. 7, 36.

page 46 note 5 Anth. P. VII 424. Poll. 7, 36.

page 46 note 6 Plut. 2, 156. B. Poll. 7, 36.

page 46 note 7 Arist. G.A. I 4, 6; 5, 7, 18.

page 46 note 8 Il. 23, 761; Ar. Thesm. 822.

page 46 note 9 Poll. 7, 33; Hesych. 2.

page 46 note 10 Il. 23, 762: Hesych. I c.

page 46 note 11 Hes. Op. 536; Anth. P. VI 335; Hes. I c.

page 46 note 12 Anth. P. VI, 283; Ar. Ran. 1315.

page 46 note 13 Hes. Op. 536; Plat. Polit. 281 A; 282 D; Crat. 388.

page 46 note 14 Aesch. Cho. 232; Plat. Lys. 208 D.

page 46 note 15 Plat. Lys. 208 D; and refs. already given.

page 47 note 1 Il. I 31.

page 47 note 2 Od. 5, 62.

page 47 note 3 Artemidorus, , Oneiros. III 6.Google Scholar

page 47 note 4 Artemidorus lived in Lydia, in Asia Minor, about 160 A.D. Much was happening in the textile world in those days, and all sorts of new techniques were being tried out, but the exact moment of the appearance of the treadle loom is not yet certain. Here is yet another fascinating problem awaiting solution.