Representing colours

How to describe the faded colours in ancient textiles in a way that is understandable to others when no laboratory facilities are available and dye analysis not possible? How do we find names of colours that carry the right connotations to an international readership, and how can we refer to them? The paper discusses challenges posed by these questions and how they have been attempted solved in the Mons Claudianus textile project

The Archaeology of Textiles – Recent advances and new methods

Arheologija tekstila doživljava nagli razvoj posljednjih godina. U članku se predstavlja pregled dosadašnjih saznanja o prapovijesnom europskom tekstilu, prikazuju se recentna dostignuća u metodama analize, kao što su analiza vlakana i boja, datiranje radioaktivnim ugljikom te analiza izotopa stroncija koja bi mogla pridonijeti određivanju podrijetla tekstilnih vlakana kao što su vuna, lan ili kopriva. Raspravlja se i o eksperimentalnoj arheologiji kao metodi proučavanja tekstila.Archaeology of textiles has seen rapid development in recent years. The paper presents an overview of current knowledge on prehistoric textiles from Europe, surveying recent advances in methods of analysis such as fibre and dyes analysis, radiocarbon dating, and strontium isotope analysis that is promising to allow provenancing of textile fibres such as wool, fax or nettle. Experimental archaeology as a tool in textile studies will also be discussed

En glemt skat: Miranda Bødtkers tegninger af arkæologiske tekstiler

Over many years, illustrator Miranda Bødtker (1896–1996) carried out drawings for botanists, zoologists and archaeologists at Bergen Museum, the University of Bergen. After her death, thousands of drawings were discovered in her estate. Among them were numerous unpublished drawings of archaeological textiles from five sites. Bødtker’s illustrations show that although several scholars have studied the textiles, none had seen them all. This applies in particular to textiles from two Viking Age burials, Grønhaug and Dale, both of which comprise remains of figured tapestries that are hardly mentioned in archaeological literature. Grønhaug, and a boat from Halsnøy also offer several types of textiles related to the maritime world. The paper presents Bødtker’s drawings and discusses how they compare with published descriptions of those textiles, with drawings of textiles from the Oseberg burial, and to what degree this form of documentation meets current scientific demands.publishedVersio

Textiles from a Late Roman/Byzantine ecclesiastical centre at Abu Sha’ar, Egypt

Around AD 400 a group of Christians were looking for a new home. An abandoned Roman military fort at what is now called Abu Sha’ar, c. 20 km north of Hurghada on the Egyptian Red Sea coast, became the answer to their prayers. Steven Sidebotham of the University of Delaware excavated the site in 1987-1993. The fort had been established in AD 309-311 to house a mounted unit, the Ala Nova Maximiana, guarding the Via Nova Hadriana. The military phase was however short-lived: the soldiers abandoned the fort before AD 400. The new settlers turned the former military headquarters into a church, complete with a martyr’s tomb, and left various inscriptions, graffiti and Christian crosses on the walls. According to Sidebotham’s early excavation reports the Christians were monks or hermits. Later, he describes this later phase of Abu Sha’ar as an “ecclesiastical center”. This is due to the find of an almost complete papyrus in the church that papyrologists Roger Bagnall and Jennifer Sheridan date to the 5th century AD: a letter from Apollonius to Father John and his daughter Sarah, deploring the capture of his city but rejoicing in the saving of Father John and all of his dependants. That the dependants of Father John included at least one woman suggests that Abu Sha’ar was a settlement of Christians rather than a monastery or, perhaps, a place of pilgrimage to the now forgotten martyr’s tomb. A graffito saying “I, Andreas, traveller to India, came here…” may have been left by a pilgrim. It is unknown when the Christian settlement ended; supposedly this happened peacefully in the 7th century or later, perhaps associated either with the Sassanian invasion in AD 619-629 or the Muslim conquest in AD 640/641. The items found during Sidebotham’s excavations at Abu Sha’ar included more than 1100 textile fragments that were examined by myself (1990-1991) and A. Marion I. van Waveren (1993). Most of them are from the military phase, but a significant number belong to the Christian settlement. The latter came from Trenches N (kitchen), R horrea (stores), R/N (kitchen/stores), the upper layers of D, O and V (principia/church), T (mill/oil press), Y (street/ stores), W (north gate) and Z (store) (fig. 1). In previous presentations and publications my main focus has been on the early group; now it is time to take a closer look at the textiles of the Christian settlement

