As regards the actual work of weaving, balls of thread have been found and so have very flat bobbins and pieces of stick with thread wound round which may have been spools as indicated in the drawing, [Fig. 7]. There is no reason why balls of thread should not have been used as they are in uncivilised countries at the present day, as, for instance, in Tibet, as reported by W. W. Rockhill in Diary of a Journey through Mongolia and Thibet, Washington, 1894, p. 41.
“DIAGONAL WEAVING.”
I am unable to agree with a recently made statement published in The Labyrinth, Gerzeh and Marghuneh, by Prof. Flinders Petrie, E. A. Wainwright and E. Mackey, p. 6, which runs: “The fact of the weft not being at right angles to the warp, if one may conclude by the fabrics, does not, I think, imply that such weaving is of inferior quality. When I noticed the peculiarity first, I thought it might have arisen through distortion by stretching over the body, but repeated examples of the same fact have led me to consider other causes. We know how closely analogous to ‘darning’ was the early weaving; and in our days it is not unusual to find stockings not darned at right angles, and it may be the women weavers of old sometimes put in the weft more or less out of true right angle. In the childhood of weaving we should expect different methods, and it may be, seeing that we have no selvedged cloth until very long after this time, that they experimented with a diagonal weft to see if it would not reduce the tendency to fray out at the sides.” The amount the warp and weft are out of the right angle is stated to be about 20°. The specimen shown me under the microscope indicated clearly that the warp and weft were not at right angles and that the interstices were not square but diamond shaped.
It is possible to arrange the warp threads diagonally from beam to beam, but with continuous weft (that is in weaving so as to get selvedges) the weft has the tendency to slip up on one side and down on the other, hence the weaving is made laborious. With a separate weft for each pick, i.e., for every once the shed is opened, there is naturally not this tendency, but this alleged diagonally woven cloth frays just as easily as any other piece of cloth without selvedge, so in either case there is not only no advantage but distinct disadvantage taking the diagonal “beaming” into consideration. We must give the Egyptians credit for using the least laborious of two methods, that is if the second one were known to them.
Apparent diagonal weaving can be produced by anyone taking an ordinary piece of linen or cotton cloth, cutting off the selvedge and stretching the cloth in a direction diagonally to the direction of the warp and weft, and a piece of diagonally woven cloth is the result!
The probability is that the specimen of cloth, without a selvedge, having been stretched over the body for a long period of time, has, in the course of that time lost its nature and when removed it has retained its altered form and gives us the impression of having been woven diagonally.
“THE LINEN GIRDLE OF RAMESES III.”
In the foregoing I have shown how extremely simple was the whole apparatus for weaving in use by the Ancient Egyptians, and one is rather surprised to be told that about B.C. 1200, in the time of Rameses III., the Egyptians “built and used looms very much more complicated than has hitherto been believed to be the case,” or to be referred to “the really complicated form of loom used.” Yet this is what Mr. Thorold D. Lee tells us (pp. 84 and 86) in his paper on The Linen Girdle of Rameses III. (Ann. of Archæology and Anthropology of the Liverpool Institute of Archæology, July, 1912, V.)
The characteristics of this girdle are its great length, 17 feet (5 m. 2), its even taper diminishing from 5 in. (12·7 cm.) in width to 17/8 in. (4·8 cm.) in width, its elaborate design and excellent workmanship. Perhaps the chief of these characteristics is the taper. It is most probable, as Mr. Lee points out, that in the weaving the warp threads have been gradually dropped out to make the taper, rather than that additional warp threads have been added. As it is easy to drop a warp thread, and almost impossible to add one while weaving is in progress, Mr. Lee’s view is confirmed by this. It would also be almost impossible to keep the warp taut if the number of warp threads were increased as the work went on. This means that the girdle was commenced at the wide end and finished at the narrow end.
It is common knowledge that when a warp thread drops out, its place is indicated by a thinness or fine opening for the whole length of the missing warp, and this is so because the reed, besides pushing the weft into position, also acts as a warp spacer, that is to say it keeps the warp threads properly apart, every one being properly aligned. When no reed is used the warp threads are not so evenly placed—they are not so parallel to one another for there is nothing but their tautness to keep them in position. Hence there is every reason to conclude that when, on a loom provided with a reed, warp threads have been removed their position must be indicated, and vice versa if no reed has been used the position of the removed threads will not be so clearly indicated, but there will be a more marked shrinkage in the width of the cloth as well as in the pattern, and this is what has taken place in the girdle giving us the diminishing taper.