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TRANSCRIPT
The weavers of Tutankhamun The story of recreating the textile treasure of a Pharaoh
© Text: Kazuyo Nomura & Christina Rinaldo © Photo: Nino Monastra © English translation: Marcus Bergman Bokförlaget Signum -‐ Stockholm -‐ 2013 ISBN 978-‐91-‐86221-‐23-‐2 www.atlantisbok.se
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Preface The Textile Historical Society, a cooperative body to the Museum of Textile History in Borås, Sweden, assigned us to recreate clothes from 1 300 B.C. for the ”Tutankhamun’s Wardrobe” exhibition. When recreating the clothes, we used the same techniques as the weavers who once weaved for Tutankhamon. In this book, we want to tell about our work and what we have learnt about their work, a dialogue between weavers now and then, through crafts. For us craftspeople, the finished artefact is not what is most important, but how and why the work is carried out. Weaving is a global technique; lowering and raising the warp threads according to given systems to bringing in the weft can be carried out and understood in any place in the world. That people can meet beyond words, in common understanding, is one reason why weaving is so interesting. Despite having different words for that which one knows, we create the same understanding for different weaving techniques, using our eyes and hands. For example, we have learned to weave Era-‐era patterns from presently active weavers in the Sahara desert, in spite of not knowing their language. Such meetings sometime upend ideas on how things should be done. To see and experience how a specific weaving technique is applied in other ways than one expects can lead to thinking about methods and various steps of the process. It leads to creative steps forward in other contexts. The quiet transfer of knowledge has also deepened our understanding of how a weave can be made. For example, the meeting with the weavers in the desert has made it easier for us to understand how complex patterns can med made with basic weaving equipment. The report is so large that this would have been jacquard weaving by us. The women of Sahara do it with fingers.
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Introduction Tutankhamun The grave of Tutankhamun, from 1321 B.C., was found on November 4, 1922. In it, a large number of clothes of different kinds were found, from Pharaoh parade costumes to loincloths and simple underwear. The explorer Howard Carter has made an exemplary register of all finds, but many costumes and textiles have thereafter been lying around. Closer examinations of them have now been carried out. All costumes and textiles were made from linen yarn, but some garments were so brittle that they crumbled when handled, while other retained some of their original strength. Whether this was due to climatic conditions in the various rooms of the graves, or different types of linen yarns or treatments, is unknown. The archaeologist Howard Carter dug for many years in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. Between 1908 and 1912 he excavated sites with Lord Carnarvon. Between 1919 and 1921 Carter explored a vast area in the Valley of the Kings in the vicinity of the grave of Ramses the 6th. With only a few weeks remaining on the dig permit, Carter was disillusioned. On the morning of the November 4th, 1922, when the gravel under the tomb of the grave of Ramses 6th had been removed down to the rock, Carter found a stair step in the rock. The team found several additional steps until they were standing by a stone screen, which was plastered and carried a royal insignia. Carter solemnly carried on opening the grave. He cleaned the last four steps together with his co-‐workers and arrived at a masonry door, made out of large rocks and polished to suitably carry the royal insignia. Carter counted 16 steps with a width of 4 metres and a length of 1.6 metres. The corridor leading up to the door was 7.6 metres long and the insignia read Nebcheperture – Tutankhamun. Carter informed Lord Carnarvon, who was in England, but arrived in Luxor on November 25, accompanied by his daughter. On that day, Carter removed a rock from the masonry door. Carnarvon and Carter could now glance into the grave and see strange animals and emerge from the semi-‐darkness. Carter burst out: “The day of days, the most wonderful that I have ever lived through, and certainly one whose like I can never hope to see again.” Very little about Tutankhamun himself was found out at the excavation, but we know that that he was named Tutankhamun at birth, which took place in 1339 B.C. in the Malgatta palace on the wet bank of the Nile, southwest of Thebe. Tutankhamun’s father was Amenophis the 4th and his grandfather Amenophis the 3rd. His paternal grandmother was Queen Theje. Tutankhamun’s mother was Queen Kija, a sister to his father. Tutankhamun’s father was first married to Queen Nefertiti and from that marriage the daughter Ankhesenamun was born, who later became the wife of her half-‐brother Tutankhamun.
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Tutankhamun’s father founded the city of Amarna and upon that changed his name to Echnaton. Tutankhamun was 8 or 9 years old when he was crowned Pharaoh in Amarna. He is then given the crown name Nebcheperture. Most likely, Tutankhamun was crowned in the “Syrian” tunic, which was made for his coronation to show what national and international contacts he had. At the coronation, Tutankhamun’s wife was present, who by then was 12 years old. When Tutankhamun was 12 or 13 years old, he moved back to Thebe, as his father had died, and resurrected the old religion. The old priests gave the returning Pharaoh a new name – Tutankhamun. At the ceremony he might have been dressed in the “Duck” tunic. Tutankhamun died in 1321 B.C., from a mosquito bite and subsequent malaria, his immune system being weakened by inbreeding.
