PURPUREAE VESTES IITextiles and Dyes in Antiquity
VESTIDOS, TEXTILES Y TINTES
Estudios sobre la producci6n de bienes
de consbtmo en la Antigtiedad
Actas del II Symposium Internacional sobre Textiles
y Tintes del Mediterr6neo en el mundo antiguo(Atenns, 24 al 26 de noviembre r2005)
C. Alfrro y L. Karali, eds.
LTNIVERSITIff DE VALENCIA
2008
ICE, GE,NE,RAL
Introducci6n
Introduction
Abreviaturas
TEXTILES
CeRor CuBver: Protohistoric weaving, the Minoan loom-weights: a first approach
Manra E. ArssRrr: Textile industry indicators in Minoan *ork *"as problims of typology and interpreta-
Crmrsropns MournBner et Your,rs SpeNrrlerr: Premidre attestation de laine sur le site protohistorique
d'Akrotiri i Th6ra .....................
SrBr-r-e SpeNrIoeru: Preliminary results of the reconstruction of Theran textilesEsrfsA1,z TBnAR and ANDREw WrrsoN: Classical and Hellenistic textile production at Euesperides (Benghazi,
Libya): preliminary resultsMencerure GtBsR: Auratae vestesi Gold textiles in the ancient MediterraneanSornros D. LaNlsnopour.os: Clothing materials during the Hellenistic period
Inrs TzecHIu: Hellenistic loom-weights from Western Crete ...........CrmlsropHs Mourusnar: Les vestiges textiles de la n6cropole celto-etrusque de Monte Tamburino i Mon-
te Bibele (Monterenzio - Bologne)Crmls VBnHr,crrN-LauHrsNs andANrorNe Ds Moon: Two radiocarbon dated linen fabrics with samite trim-
mings in the collection of Katoen Natie, AntwerpFsuclres Manosn: Sea-silk inAquincum: first production proof in antiquityMenuN Crszur and LsNe Heuuanr-uNn: Roman looms - a study of craftsmanship and technology in
the Mons Claudianus Textile ProjectLIsr, BBNoBn JoncsNssN: Self-bands and other subtle patterns in Roman textiles .....'.....JonN PBrBn WILo, FELICITY C. Wno and A. J. Clepseu: Roman cotton revisited ...........'.'.
RogsRTA Contopesst: V6tements <romains> au LouweAmrrsuenm Sreuppsn: A closer look to cartoons for weavers from Graeco-Roman Egypt ..........G. Monerrou and C. Manceruu: Excavated archaeological textiles in Greece. Past, present and future ....
TINTES
RBNa VsRopoulrDou, Sreuos ANonnou and Kosres Korsezus: Small scale purple-dye production inthe Bronze Age of Northern Greece: the evidence from the Thessaloniki Toumba
LlrlreN Kaneu and F. MscalouDr: Purple dyes in the Environment and History of the Aegean: a short
IND
Pds.
11
13
15
t9
25
37
43
49
6t79
83
89
101
109
tt9135
t43t49159
l6s
17t
181
10 indice general
Pdg-
MeruB-PIBnnr Pwnenal Pnrupps Bonceno et RocER ZERUBI.q.: Teindre colnme d Pomp6i : approche exp6-
Can-upN Arreno and BrNraui Cosre; Methodological aspects of purple dye production on Ibiza: the new
Denio BsnNeL, L. RornAN, J. BLANqur,z, J. J. Ditz y F. Pneoos: Un taller de piupura tardorromano enCarteia (Baetica, Hispania). Avance de las excavaciones preventivas en el conchero de Villa Victoria
ANcBr ALBxeNnnr and MenriN Pesron: New murex shell spreads onlbiza: preliminary results of the firstprospection campaign ..................... 227
Done CoNSTINTINIDIS: Mapping Mediterranean murex middens with a Geographical Information System
Dersrxp YaUAGUCHI: Purple dyes in Prehistoric Japan ........... 239CgzusrrNB MecHBeoBur: Remarques sur l'ars purpuraria .......... 247
VARIA
INcB BoBsrBN KaNoro and Rolr HeusRrcHs: Tyrian purple dyeing: an experimental approach with fresh
Allons VsnsBcxsN: Call for information on archaeological spindle whorls 257SopHIe Sormopourou: MED-COLOUR-TECH. Investigation, revival and optimisation of traditional
Mediterranean colouring technology for the conservation of the Cultural Heritage 259
i
I
I
PRELIMINARY RE,SULTS OF THE RE,CONSTRUCTIONOF'THE,RAN TE,XTILE,S
Stella Spantidaki"
Introduction
HEN studying for my DEA (Diploma ofAdvanced Studies) at the Sorbonne, Paris
(20041 2005), I had the opportunity to work on Greekarchaeological textiles, using, for example, textilesfrom Santorini.l
The volcano eruption that destroyed the prehis-toric town of Akrotiri, permitted the extraordinaryconservation of the whole town; in this site have beendiscovered a large number of wall paintings, which are
among the best preserved in the Aegean world(Douvas 1992). These images showed a considerablenumber of costumes, which have led to a number ofhypotheses concerning how they had been made.
