Herringbone
Maple Leaf
Basketry
Kimono
Judg1:2
"And the LORD said, Judah shall go up: behold, I have delivered the land into his hand."
"No spark had yet kindled in him an intellectual passion"~~~George Eliot
Backlit red leaf by Jim Zuckerman
F-22 Raptors in formation
Canadian maple leaf hat
Chess: "Kind" "Herringbone" "Maple Leaf" "Basketry" "Kimono"
Ancient Egyptian basketryBasketry is one of the most ancient crafts. The raw materials were widely available: grasses, above all the tough halfa varieties, sedges, reeds, stalks such as flax, twigs, leaves, most frequently of the date and doum palms, and occasionally leather [1]. The various techniques of intertwining and tying together strands of plant material were quickly mastered once the principles were understood. The range of products included mattings, baskets, bags, and sandals which... were very closely and beautifully stitched up of rush, and usually soled with leather. A small bundle of rush was wound round by a rush thread, which at every turn pierced through the edge of a previous bundle. Thus these successive bundles were bound together edge to edge, and a flat surface built up. This was edged round in the same way. In basket making exactly the same principle was followed, with great neatness. The rush sandals soled with leather, leather sandals alone, and leather shoes, were all used. The shoes seem to have been just originating at that period; two or three examples are known, but all of them have the leather sandal strap between the toes, and joining to the sides of the heel, to retain the sole on the foot ; the upper leather being stitched on merely as a covering without its being intended to hold the shoe on the foot. These soles are compound, of three or four thicknesses.They also constructed bigger basketry objects such as grain silos made of coiled straw or plaited reeds, and weir-baskets The ubiquitous reed raft was built using similar techniques. Basketry preceded and influenced cloth weaving, pottery and carpentry and enabled people to make sturdy containers which were also lightweight, expendable, and affordable. Amenemhet, a medjay policeman living at Deir el Medine under Ramses II seems to have received quite a large delivery of basketry and vegetables Year 54, month 2 of Shemu, day 24Like most folk art basketry is stylistically conservative, changing little over the centuries. According to Willeke Wendrich who made comparative studies of basketry in a Nubian and an Egyptian region: It appears that Egypt enjoys a strong regional continuity. Basketry from New Kingdom Middle Egypt (ca. 1350 BCE) has more features in common with present-day basketry from Middle Egypt than with ancient basketry from Nubia. Similarly, there is a clear continuity between ancient and modern Nubian basketry.At times, above all during the prehistoric period, wickerwork seems to have served as support for a layer of clay. During the 4th millennium grain stores were sometimes built like this, and some have surmised that pottery was invented - or perhaps rather discovered - when baskets, which had been lined with clay for waterproofing, were accidentally burned leaving behind thin-walled pottery vessels. Coiling was used both in pottery and basketry, but it seems that the first potters used a technique consisting of hollowing and pinching the clay rather than coiling it. Mattings Chairs and stools were rarely used, and most ancient Egyptians sat on the floor, which was, even in palaces, made of stamped clay; and mats to sit on were introduced early. Bed frames were covered with mattings made of plaited strips of material, such as leather or cloth. Windows and, at least during the earliest times of the dynastic period, doors were at times be covered with mattings which could be rolled up when not in use. A reminder of these door mattings are stone cylinders above Old Kingdom tomb entrances, simulated rolls of matting. Mats were also often hung on walls. They could be decorated by using varying plaiting techniques or differently coloured strands of material. Ships, according to Herodotus, had sails made of papyrus matting. Mats played a role in funerary practices early on. The corpse was often laid out on a mat, covered with or wrapped in it. |
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The author of the Satire of the Trades described the weaver's trade as follows:
The weaver is in his workshop. He is worse off than a woman; with knees against his chest, he cannot breathe air. If he skips a day of weaving, he is beaten fifty strokes; he gives food to the doorkeeper, to let him see the light of day.According to ancient sources, a worker in Uruk made a 36 square metre mat in six days. The fingers of the ancient Egyptians were probably just as nimble. Some of these mats were rather crude affairs: Rush mats, like the modern hasira, appear to have been made, as a weaver's beam was found with thread holes 1½ inches apart, 28 holes in all. Flat sticks for beating up the thread into place, after the shuttle has passed in the loom, are also found. |
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Baskets and bags Wooden storage chests were expensive and rare, and household cupboards unknown. The few possessions an ancient Egyptian family had, were therefore mostly kept in baskets. Petrie uncovered at Kahun among other things a basket with beads and a bronze ring |
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