p. 10 Background The work with Tutankhamun’s textiles was carried out in several stages at The School of Weaving, at The University of Borås, Sweden during the period of 1994 – 2008. The Weaving School dates back to the 19th century and is a part of The University of Borås since 1992. The exhibition “Tutankhamun’s Wardrobe” is the result of a cooperation between The University of Borås and Dr. G.M. Vogelsang-‐Eastwood, Stichting Textile Resarch Centre in Leiden and The Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Sweden’s Queen Silvia inaugurated the exhibition in Borås on October 8th 1999, which was the world premiere of the exhibition. It gained great attention and was seen by 60 000 visitors in Borås, which lead to The Museum of Textile History being appointed museum of the year. The exhibition has gone on to tour in Europe, the USA and to Alexandria, Egypt. Dr. Vogelsang-‐Eastwood’s work with the textile from Tutankhamun’s tomb has resulted in a series of publications, all with emphasis on archaeology. In this book, we want to bring forward the insights and knowledge of the crafts(wo)men – making the hands talk. The exhibition project was carried out by many participants, including researchers and craftsmen. The Swedish group consisted of several students and professional craftsmen from various fields, and us. The material from our reconstruction of Tutankhamun’s clothes is archived at the Museum of Textile History in Borås, so that the general public can access it.
p. 12 The Weaving School in Borås On the Swedish national web site for research information, forskning.se, one could read in 2007: “Within the frame of THS (The Swedish School of Textile at the University of Borås) is also the Weaving School, that among other things carries out cooperative international research projects within the field of historical textiles.”
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Behind the short paragraph on a research emphasis at the Swedish School Textiles are interesting stories on how hand loom weaving training has gained university status in Sweden and on how the research on hand weaving at the Weaving School, using a reconstructive method, has placed Borås on the world map of textile science. The past years’ work on reconstructive projects are based on the link between research development and education in hand loom weaving, which started to emerge already before the education was given university status. The joint goal of research and education has been to understand the technical development. The textile research emphasis at the Weaving School has brought this about with focus on the technical development of the fabrics, materials and constructions. The students from various years have received specific knowledge on different techniques. They have also been given a common theoretical viewpoint, which means that one can develop handloom weaving theoretically when working with reconstruction. In the story of how reconstruction as a method has been established at the Weaving School, the work on the Birka textiles from 9th century has a special place. It was in this work, that the insight appeared that it was vital to both calculate the yarn count and to make a reconstruction that looked like an original. A prerequisite to making a reconstruction is access to the originals. Cultural institutions, such as museums and archives, have been cooperative partners in this sense. Many times, these institutions have supplied photographs of the old textiles. The Birka originals where fragments from the Historical Museum in Stockholm, carried by an antiquarian to Borås so that the students were able to study them during one day. Another prerequisite to making successful reproductions is that one has access to suitable material to work with. When it came to the Birka fabrics, this was considered a problem. 30 single combed wool yarn was needed. In Viking times fine threads could be spun on a spindle, but no one spins such fine threads today. The solution was to turn to some of the latest events in the Borås textile industry, where som ecompanies were active in the 1980’s. There was a 64 2-‐ply yarn at the company Saxylle Kilsund AB. That thread was correct in fineness, even if it was a 2-‐ply. Since one cannot tell by eye if such a thin thread is a single or a double yarn, it was used in the Birka fabrics, that are densely woven. The Birka fabrics thus show how to solve the practical problem of finding a workable yarn to work with. The prerequisite for the decision on suitable thread quality is the knowledge of how to calculate the yarn count, i.e. being able to translate the yarn fineness of the Viking era textiles into today’s yarn counts – needing to know the yarn count brought about the difference between analysis and reproduction. Also, craft knowledge is needed. If one has information on counts, for example 60 warp thread and 20 weft threads/cm., which yarn count should then be sought after? The example 60+20=80 threads/cm. means that one should wrap 80 times on 1 cm. on a ruler. When one succeeds in that, one knows the yarn count of the thread and can make a sample weave.
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The method of choosing yarn count that was used at the School of Weaving in 1984 is based on a mathematical calculation of the relationship between warp and weft, and gives answer to how many threads need be parallel, close together per centimetre in order for the thread’s fineness to match that in the original fabric. The mathematical calculation is followed by the practical work of wrapping thread tightly around a ruler, in order to find out what modern yarn count gives the number of thread determined by the calculation. Thereafter, one produces a test weave to check that all is correct. That reconstruction as a method could provide deepened knowledge was clear already at this early stage. It is necessary to adjust one’s thinking and seeing, not believing that it is like it is today. It is about forgetting what one knows today and be open to what one does not expect. If one is active in science, and has learned to re-‐adjust one’s eyes, then one uses what one already knows about what can be achieved with a certain textile material and how this should be done. One is not satisfied with just making interpretations by using visual and tactile memories of a textile material, but tries to go back in the interpretive process by questioning how valid one’s own textile knowledge, gained in today’s society, is when it comes to interpreting yesterday’s textile development. One tries to close in on the textile material as openly as possible. What could be possible to make from this textile material and how could this be achieved? With what technique could it be done? Why would today’s answers to these questions even be like the answers of yesteryears? Study of textile history facilitates the insight that knowledge of weaving could not have been stopped, neither by ideas on national cultural heritage, nor by nation’s border, even if various states have tried to monopolise knowledge throughout history. A perspective on the research and training at the Weaving School is that every reproduction project can be seen as an activity that results in network building. From that perspective, the work on various reproduction projects has been carried out already before network theories became popular as models for the development of organisations and societies. The reproduction projects at the Weaving School have created networks that involve actors from a wide range of societal sections. Individuals, public institutions and private companies have been linked in networks. Contributing to the reproduction process are also textile machines that transform fibre into thread, as well as a camera to photograph textile fragments. These have been necessary to carry out the different projects. One goal for the School of Weaving has been to widen the knowledge of people and society in past times, always with an emphasis on textiles, and generate knowledge on textile science, spreading interest as widely as possible, together with the students. During and after the Tuthankhamun project, public interest was so vast that there was a need for lectures twice a week during a whole year, in places all over Sweden from Lapland to Skåne. Handloom weaving has been carried out for centuries in Sweden, in an unbroken tradition. In many parts of Europe the tradition was broken during the spreading of industrialism and has been reclaimed during the 20th century. In Sweden, handloom weaving is a part of the cultural heritage.