Part of my work was devoted to the reproductionof certain designs shown in the wall paintings. It there-fore fits in with current thinking on Minoan costuffie,which is based firstly, on an analysis of the designsseen in the wall paintings and, secondly, the reproduc-tion of these designs through experimental archaeolo-gy techniques. My work is only just starting, and a
number of designs have not yet been reproduced; itwill however continue in the future.
The first thing that hits us when looking at theAkrotiri wall paintings is the wealth of textile designsrepresented. On the majority of the female figures, wecan see over six different designs (for exampleDouuas 1992: 138, fig. 101). This iconography raisesa number of questions:
1) Are the designs shown really textile designswhich are, therefore, woven or manufactured with oneor other technique, or are they simply patterns imag-ined by the artist and, therefore, the entire image isimaginary?
2) What would be the appropriate technique tomanufacture each design? The remains lead us tobelieve that a warp-weighted loom was used, but as wehave little knowledge of this world, and as the scopefor investigation is vast, there are hypotheses for othertechn"iques for which we have as yet no evidence.
The clothing worn by the figures shows also a
large number of narrow gallons, often highly decorat-ed. When trying to identify the manufacturing methodused it seemed logi cal that this would be with a tech-nique other than the warp-weighted loom. The twotechniques that came to mind were tablet weaving andthe backstrap loom.
In order to reply to these questions, I have tried toreproduce certain designs using warp-weighted loomtechniques and tablet weaving.
Experimentation
A. The warp-weighted loom
The only parts of this loom that can be found todayare the weights, to which the warp threads wereattached. An exceptionally large number were found in
+ Hellenic Centre for Research and Conservation ofArchaeological Textiles, Athens.I Smltmeru, S. (2005), L'archeologie des tissus en Grice ancienne; le cas de Santorin, mlmoire de DEA, Universit6 Paris Sorbonne (Paris
IV), Paris.
PURPLJREAE VESTES. ll Syzposium Internacional sobre Textiles y Tintes del Meditenaneo en el mundo antiguo (C. Alfaro, L. Karali, eds.),pp. 43-47.
43
44
Akrotiri, where over 1.000 weights were discovered all
disc-shaped, in four different parts of the town: the
<<Western House>>, the Sector A and the buildings B
and D (Tzacurr 1990: 381 and 385). It is therefore
certain that a subst antral quantity of textiles was man-
ufactured with this technique; so I started by trying myreconstructions usin g a warp-weighted 1oom.2
I chose two patterns shown on the clothing of sev-
eral figures in the wall paintings. It was in fact one
single lozenge pattern shown in a number of differentforms (continuous or dotted line, with a different pat-
tern in the centre of the diamond). The designs I man-
aged to reproduce were:a) the continuous line diamond with a cross in the
centreb) the same design, but with a dotted line (fig. 1).
a) Continttous line diarnond with a cross in the
centre (Dourvres 1992: 154, fig. 1 18).
In order to reproduce this pattern, I used four shed
bars with threading chevron twill and linen threads.
The end-product looked fairly like the original. I had
decided to do a miniature version, but as long as there
is a central decoration, it is possible to make it larger
so that it corresponds with the desigrr.
b) Dotted line diamond with a cross in the centre
(Dourvras 1992: 142, fig. 105 and 156, fig. I20)As this design has a dotted line, I used a weft-pat-
terned technique, always working with linen threads.
