HISTORY OF FABRIC: EGYPTIAN FABRIC

Introduction

Textile art is one of the oldest activities carried out by man, since in the Paleolithic (20,000 years BC) the
presence of bone needles that would be used for sewing skins has already been recorded. It is possibly an older
activity than ceramics, which was initially influenced in its decoration by textile motifs (impressions of ropes,
basketry, weaving...) and could have had a common origin with basketry, so that before the appearance of the
first loom, man was able to manually intertwine fibers, still rigid, to make the precursors of the first fabrics.
Weaving has always been an element of exchange between communities and a bond of union with divinity, in
addition to having a protective and ornamental purpose.

At the end of the Stone Age, man was already able to count on a loom with accessories that may have been made
up of a simple horizontal tree branch to which fibers would be attached that would constitute the warp,
tensioned with stones at the other end; and the textile technique was probably already known in the seventh
millennium, when in the Neolithic the first sedentary populations began to be established that had plants and
animals at their disposal that provided raw materials. At the Neolithic site of Tell-Halula (Syria), impressions of
fabrics dating to around 7500 BC have been found. and in Kown (Syria) impressions of fabrics on plaster plasters
dated around 5800 BC (1) and between the fourth and second millennium, an important textile activity would
develop in Europe and the Mediterranean area. The fabrics would be made without decoration until man felt the
spiritual need to embellish them, although it is unknown by what procedures.

THE EGYPTIAN FABRIC

The origin of weaving in Egypt dates back to the Neolithic era. There is evidence of the cultivation of flax since
the fifth millennium BC, and from the first dynastic times the weavers were very skilled in the execution of
fine fabrics that, in addition to being used for clothing and the decoration of their buildings, were used in
practice. of mummification, for which several meters of linen bandages – called bissus – were necessary,
carefully folded and crisscrossed so that they formed an intricate pattern.

Linen was the raw material with which, since ancient times, dresses and clothing were made. At this time it was
believed that clothing made from another material or fiber was impure.

There were 4 types of linen, depending on the thickness of the thread, the combination and the density of the weft, like
this:
- royal linen, which is the finest
- fine subtle fabric
- subtle fabric
- smooth fabric

Linen spinning and weaving.

The basic color of the dresses was white, but at the same time some threads were dyed with colors, especially red or
brown.
From the pictorial representations of the tombs we know that they knew the horizontal loom and the vertical
loom, thus in the mausoleum of Beni Hassan (around 3000 BC) a horizontal loom is shown although with a
completely depressed representation and in the tomb of Thot Nefer From the 18th dynasty (15th century BC)
the vertical loom is already represented. It is possible that this one supplanted the first in the textile activity

The horizontal loom

The loom was horizontal with a wooden support for the warp beam and a cloth beam that
could be rotated, to which the ends of the warp threads were tied and on which the woven
cloth was wound. The warp threads were lifted with two sticks (lease bars) in order to pass
through the weft with the help of a shuttle, which according to the aa description was already
known in the Old Kingdom. The plot was hit with a curved stick.
Two women usually worked at the loom, in the early days squatting as the looms were very
low. But sometimes looms were made by three or even four weavers.

In this Middle Kingdom depiction the woman on the left is in charge of two leasing bars, which were used to
keep the weft lines taut and to separate odd pairs of warp lines, a later function by the heddle. The weaver on
the right may be inserting a weft thread with a shuttle or she may be pushing the weft into position with a
trimming stick. The finished weave near the breast bundle (which is ground in this representation) is shown
with a seam on the left side to avoid fraying [

THE VERTICAL LOOM

Vertical looms with large wooden frames came into
use during the New Kingdom. A wooden post
supported the warp beam. The leasing bars lift the
warp threads worked with the help of a lever. The
plot was beaten with a matte, which was later
replaced by a comb. The bundle of cloth or breast
was at the foot of the loom. The weavers sat before
him on small stools

The warp threads, not shown, are attached to

the warp beam at the top and the breast beam at
the bottom. The weaver is apparently holding a
carrying bar or beater in the right hand .

The almost exclusive use of linen and the difficulty of dyeing

this fiber enhanced the taste for undecorated fabrics until
oriental taste penetrated Egypt. The oldest decorated
textiles were found in the tomb of Thutmose IV (mid-15th
century BC),

The Tomb of King Thutmose IV

Although the most important trousseau comes from Tutankhamun's

tomb, with fabrics decorated in oriental fashion, contrasted with the
Egyptian clothing, white and transparent, with meticulous folds
complemented with jewels and
polychrome belts (4), a fashion with
which we are familiar through
Egyptian figurative arts. Due to the
resistance that linen fibers offer to
dyeing, the printing technique was
developed in Egypt, decorating
printed fabrics with lotus flowers,
birds and Nilotic scenes that survived in textile decoration in the Coptic
period.

Egyptian customs were modified with the arrival of the Greeks to their territory,
who imposed the use of wool on a large scale and introduced their decorative
designs, creating the foundation of what centuries later would be the Coptic
textile industry. Wool was known in Pharaonic Egypt, although it seems that it would be used above all for the
coarsest fabrics and to make wigs, and the non-existence of wool fabrics in the Egyptian tombs is due to the
process that this fiber requires for its degreasing, in which involves urine because it is rich in ammonium and the
use of this substance provided a character of impurity to the fabrics made with this material that did not make
them worthy of accompanying the dead in their final resting place.

(make historical reference)

In Egypt, the Coptic textile industry assimilated the most varied influences, both from a technical and
decorative point of view, since the presence of Greeks and Romans in the Nile Valley imposed many features of
its culture, without forgetting the ancient traditions. Egyptian culture and seasoned with the multiple influences
contributed by the different peoples who temporarily or permanently established themselves in the territory.
That is why the Coptic fabrics, of which thousands of copies are preserved in different collections and museums
around the world, fostered by the funerary customs of the Egyptian people of burying their dead in the dry
sands of the desert, which have allowed the fabrics to be unearthed in a magnificent state. of conservation,
from the technical point of view they present relations with Syrian fabrics, characterized by being linen canvas
fabrics that present the decoration distributed in tabulae , orbiculi and clavi in tapestry technique based on wool
wefts that form bichrome compositions with geometric motifs, mythological scenes and scenes of dancers with
complex geometric compositions in the last period, or with pronounced polychromy with Nilotic, mythological
and Christian scenes. In their ornamentation they show various influences that come from a decorative
repertoire of Greco-Roman origin - geometric and mythological compositions - to which are added Sassanian
influences - compositions around an axis of symmetry among which the horsemen spearing animals stand out -,
Byzantine, indigenous – fundamentally Nilotic scenes – and Christian, until in the Muslim era its industry was
absorbed by the important Islamic textile manufactures that flourished in the territory. Along with the tapestry
technique, the loop technique, made with two wefts, the mesh or sprang technique, and wool and silk samitas ,
were also worked on in Coptic Egypt.

In Egypt, with the Tulunids and the Fatimids, the Coptic custom of making linen and wool tapestries, often
intermixed with silk, persisted with a decorative code in which stylization dominated - warriors, dancers,
quadrupeds, birds and floral motifs - and in which Kufic inscriptions were often not missing. The Fatimid textile
industry eventually assimilated Coptic production by using a similar technical and decorative language. The fame
of the Egyptian workshops was such that from the earliest times in the city of Thinis the Kiswa , a sacred curtain
that covered the Kaaba in Mecca, was woven, which had to be replaced regularly. During this period, large-scale
sericulture was introduced to Egypt, from where it spread to other western territories dominated by Islam.