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p. 19 The reconstruction Analysis The first trip, in 1994, was to Egypt where we carried out analysis of Tutankhamun’s textiles at the Egyptian Museum by the Tahrir Square in Cairo. Stockholm photographer Nino Monastra was also present. The photographer is vital because his camera can record details missed by the human eye. Monastra did not only have experience in photographing textiles. He is also trained in textiles in Bergamo, Italy, and later also headed a silk weaver in Tunisia. The first object of analysis was placed 10-‐15 cm. under a glass lid on a display. It was impossible to see thread by eye or even using a loupe. It was then that the photographer said that one could take one of his lenses and turn it around. This worked perfectly and one could see individual thread on the side ribbons of Tutankhamun’s “Syrian” tunic. To carry out analysis only on the front side is not recommended, since one does not know what the warp threads look like on the backside of the weave. They can be tied to the weft or hang loose. The side ribbons have four warp systems in different colours. Normally, a filled square on a grid paper is drawn for lowered warp threads in a pattern. Here we drew a filled square for raised warp thread with enlarged points in the warp direction, because of the two wefts. At the same time the museum management allowed us to open sealed display cases. The seals where cut open with pliers and we could retrieve smaller objects that were placed on glass in the cases. That which awaited us was one of the circular woven collars with three differently dyed warps. The collars are made in the same technique as the side ribbons, which were analysed by help of the camera lens. Using a needle, one could lift up the edge of the collar a little, to see the backside and to our surprise, the warp threads hang loose on the backside, when they are not attached to the front side. The technique is unique, with threads hanging untied on the backside, when not attached on the front side. Normally, one attaches all threads in the weave, front and back side. The work at the museum was carried out during opening hours, and tourists piled in. There was no research room at the Egyptian Museum, so all work took place in the same room as the textiles were exhibited in, along with all those who wished to see the textiles. For the photographing we were allowed the use of the guards stools to carefully place the glass panels with objects on, placed in the best available daylight to get the best photographic quality. The photographer places a tripod over the stool and taped the camera underneath the tripod to be able to get close-‐ups with a ruler beside the object. We were given access to the display cases twice. First because we needed to document complete objects. The second time we needed close-‐ups with a ruler in the pictures to be able to enlarge the images in Nino’s laboratory in Stockholm, to see the number of threads per centimetre using the ruler in the image.
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Almost all archaeological textiles are brown, but there are some colours in the Tutankhamun textiles. One can see red, blue and white threads quite clearly today, and there is also yellow visible on the ribbons of the crowning tunic. It is impossible to tell what is white and yellow and it is also impossible to tell green from blue. The yellow colour may have been hard to dye and could have been bleached in the light-‐filled exhibit at the museum. If the yellow has been bleached, blue and white remain. The red is always in the darkest brown colour today. Carter has described one of the tunics as yellow with green ducks, but this does not correspond to what we saw when we carried out our analysis at the museum. In 1999 the tunic was very light in colour and the ducks were red or blue. A red duck had blue wings and tail and at the same time one blue duck had red wings and tail. Today, the “Duck” tunic is completely brown following a rough conservation. Photographers used to develop their images manually in a laboratory, before switching to digital cameras. The development today takes place on calibrated computer displays. Before, in the manual work, Nino Monastra developed the images using various filters to obtain different colours in the images. Green filters could, for example, make red surfaces visible and yellow filters could bring blue surfaces forward. This has been of great help to us wanting to know what colours the textiles once had. When we agreed that we could see red, blue and white surfaces, apart from yellow, we could dye threads for the reconstruction work. Nino tells: “Copying a negative that in itself contains so much latent content presents one with a choice. One should decide and prefer. One can get closer to the desired end result, but fortunately this is not necessary. Everyone knows that the colours are asleep and finally end up on the paper emulsion. This is a result of the complementary colours from the lit negatives. The craft in the analogue laboratory revolved around this: yellow, magenta and cyan filters were the simple tools, hands and fingers were of contributing assistance. The end result was only visible out in daylight. A moment of insecurity, of doubt, was important ingredients. I want to claim that these doubts and this insecurity were as important tools as the filters and the fingers. By the window, in real light, the desired nuances appeared. It is a magic process!” We often faced vast problems and must therefore study each object before we could proceed with the preparations. Therefore it was good that all of us who weaved had been to Cairo to see the original objects, so that we could talk about what we hade seen before our work. We learned from and about each other and our differences became our strength.
p. 22 Defintitions Copy is the reproduction of and original in exactly the same materials and methods. Reconstruction is the recreation of an original in where material and method can differ from the original, but where the result is the same. Modification can be done in two ways.