For the background I used a plain weave; with each
weft shot, I introduced an additional weft that floated
behind, only coming forwar d at those places where itneeded to be visible. I managed to hand-weave a dta'
mond with a cross in the centre. It is a much slower
technique than simple weavin g, and demands consid-
erable concentration. The advant age though is design
freedom. As the additional weft is added by hand, it ispossible to create all types of designs. The distances
have to be properly calculated and the warp threads
counted so as to show the supplemental weft.
Stella Spantidaki
Figure L. Reconstruction of the con-
tinuous line and the dotted line dia-mond with a cross in the centre usinga warp-weighted loom. Photo Stella
Spantidaki.
When examining the reproduction, it is clear that
there are problems compared with the original. As it ispossible to see the legs of the figure under the tunic, itis in fact a transparent fabric. However, the weft-pat-terned technique leads to a large number of additionalweft floats on the reverse side of the reproduction.Another technique must therefore have been used to
create this design on a transparent fabric, which does
not leave weft floats on the reverse side, thus spoilingthe transparent effect.
The weft-patterned technique has been used by
various specialists to reproduce Cretan designs. The
first person to use it was Elisabeth Barber, dt the
Metron conference n 2002, to reproduce the design
on the skirt of the Agia Triada figure, for an opaque
design.3 She created the design in miniature, whichhad only a few floats on the reverse side of the fabric.
When Bernice Jones attempted to reproduce the
designs at their actual stze, the number of floatsincreased substantially on both sides of the fabric,
making it unusable, and therefore making this manu-
facturing method highly unlikely (Joxps 2005: 711).
Experiments have therefore shown that it is unlike-ly that the weft-patterned technique was used for this
type of fabric, and another approach was needed.
Because of a lack of time, I have only done one
reproduction, but I intend to continue my research using
the broche technique (supplemental discontinuous weftfloat). The difference between this technique and the
weft-patterned technique is that the additional weft is
no longer used horizontally to reproduce all the designs,
which leads to long floats, but vertically for just one
design. The same design is therefore created on the
reverse and the right side of the fabric. For the dotted
diamond pattern with a cross in the centre, I shall exper-
iment with two shuttles for the diamond and a third forthe cross for each design, to limit the number of floats.
In this way the long floats on the reverse side of the fab-
ric will be avoided, so that it retains its transparency.
2 A training period with Marie-Pierre Puybaret, specialist in archaeological weaving, was very precious for this technique.3 EventhoughsheworkedwithA.Lrr-r-ErHrxtopresenttheposter,onlyLillethun'sworkwaspublished,cf Llrlrrnrx,(2003),pp463-471.
Preliminary results of the reconstruction of Theran textiles
B. Jones however went further with her reproduc-tions, by trying a second additional weft technique,which involved inserting the decorative weft in theopen shed on the right side of the design, and then cut-ting them on the reverse side to avoid the floats. In thiswdy, she managed to create a sample without floats,the weaving open enough to see the supplementalweft, but with weak colours. Although the result was
better than with the weft-patterned technique, as therewere no floats, it did not give the strong colours and
dense fabric suggested by the wall paintings (Joxrs2005: 7 l2).
B. Tablet weaving
No tablets have as yet been found in Akrotiri. Thisis perhaps because they were made of perishablematerial, such as wood. Tablets have however been
found in Malra, Crete (BumE 1998:95, fig. 2.lb), and
in Bronze Age Western Europe (BaRBER l99l: 119). Itried to test the possibility of producing certaindesigns with this technique, without however exclud-ing the possibility of other parallel techniques.a
The wall painting galons fall into two categories:
- Gallons with simple geometric designs, in par-
ticular vertical, honzontal and crossed lines (Douuas1992: 41, fig. 10 and 144, fig. 107).
Experimentation showed that the reconstruction ofalarge number of geometric patterns with tablet weav-irg is easy and rapid. I will therefore concentratemyself here on the second category of gallons.
- Gallons with rnore complex designs.
The design I reproduced is a crocus flower, shownon the gallon of the <goddess's)) tunic, which is deco-rated with a series of these flowers (Doutr,tas 1992:162, fig. 125).
The crocus (fig. 2).In order to reproduce this design, I used 82 square
tablets, with four holes and cotton thread for the warp,and silk for the weft. The techniques used are doublefaced weave and broch6. The double faced weave tech-nique is the simplest technique allowing for the pro-duction of designs that are independent of the thread-ing of the tablets. The result is a fabric with two faces,
both of which may be used as the right side. For exam-ple, if the fabric has a dark design on a light back-ground on the other side it will have a light design ona dark background.
