Texts and Textiles in Late Antique Egypt

The production of textiles was a large, important and highly specialized sector of the economy and trade of the ancient Mediterranean world. While, in most regions, organic material from antiquity has not survived, the arid climate of Egypt has preserved thousands of fragments of ancient textiles from the Late Antique period (ca. 300800 CE), which provide important information about various aspects of textile production, such as the materials and dyes used. The Nile Valley has also preserved many thousands of papyrus documents from the same period. These texts, which are a unique window into everyday life in antiquity, contain crucial information about the manufacture and style of textiles, and also about the terminology for different types of garments. Egypt is a unique region of the ancient world where both texts and textiles have survived in very substantial quantities. The aim of this project is to conduct a comprehensive study of the papyrological evidence for Late Antique textiles and to systematically confront it for the first time with the surviving textiles from Egypt. This project envisions that the great variety of materials and designs, decorations and colors found in the preserved textiles will correspond with and illuminate the diversified technical terminology of textiles and garments found in papyri from the same period. An integrated study of the preserved textiles together with the relevant texts on papyrus will shed light on various aspects of textile production as well as the exact meaning of the approximately 400 attested specific terms used for different types of textiles and garments. This holistic approach will make a new and important contribution to our understanding of ancient textiles and of the textile industry in the Later Roman Empire. The project will thereby bridge the gap between the fields of papyrology, archaeology, and textile studies, combining the different approaches and methods issuing from these fields for a thorough examination of this centrally important sphere of ancient material culture.

The production of textiles was a large, important and highly specialized sector of the economy and trade of the ancient Mediterranean world. While in most regions organic material from antiquity has not survived, the arid climate of Egypt has preserved thousands of fragments of ancient textiles from the Late Antique period (ca. 300-800 CE), which provide important information about various aspects of textile production, such as types of clothes, craftsmen, materials, dyes, and manufacturing processes. The Nile Valley has also preserved many thousands of papyrus documents from the same period. These texts contain crucial information about the manufacture and style of textiles, and also about the terminology for different types of garments. Egypt is a unique region of the ancient world where both texts and textiles have survived in very substantial quantities. This project conducted a comprehensive study of the rich papyrological evidence for Late Antique textiles and systematically confronted it - for the first time - with the surviving textiles from Egypt. The project set out to bridge the gap between the fields of papyrology, archaeology, and textile studies, combining the different approaches and methods issuing from these fields for a thorough examination of this centrally important sphere of ancient material culture. The meticulous evaluation of the papyrological sources illuminated the highly diversified technical terminology of textiles and garments. Against the background of the papyrological information, a representative selection of ancient textiles housed at various European and North American museums was studied in respect of their production methods and eventual samples, design and usage. Scientific analysis of dyes and fibres provided significant insights in dyeing techniques and raw materials. In addition, an experimental archaeological approach (within the framework of a citizen science program) involved textile artists and handweavers from all over the world, who shared their practical expertise and clarified specific questions about weaving methods, sequence of work flow, qualities of materials and expenditure of time for production. The integrated study of the preserved textiles together with the relevant texts on papyrus and the experimental approach shed new light on many aspects of textile production and confirmed our hypothesis that the exact meaning of the approximately 400 attested specific terms reflected for great variety of materials and designs, decorations and colors found in the preserved textiles. The results of this project made an important contribution to our understanding of the written sources on ancient textiles as well as our knowledge of the original textiles and their production in Later Antiquity. These results provide a firm basis for future research on social or economic aspects of textile production and further archaeological and scientific studies on the manufacture of textiles also beyond the boundaries of Late Antique Egypt.