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The first is to try for the appearance of the original, but with conscious choices of differing materials and/or method. The second is to create something new. One has then made conscious choices by using something from the original, for example pattern or technique.
p. 24 Threads In analysis, one counts threads and weft. When one shall use the analysis for reconstruction the yarn count is of utmost importance. If the thread and warp densities per centimetre are too high, the yarn count will also be too high, but one must take the air in between the threads in to account. It is important that whoever will carry out the reconstruction has seen the original and preferably has made the analysis, because different textiles have different expressions. The most important part of reconstruction is the thread and if the thread is not right, the whole expression of the reconstruction in relation to the original can be lost. The Tutankhamun textiles are all made from linen threads. One problem in the reconstruction work was to find such fine linen threads as the Pharaoh weavers used in their finest weaves. They did not only spin all fibres but also twisted some of them. Linen fibres in Sweden are today approximately 60 centimetres long. If one takes two linen fibres, twist them together in one end and stretch them, one gets a 120 centimetre unspun fibre thread. The Egyptian weavers were able to achieve such a thin and light thread that over 150 metres of length weighed less than one gram. These fine threads have been used in weaves with 50 to 75 threads per centimetre in the warp and 40 to 130 weft threads per centimetre, an almost incredible fineness which gives a very soft linen fabric. We knew that there were no such fine threads to purchase. The Tutankhamun project was early on a project featured in media, so we were able to ask journalists from various papers if they could write that we wanted fine linen yarn from people’s attics. We received a lot of thread from these want ads, but none as thin as we needed. At one point, we were on TV talking about the project and our need for thread and thereafter received a letter from a lady in Skåne, containing a very thin thread that she had spun by hand on a Swedish spinning wheel. The thread was thin and if there would have been a couple kilos, that would have been good. For a tunic, 60 000 metres of thread are needed. How long would it take to spin so much thread by hand? We realised that we would seek a machine-‐spun, very thin linen thread. We found it in Bergamo, Italy. There was a spinning mill that had a 130/1 yarn, warp spun. Number 130/1 weighs 1 gram and is 130 metres long. In Sweden, the industry spun warp and weft spun threads up until 1960, but after that the industry set the cogs in one direction could thereafter only spin weft threads, although they sometimes increased the twist to make warp threads. For a long time, we had saved old threads on the attic of the School of Weaving in Borås, as we needed them for analysis projects with the students every year. On the attic, there
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was a 150/1 linen yarn. But this was weft spun, which made it unusable for the Tutankhamun project. Before World War 2, airplanes were made out of wood, covered with reinforced linen fabric. The faster the airplane, the thinner the thread. Our 150/1 thread had been weft thread for an airplane weave. The pilots also had parachutes made from silk, today these are made from polyester material. If a pilot is forced to parachute from the airplane and survives, he also today receives a golden pin in the form of a silkworm from the manufacturer of the parachutes. The thinnest single-‐ply threads were used for Tutankhamun's tunics, head cloths, and weft for his tapestry woven gloves, and so on. Warp for patterned collars, ribbons for the coronation tunic and the red ribbons are from twisted threads – we used 120/2 and 90/2 linen yarns.
p. 28 Dyeing The threads from Italy were rolled on cones and we needed them in hanks in order to dye. We needed three shades of red and blue. If one should pick in threads to a duck in red or blue on a white background, dark dyes were needed. When we weaved stripes in colour on a white warp we did not need as dark colours. If the warp and weft were dyed threads, they could not appear darker than the ducks and stripes. Therefore, these threads were dyed in the lightest shades. Tutankhamun’s textiles are believed to be dyed in madder, indigo and safflower. White threads could have been naturally white in different shades, today called unbleached, golden bleached, semi-‐bleached or bleached. We say white threads for all threads that appear white to us. The white threads could also have been yellow. We dyed the blue threads at indigo dyer Yasuo Nakajima in Japan, in three to four different threads. The red was complicated to dye. It is easy to dye woollen threads with madder, but it is more difficult to dye linen threads as they need to be pickled before dyeing. The dyer Bernt Wernlund from Kinna in Västra Götaland region had found a madder recipe in the Ciba-‐Geigy archives in Basel. The thread needs to be pickled in stale linseed oil mixed with sheep excrements. The thread should be dipped and dried until the whole thread is soaked and dried, before dyeing. This preparation of the pickling takes about a year. We did not have that amount of time. Therefore we dyed the red nuances using direct dyes, which is a simplified synthetic dyeing method carried out by Bernt Wernlund who can nuance colours with great exactness.