To start, a drawing of the design needs to be madeon squared paper; the larger the design the moresquares used (the greater the number of tablets used,
45
Figure 2. Reconstruction of the crocus flower using tabletweaving. Photo Stella Spantidaki.
the greater the detail given). The number of squares
represents the number of tablets used.
The tablets are then threaded. If the design has twocolours , apafi from the selvedges which are one
colour, each tablet has two dark threads and two blackthreads. Threading is alternate, an S tablet and a Z.
Finally, the weaving pattern is prep aredo the mostimportant aspect for the production of the design(fig. 3). The initial drawing on the squared paper isused; the squares are divided horizontally into two,each section representing two weft shots. This tech-nique uses double movements, in other words thetablets are twisted twice in one direction (eg for-wards), and twice in the other direction (eg back-wards). In order to remember which way to turn the
a To perfect this technique, I worked with Marie-Pierre Puybaret and Claire G6rentet, a specialist in tablet weaving.
46
Figure 3. weaving pattern for the crocus flower. DrawingStella Spantidaki.
tablets, the hortzontal line of the squares representingtwo weft shots is marked with a colour, and, then thefollowing, and so on. Here, the colour mauve marksthe backward twists. with this method a single back-ground colour is obtained. In order to create thedesign, the tablet twisting needs to be inversed, com-pared with the background tablets. The tablets aretherefore divided into groups which turn individually.on the weavin g pattern, this is shown by a change incolour between the design areas and those of the back-ground. The direction of the twist is marked on eachsquare to produce the design. The tablets twist twice inone direction, and then twice in the other. The colourof these lines shows the final colour of the fabric(design and background).
Results
a) The reproduction of this small number ofdesigns allowed me to confirm my thoughts concern-ing the wall paintings. All the designs examined can in
Stella Spantidaki
fact be woven with the techniques used. They aretherefore representations of real clothing with realdesigns, which confirm that the wall paintings may beused as a source of information for the study of tex-tiles of this period.
b) The experimental work confirms the high stan-dard of textile technology at this time. There are sev-eral qualities of fabric, from transparent to heavy,thick fabrics demanding a different technical produc-tion approach. There is also a varlety of designs whichmay be produced with a number of different tech-niques (four shed bars warp-weighted loom, broch6).They are variations on a single theme (here the dia-mond). We can get a feel for the freedom and the easewith which people used these various techniques andchanged one for the other, depending on their aesthet-ic preference; it is rare to see the same design on twodifferent figures; there is generally a small variationfor each figure. Techniques are changed depending onthe desired result.
we have the impression that everything was calcu-lated in advance, and then the technique approp rratefor each design was chosen depending on all the fea-tures of the fabric (quality and use, eg. clothing).
c) In this first stage of my work, I was experi-menting in the reconstruction of several designsdepicted on the wall-paintings using a variety of tech-niques. The focus of my work was more in under-standing the employed techniques rather than thereconstruction of the whole costume. Thus, I did notstudy in detail the nature of the fibres used. However,I do appreciate the importance of fibres for which wehave evidence, in the reconstruction of patterns andgarment shapes (MencAR 2005: 31).
For my experimentation, I used natural fibres, forthe gre ater part linen, attested in the Bronze Age byLinear B tablets. The use of silk for the crocus flowerwas dictated from the necessity of a very thin fibre forthe weft.
Finally, I intend to pursue my technical research byexamining at a first stage all the designs shown in thewall paintings. At a second stage I will take into con-sideration the problematrc of the original fibres for thereproduction of ancient textile patterns.
Technical words employed
Broche: An additional weft, introduced into aground weave, the movement of which is limited tothe width of the area where it is required, and whichdoes not travel from selvedge to selvedge.
Double-faced weave: weave in which either thewarp or the weft is composed of two series, of whichone appears on one side of the textile, while the otherappears on the other side.
i
l
Preliminary results of the reconstruction of Theran textiles
Float:The segment of end or pick which crosses atleast two yarns between points of binding.
Weft-patterned technique: Term used to describe a
textile in which a pattern is formed, or the groundenriched, by the use of a patterned weft.
All the technical definitions are drawn fromC.I.E.T. A., Vocabulary of technical terms,Lyon, 1964, s.v.
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