Two textile remains from the Roman Iron Age

Two textile remains from the Roman Iron Age Two Jutish graves from the Roman Iron Age contained small textile fragments, each typical of its age. One grave, from Elmelund in Vejle county, contained 2/2 twill, woven of s/s-spun yarn and with a thread count of 11/8 and 13/10 threads per cm. This analysis is typical for northern Jutland in the 1st century A.D., while the other find, from Ellidshøj in Aalborg county, is equally typical of the later Roman Iron Age, containing more varied techniques: 2/2 twill in hounds tooth spin-pattern, broken lozenge twill, and ordinary 2/2 twill. The spin direction is z/s, and the above mentioned hounds tooth spin-pattern. The thread counts are considerably higher than in the 1st century cloth: 14/12, 16/14 and 18-20/18-20 threads per cm. These textile finds supplement a major investigation on Danish Roman Iron Age Textiles. (1). Lise Bender Jørgensen                         &nbsp

Les textiles du Mons Claudianus, d’Abu Sha’ar et d’autres sites romains du désert Oriental d’Égypte

Des textiles sont souvent mis au jour dans les sites archéologiques du désert Oriental. Dans la carrière impériale du Mons Claudianus, les fouilleurs ont rempli pas moins de douze grandes cantines métalliques avec des tissus – formant au total environ 1,25 m3 – comprenant des dizaines de milliers de chiffons sales, la plupart en fragments, mais aussi quelques vêtements plus ou moins complets parmi lesquels des tuniques, des chapeaux et des chaussettes. L’auteur, assisté par Ulla Mannering et ..

A textile fragment from the Dalagergård grave

A textile fragment from the Dalagergård grave Found around the pin of a bronze fibula from a Late Roman Iron Age grave from Dalagergaard was a small fragment of a tablet-woven border, made with at least 6 tablets. The piece was made of Z/Z-spun yarn; density about 7 tablets per ½ cm. Tablet­woven horders are fairly common in textile finds from the Late Roman Iron Age, while ribbed borders were preferred in the Early Roman Iron Age. Lise Bender Jørgensen                            &nbsp

Textiles from a Late Roman/Byzantine ecclesiastical centre at Abu Sha’ar, Egypt

Around AD 400 a group of Christians were looking for a new home. An abandoned Roman military fort at what is now called Abu Sha’ar, c. 20 km north of Hurghada on the Egyptian Red Sea coast, became the answer to their prayers. Steven Sidebotham of the University of Delaware excavated the site in 1987-1993. The fort had been established in AD 309-311 to house a mounted unit, the Ala Nova Maximiana, guarding the Via Nova Hadriana. The military phase was however short-lived: the soldiers abandoned the fort before AD 400. The new settlers turned the former military headquarters into a church, complete with a martyr’s tomb, and left various inscriptions, graffiti and Christian crosses on the walls. According to Sidebotham’s early excavation reports the Christians were monks or hermits. Later, he describes this later phase of Abu Sha’ar as an “ecclesiastical center”. This is due to the find of an almost complete papyrus in the church that papyrologists Roger Bagnall and Jennifer Sheridan date to the 5th century AD: a letter from Apollonius to Father John and his daughter Sarah, deploring the capture of his city but rejoicing in the saving of Father John and all of his dependants. That the dependants of Father John included at least one woman suggests that Abu Sha’ar was a settlement of Christians rather than a monastery or, perhaps, a place of pilgrimage to the now forgotten martyr’s tomb. A graffito saying “I, Andreas, traveller to India, came here…” may have been left by a pilgrim. It is unknown when the Christian settlement ended; supposedly this happened peacefully in the 7th century or later, perhaps associated either with the Sassanian invasion in AD 619-629 or the Muslim conquest in AD 640/641. The items found during Sidebotham’s excavations at Abu Sha’ar included more than 1100 textile fragments that were examined by myself (1990-1991) and A. Marion I. van Waveren (1993). Most of them are from the military phase, but a significant number belong to the Christian settlement. The latter came from Trenches N (kitchen), R horrea (stores), R/N (kitchen/stores), the upper layers of D, O and V (principia/church), T (mill/oil press), Y (street/ stores), W (north gate) and Z (store) (fig. 1). In previous presentations and publications my main focus has been on the early group; now it is time to take a closer look at the textiles of the Christian settlement

The Textiles from Mons Claudianus in a North African Context

Recent Excavations at a series of sites in the Eastern Desert of Egypt such as the Roman Quarry of Mons Claudianus have recovered large quantities of well dated textiles. Textiles from these sites are compared with each other, and with emerging evidence of textiles and textile tools from oases in the Sahara and from Sub-Saharan Africa. Finds from these parts are as yet exceedingly rare, but similarities and differences in designs and techniques can be gleaned to throw light on preferences in fibres, yarn twist, weaves, decoration and textile technologies across North Africa during the 1st Millennium A