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Industry : Textiles
Textiles
Since the climate of Egypt made it unnecessary to wear heavy clothes, linen was the most popular fabric for daily use. Although most men of the lower classes wore a simple loincloth, kings and the wealthy are usually shown in kilts. The details of these varied to some extent but the basic garment remained the same from the Old Kingdom to the Roman Period. The upper classes sometimes added a tunic, shirt, or cloak. Women of the nobility and upper classes are shown in narrow dresses held under the bosom by two wide straps suspended from the shoulders. From the New Kingdom they also often added a cloak. Generally, for the wealthy, the clothes of both sexes became more voluminous in the later New Kingdom when transparently fine garments were worn over the basic undergarments. These contrast with the simple fashions of the Old Kingdom. Woven fabrics have survived from the tombs, and these include mummy bandages and garments placed with the deceased. Tomb scenes from Dynasties 12 and 18 represent some of the spinning and weaving processes, and a few Middle Kingdom tomb models of weavers’ workshops have survived. There is also the unique collection of textile production tools that were excavated at the Fayoum towns of Kahun and Gurob. .
LINENLinen
production was one of the most important industries of ancient
Egypt. Linen was manufactured from predynastic times through to the
Roman Period, and there was considerable variation in the textures
produced for different uses. Flax (Linum usitatissimum), grown in
Egypt from earliest times, was used for linen production from the
Neolithic period. Tomb scenes represent the gathering of flax which
was pulled by hand and then drawn through a large, comblike tool.
Next, it was retted (soaked to separate the woody parts from the
bast fibers), beaten with mallets, and the fibers were separated
with combs. This preparation readied the fibers for spinning. It is
evident that the Egyptians grew flax on a commercial scale and that
it was one of their main exports to other countries during the Roman
Period. Various spinning techniques (a method of forming threads by
drawing out and twisting fibers) were employed in ancient Egypt.
There was simple hand spinning and three types of spindle spinning,
but the distaff was not introduced until the Roman Period. Tomb
scenes and models show spinning in process, and spindles, spindle
whorls, and balls of thread have been found at various sites. The
next stage was weaving. There were two types of the hand operated
Egyptian loom a horizontal ground loom that was used from the
Badarian Period until the end of the Middle Kingdom, and sometimes
later, and the vertical loom that largely replaced it and was
perhaps introduced into Egypt by the Hyksos. The ground loom
consisted of two poles fixed to the ground by pegs that made the
beam of the loom while the length was fixed by two other poles in
the warp. To work this the weaver squatted on the ground, using a
stick as a shuttle and to tighten the weft. The vertical loom
consisted of an upright frame and a comb for tightening the threads.
Items from Egyptian looms that have been discovered include combs,
beaters, heddle rods, loom pegs, shuttles, and warp spacers. The
linen was traditionally bleached, but some textiles were colored
using vegetable dyes such as madder, safflower, and indigo. There
are examples of colored tapestry-woven linen such as the tunic,
gloves, and girdles found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, and other
textile techniques that have been identified include warp weave,
pile, and loop techniques and embroidery and tablet weaving.
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OTHER FABRICS
Although linen was the most popular cloth, some woolen garments were
also produced. According to Herodotus, however, the Egyptians were
not allowed to take wool into their tombs or temples as it was
regarded as ritually unclean. Nevertheless, the Egyptians had large
flocks of sheep and undoubtedly wore woolen cloaks over their linen
tunics. In the Christian Period woolen garments were placed in the
graves, and colored wool was woven into linen fabrics for
decoration. There are several instances of wool fragments found in
earlier contexts, although at least some of these may be from
intrusive burials of later dates. Herodotus states that, in Egypt in
c.550 BC, King Amasis offered linen garments to several Greek
temples. These were decorated with cotton embroidery; this is one of
the earliest known references to the use of cotton, which must have
been imported to Egypt at this time possibly from India or Arabia.
It was only in the Roman Period, however, that cotton began to be
manufactured in Egypt when the half-wild cotton trees that grew in
Nubia provided the raw material for this industry. Silk that
originated in China probably made no impact on the Egyptian textile
industry until it began to be imported during the Greco-Roman
Period.
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Industry : Textiles
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