To date, written sources provide most evidence concerning the production, commerce, and acquisition of textiles (Wipszycka 1991). Some textiles were produced in the home, but specialists in dyeing, spinning, weaving, and finishing produced the majority of textile goods. Some of these artisans were self-employed; others worked in workshops.
Egypt preserves by far the richest body of textile evidence from anywhere in the Late Antique world. Great numbers of textiles have long been collected from archaeological sites. However, only recently has their discovery been documented in detail and consistently. Ongoing review of textiles from past excavation and current fieldwork projects yielding textiles from settlement and funerary contexts reveal much about the use and reuse of textiles over long periods of time in multiple settings (Thomas 2007). Because cloth was labor-intensive to produce and, therefore, fairly expensive but needed for many aspects of everyday life, textiles were reused and resold, handed down or saved for special use. Concomitant with other changes in burial practices during Late Antiquity (the end of mummification and mummy portraits, for example), the dead were dressed in multiple layers of clothing and in the yardage of reused large-scale wall-hangings and purpose-made shrouds. Interestingly, clothes and furnishings reused in burials were often deposited in in good condition, perhaps reflecting the wishes of the deceased, survivors honoring the dead, or beliefs about the afterlife (Dunand 2007). Most textiles in museum collections were found in burial contexts.
Vibrancy of coloration, density of ornamentation, and range of motifs and patterns distinguish Late Antique from earlier textiles. Curtains and rugs tend to be ornamented with overall patterns lacking distinct vantage points or orientation. In contrast, wall hangings often organize compositions within architectural frameworks of colonnades (figure 45.12). The most common items of clothing were rectangular shawls and loose-fitting tunics, which could be decorated with inwoven tapestry passages along the neckline and cuffs, in clavi (bands extending longitudinally over the shoulders) and segmenta (squares or roundels) placed at the shoulders or near the knees. These basic arrangements were improvised upon as was an ornamental repertory of geometric and interlaced forms and vegetal and animal motifs, in addition to
Figure 45.12 Wall-hanging representing figures in arcades, tapestry-woven wools. The Brooklyn Museum, 46.128; Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum.
Mythological and Christian motifs. Christians continued to employ mythological imagery on their clothing and furnishings throughout Late Antiquity, sometimes marked as Christian by the addition of the symbol of the cross. Purely Christian compositions were devised as well. These decorations are found in all manner of combinations and color schemes and on versions of the tunic with more close-fitting silhouettes for body and arms. Sometimes tunics were worn as if sleeveless, by pushing arms through slits beneath the sleeves and letting the empty sleeves dangle.
Although often called Coptic, these textiles attest to numerous demographic groups within Egypt and to local and long-distance trade in materials and finished goods. A type of garment known as the Persian Riding Costume is a tight-fitting coat (similar to that worn by the charioteers in the Charioteer Papyrus) with dramatically long sleeves that could be left to drape over the hands or pushed up to bunch along the arm (Fluck and Vogelsang-Eastwood 2004). This type of garment, or one very similar to it, is draped over the shoulders of the forewardmost man approaching Saint Menas. It seems that, as trade textiles traveled, for example, so too did technology, ornamental motifs, aesthetic expectations, and fashions in clothing. Technical developments allowing for more sophisticated weave structures also distinguish Late Antique textiles. Overall patterns repeating small motifs, woven on looms capable of programmable passes of weft threads, first appeared in the third or fourth century.
Over time, the motifs grew larger. Most characteristic from the seventh or eighth century onward are compositions identified by the subjects in their roundels: powerful beasts and mythological creatures, hunters, and mythological and Christian scenes. These are closely related to imported patterned silks of Persia, Central Asia, and China (Brubaker and Haldon 2001). On the streets of Antinoe and in the Alexandrian lecture halls, we should imagine the visual displays created by congregations of literati from around the known world in garments as varied as their origins and as eclectic as their Late Antique cosmopolitan taste.
World History