p. 28 Gluing of yarns We were happy when we received the threads, dyed in many shades. The warp threads were to be glued and before that hanks needed to be rolled onto cones in order to be glued, and there were many metres of thread. We needed some tools and a method for gluing the threads with linseed solution. A couple of tablespoons of linseed were boiled
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into a slimy solution with half a litre of water, then the linseeds were separated and the glue was ready to use. White warp threads were glued once and dyed threads were glued twice, for durability. We needed a ceramic bowl with two hanks at the bottom. The original for that ceramic bowl was in The Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and is believed to have been used for wet twisting of thread. Our bowl was made by ceramicist Yrjö Häkkinen in Borås. We poured the glue in the bowl and put the cones on the spool rack with curtain guide rings. The thread went from the spool rack into the bowl and was then rolled on bobbins, but it had to be dry before it could be rolled. It took us a week to have the method ready. The thread went from the spool rack into the bowl with glue, was dried off with a sponge, thereafter onto the table where there was a standing fan from a Volvo car that we aimed at the bobbin and on top of which was a rag that also dried the thread off. We were now thus ready to carry on with cross rolling to the bobbin and this needed to be conducted with precision. The left hand was supposed to direct the rag: front, back, and middle, middle, i.e. a little movement two times in the middle and then repeat the movement as the right hand would roll the bobbin. The threads were now cross-‐rolled and thread could as such not creep into previously rolled laps on the bobbin. If the thin thread snapped it would be impossible to find it without cross rolling. Therefore the intended rolling, but not anyone is able to carry out two so different actions while maintaining coordination. It was then we realised that the dissimilarity between our bodies became the strength of the project, since there were so many actions that were to be carried out with focused and coordinated awareness.
p. 30 Weaving Utensils The picture to the right is a model of a weaving mill from approximately 2 000 B.C. It was found in 1920 in Meket Re’s grave at the Deir el-‐Bahri temple in Luxor. They are now exhibited at The Egyptian Museum in Cairo. In the model, women are preparing for weaving. They work on a simple ground loom with great width. Other women warp on some sticks that are attached to wall, some spin and some roll wefts. The looms that Bedouin women use today are the same as those from 4 000 years ago. It is likely that Tutankhamun’s weavers used the same types of utensils and looms. In reconstruction of Tutankhamun’s textiles, we used our regular utensils and looms, even if this equipment is different than the one the weavers of yesteryear had access to. Our equipment is a prerequisite for our work. We are not used to using other equipment than our own and we can make the same things with this, as they once did with their equipment. We understand how they weaved, but our bodies are used to weaving in a different way. There are more preparations to be done when weaving today, but the result is similar to theirs. Two women are warping in the model. Our warp is different from theirs, even if their type of war exists also today. We use a floor-‐standing warp with a cross and an axle. On the axle are two crosses and four supports that we warp around. Both now and then,
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weaving reeds are being used. The weaving reeds are used to arrange warp threads. The Bedouin women of today lay down the lease, sley and heddle in their looms. We use weaving reeds for sleying which to us means that we are spreading the warp threads. We use a beater on our loom to strike the weave. They make different preparations. In the loom in the model they have a harness where they spread warp threads and heddle at the same time. One cannot see how the striking is done in the model. We believe that one presses the weft with some type of utensil along the warp threads. The Bedouin women in Egypt today use the tip of gazelle’s horn, approximately 12 centimetres ling, shaped by boiling it to fit the user’s hand. On the pictures of the model a weaving assistant is present. We believe she receives the weave stick. This can be due to the great width of the weave. Weaving
p. 34 Preparing the Warp Warping When the threads are glued they are to be warped. When warping, one arranges the threads according to a specific length. One can warp with one or several threads. If one has warped from top down and up again, one has a portee. When one is ready warping one is to tie the lease and tie around the warp at a certain distance. Thereafter, the warp is taken down into a chain. Pre-‐sleying At the pre-‐sleying the warp threads are spread by lease sticks to a determined width. The warp is opened and the lease sticks are put into the lease. The long part is put into a reed or reed comb and is received by a cane. Winding the warp on the loom The warp is to be rolled onto the warp beam of the loom. It is moved throughout the winding on the loom. One person hands the moving of the lease sticks and the laying of the beam sticks, as the warp beam is turned around. Another person holds the warp threads and checks the tension of the threads as well as moving forward with the warp. It is important that the tension of the threads is even by winding of the warp and that the cooperation works.
p. 36 Dressing the loom Threading The warp threads are sorted in a given order. The heddle is hanged from shafts that are usually two, for tabby, but there can also be more shafts, depending on density. The threads are put through the heddle eyes, usually one thread per heddle.
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Sleying With a reed the threads are spread widely or closely according to the decided width of the weave. The reeds come in different densities, normally graded after how many gaps there are per every 10 centimetres. We used 185/10 for the “Duck” tunic and put three threads in each gap = dent. The reed was also used to strike the weft. Tying the warp to the cloth beam After sleying one ties all warp threads in equal tension around a rod attached to the cloth beam. There are various ways of tying the warp to the cloth beam. We tie a group of threads over and a group under the rod and check the tension. One puts a string between the warp threads even out those coming from under/over the rod. Upper and lower tie-‐up All looms at the School of Weaving had countermarch with top lams, short lams and long lams. They were designed by Ulla Cyrus-‐Zetterström and they are manufactured at AK:s workshop in Öxabäck. After the harnesses are attached to the top lams they are to be tied to the pedals via the lams. One ties the harness to the short lams, that are to be lowered and to the long lams for the threads that are to be raised.
p. 41 WEAVING Bobbin winding The weft is to be winding before one can start weaving. One could use paper quills and one can wind with a by hand or by using an electrified winding apparatus. Even tension is important here too. The size of the spools can vary according to material and product. One puts the spool on a rod in the shuttle. Weaving The lease is created in the warp through pushing the pedals. The shuttle with the weft is put into the lease and is struck with the beater. One pedals again and puts the shuttle in the new lease, strikes and repeats.
p. 41 Finishing The weave that is removed from a loom is a raw fabric. There are different ways of carrying out after treatments, depending on the product. The raw fabric is put in water, washed, rinsed, dried and pressed. Thereafter, it is considered ready.
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The Textiles
p. 43 Red Bands Carter No. 100 f. Tutankhamun had many belts. Several of them have red ribbons interwoven with the patterned belt that went around the back. The belts have been in children’s and adult sizes. The decorative belts with red ribbons have most likely been used at ceremonial occasions. Only members of the royal family wore the red ribbons. In The Egyptian Museum in Cairo one can see an adult belt that is preserved and is placed on the wall above the “Syrian” tunic. There are also red ribbons in child’s size that are in another display case. The preserved adult belt has tapestry woven falcon and double, long red bands in each end, so called “Amarna Sash”. The red bands have been tied two to two and the long end with fringes and tassels have been hanging free. The tapestry woven belt and the bands have been attached. The red ribbons are woven in a rep technique where two warp threads follow each other. In the transition from rep to tapestry the density is changed from double to single warp threads. On the ribbon a triangular pattern was woven in order to handle the transition. This is skilled weaving technique. In the outer ends of the red ribbons are the tapestry woven insignia of Tutankhamun. The ribbons are striped in white, blue and white on red background. The strip is placed on the sides of the ribbons, along the edge of the ribbons which is approximately 4-‐5 centimetres. We were unable to measure the length. At the ends of the ribbons there are braided fringes with tassels. The binding is warp rep with double warp threads. The warp density varies from 32 double threads to 40 double threads/centimetre and twisted linen yarn in three different colours. The weft density is 16-‐18 weft threads per centimetre using red linen yarn. In the reconstruction we used 120/2 linen yarn for the warp and weft. After a couple of sample weaves we decided that the warp density should be 33 double threads/centimetre and reeds 110/10 with one thread in heddle and three double threads in pipes. The weft density became 14-‐15 wefts in loom. The number of warp threads became 147 double (in total 294 threads) and the sley width 4.45 centimetres. There was no weaving take-‐up, but the width became a little wider than the in the originals. We also weaved a children’s version in smaller width for the exhibition. For the exhibition we also worked on interpretations of the originals. Many objects demanded a substantial amount of working hours. We chose to simplify the work on some objects. The “Falcon” belt is one of those. It was manufactured in various parts. The insignia pattern was printed on a hand woven cotton rep. The red ribbons were woven and the panel of the belt was printed. The printing took concentration as the patterns were small and there were several colours. The various parts were thereafter sewn into belts, red ribbons and insignia with fringe and tassels.
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p. 44 Head Cloth, Khat in Arabic Carter No. 50k There is a gallery featuring Tutankhamun’s textiles at The Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The gallery is in the back end of the second floor, in front of the rooms with gold objects. Sometimes when working in the museum, groups of textiles appear with a guide, describing the textiles. There are guides stating that there is a pair of men’s underwear in the display case on the wall and Tutankhamun’s apron, but that is wrong. In the display there is a pair of underwear and in the same display there is a head cloth. It is u-‐shaped with ribbon on the upper straight part. Tutankhamun had many head cloths. That which is in the wall display case is made from white linen yarn. He also had a blue head cloth. The head cloth in The Egyptian Museum was measured form the outside of the glass case. It is a little over 64 centimetres wide and 48 centimetres high. The measurement of the quality of the fabric was made from an enlargement of a photograph with the measuring tape attached to the outside of the glass case. Since there was some distance between the glass of the case and the object, we calculated the density to 8 millimetres, which made for approximately 1 centimetre in reality. The binding of the fabric is tabby, the warp density is 48.5 to 49 threads per centimetre and the weft density is 33 to 34 wefts per centimetre. The reconstruction of the fabric for the head cloth was made using 130/1 linen yarn for both warp and weft with 48 threads per centimetre and 35 wefts per centimetre. The head cloth is manufactured from two u-‐shaped parts, which are equal in size and have been sewn together along the edge except from on top of the straight part. There are selvedge edges that are unfolded but sewn together with the ribbon. On each side it is open. The U-‐shape’s edge is folded and both parts are sewn together from the outside. On top there is a ribbon attached to a distance of 39 centimetres and on each side, the ribbon hangs freely in the 30 centimetres. That means that Tutankhamun measured 39 centimetres from the back of one ear to the back of the other ear, over the forehead. To put the head cloth on, one lays it over the forehead and attaches the ribbons in back and let the fabric hang down like a page haircut. For the exhibition we made blue head cloth after analysing the white one. The sewing for the reconstruction was made after the shape and manufacture of the original. There were also head cloths in various sizes but in the same shape. There are also striped head cloths sewn in a different shape. The striped head cloth is one of the oldest Pharaoh-‐era head cloths in Egypt. On the gold mask, Tutankhamun wears a striped head cloth. It hangs in front of the shoulders and in the back the fabric is gathered and tied with the ribbon. One can also see a similar head cloth on Giza Sphinx, just south of Cairo. These royal head cloths were called Nemes. We made an interpretation of the striped head for the exhibition. According to Carter, he threw away several head cloths that were in such poor conditions that they could not be salvaged.
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p. 48 Loincloth Carter No. 43f Loincloth was a unisex garment worn by men, women and children. It is a simple triangular piece that was used in Pharaoh-‐era Egypt. The long side went around the ways or hip and was tied with attached ribbons around the body. The edge of the loincloth was put between the legs and was tucked in at the front, like a modern day cloth diaper. Carter has noted more than 100 pieces of underwear among the findings. Most were in adult size but some were smaller and have been worn by Tutankhamun as a child. All are made using a very fine linen thread. We analysed the loincloth form a photograph. The measuring tape was placed outside the glass case at the photographing. We assumed that 8 millimetres was the equivalent of 1 centimetre since there was distance between the glass and the object. The fabric is woven in tabby using a simple S-‐spun linen yarn. Warp and weft density varied a lot. We checked the density in five places and had the warp density at 84, 96, 70, 80, 86 threads per centimetre and the weft density at 49, 43, 42, 43, 39 per centimetre. This fabric is tight, has no air in between the threads and drapes heavily as compared to the fabrics for tunics and head clothes that are more airy and with lighter drape. We saw that the loincloth was coarser in the structure than the tunics. We used 130/1 linen yarn for tunics and head cloths instead of 150/1 linen yarn, which we did not have access to. Therefore, we decided to make the loincloth a little coarser and used 90/1 linen yarn as warp and 130/1 linen yarn as weft. We made sample weaves with 54 threads and 30 wefts per centimetre and found that the structure became like that of the original. What we also saw was that the tension in the weave became very high, so the weft snapped in certain places, which had also happened in the original fabric. In spite of al, our reconstruction became coarser than the original, but still the fabric is thin and fine. In order to make one pair of underwear one needs a fabric that is 85 centimetres wide and 90 centimetres long. The fabric is cut on the diagonal and the selvedge edges are placed against each other to make a triangular shape. The left selvedge edge is folded in 2 millimetres and is placed approximately 2 millimetres over the right selvedge edge. One starts at the top by attaching the folded edge using thrown stitches against the unfolded edge with 6 stitches per centimetre. One sews the rolled edge on the right side from the bottom up. Thereafter one rolls the top edge in a small roll that widens in the middle to approximately 1 centimetre. Then the rolled edge narrows towards the left edge. Thereafter, the left rolled edge is sewn from the top down to the tip. The loincloth have a simplified fell stitch in the middle that is 2 millimetres wide and all seams are sewn facing the outside of the underwear. Then, ribbons are attached to the right and left sides at the top. All Tutankhamun’s clothes are sewn from the outside of the garments with visible seams even if the edges are folded, compared to today’s garments that are sewn from the back and turned and pressed from the outside.
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p. 51 Collar Carter No 21o Christina’s thinking: “While working in The Egyptian Museum I was looking at circle-‐woven collars many times, thinking about which method they used to be able to weave them. Several researchers have described the collars as straight ribbons manufactured by ribbon-‐weaving method and laid in a circle, but this is incorrect, as the collars are woven in a circle. Every time I returned to my workplace at the School of Weaving at the University of Borås I asked the students how they thought the circle-‐woven collars were woven. They came up with several unrealistic suggestions. One of the students believed one could weave in a circle by not having a warp beam in the back, thus being able to move the whole warp around and weave a circle collar. Kazuyo Nomura was working at a project at the School of Weaving at the time. She heard about the proposed method and did not believe that it would work, that it would only result in a semi-‐circle, which turned out correct. I then asked Kazuyo what method she would believe would result in being able to make a circle collar. She replied: You know how one cuts a cake in equal parts? What she meant was that this was a mathematical problem that was to be turned into a weaving method.” Kazuyo’s thinking: “How did they weave? I started comparing a regular weave to Tutankhamun’s circle collar. All warp threads are the same length in a regular weave, but in Tutankhamun’s collar the warp threads are different lengths from right to left. The weft in a normal weave is continuous but the weft in Tutankhamun’s collar has continuous and discontinuous parts that are woven into each other in order to increase one side more than the other. How much difference is there in warp length from right to left in Tutankhamun’s collar? Outer ring: 48.7 centimetres Inner ring: 31.7 centimetres If one draws the collar as a straight weave, one gets a long thin weave with an offset finish. Every warp thread is in a different length. The difference between the long and short warp is considerable. It is possible to weave in a circle, if one can adjust the tension thread by thread. There is close to 300 threads so it is difficult to adjust. The difference between the lengths of the warp threads in Tutankhamun’s collar is to considerable to be “fixed” during the weaving, to make a whole circle. Was there no basic method? Mathematical calculation of the warp: I noticed that a triangular shape was created by the difference between the longest and shortest warp thread and thus one can use Pythagoras theorem. Pythagoras theorem is the teaching about the relationship between angles and sides in a triangle and it was used in ancient Egypt. (see drawing)
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After having looked at Nino’s image of the collar I could see that the pattern was reversed in the direction of the warp. The pattern consists of small red and blue crosses with white contour and a small pattern inside of the edge on both sides and double weft part as base. One could warp half the width and twice the length of the warp and fold it around a stick at the back. The first warp thread and the last warp thread are the same. The two threads in the very middle are also the same thread. The weaving technique is the same as for the side ribbons of the “Syrian” tunic. The threads not used for patterns in the warp direction hang untied from the back. Above the warp beam one could attach a stick, as usual, with strings. Thereafter the pattern was heddled on three harnesses and the warp was attached at the front without beater and sley between two flat sticks held together by vices. Kazuyo cut a carton paper circle that corresponded to the shape of the collar and attached it under the warp at the front. A knife was used for the striking instead of a sley and beater. She weaved after the shape of the paper model, increased the right side with extra weft, that were picked in and at the same time the two four-‐thread bolls that made up the fringes on the outer and inner sides where pedalled, shuttled and handled. When moving forward one had to loosen the vices and could then pull half of the warp forward, since the warp threads turned around the stick. Then, all warp threads where tensioned equally and where re-‐attached and one could weave another part, until the whole collar became a circle. In the reconstruction linen yarns 120/2 and 140/2 were mixed in the warp and weft, in red blue and white. The warp density was approximately 95 threads per centimetre, in total 287 warp threads. The width of the weave was 3 centimetres and the woven-‐in fringe was 3-‐5 millimetres on both selvedge edges. The collar has a double fringe in a width of about 1 centimetre attached in the beginning and end of the collar. There are also two ribbons made from strings attached to the inner sides of the collar. There has also been small, round, punched, golden pieces of metal attached around the collar.
p. 56 Gloves Carter No. 46cc, 367f Tutankhamun brought several gloves to his grave, also children’s gloves. His gloves were modern in shape with a band going around all fingers, beginning and ending at the wrist. The gloves are either in simple mono-‐colours or patterned, and were long or short. There were also driving gloves with thumbs and pinkie fingers free, to able to hold the horse’s reigns. All gloves are made from linen yarn. The patter-‐woven gloves have squared rep ribbons or mono-‐coloured ribbons around the glove. The low ends were edged in red fabric. They are also lined and have ribbons attached at the wrist. One has made tapestry-‐woven pieces of fabric and cut out the shape of the hand. The motive is lotus flower buds in red or blue with a white contour and a small dot in red or blue. The warp is most likely twisted linen yarn with a density of 22-‐24 threads per centimetre. Weft density could not be calculated sine there was a large number of wefts
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of thin single linen yarn – even though we had an enlarged image of the glove. After having sample woven the tapestry pattern we realised it must have been 130-‐135 wefts per centimetre. On one glove the lotus motive is directed upwards and on the other the pattern is directed downwards. (Carter 46cc) We analysed the squared side ribbon on the patterned glove. (Carter 367f) The ribbon is 1-‐5-‐1-‐6 centimetres wide, without seam. The ribbon could have been 2 centimetres wide originally. The warp is single-‐ply linen yarn with 62-‐64 threads per centimetre in rep with small squares in blue, red and white. The weft density is 11-‐12 wefts per centimetre and it is impossible to tell if the weft is twisted or single-‐ply since the warp covers the weft. There are patterned gloves with single-‐coloured side ribbons as well. (Carter 46cc) The ribbon is most likely cut from a piece of cloth and has been attached along the warp direction. Both the warp and weft are in single-‐ply yarns, warp density is 64-‐68 threads per centimetre and weft density is 30-‐31 threads per centimetre and binding is tabby. For one glove, approximately 1 metre of ribbon is required. When one sews a pair of gloves, one is to draw a hand and cut it in four parts and sew them together in pairs with a ribbon that is approximately 2 centimetres wide and 1 metre long. One sews from the front. One starts sewing at the wrist and attaches the ribbon around all the fingers using the fabric of the glove. The fabric is to be folded in 2 millimetres and attached to the edge of the ribbon from the front. When the ribbon is attached on both sides, one turns the glove outside in and attaches the lining. This is the same size as the two parts that are already attached to the ribbon. When the inside is out one sews the lining fabric over the ribbon so that the edge of the ribbons ends up in between the lining and the fabric of the glove. Thereafter, the glove is edged in the bottom end with a ribbon with folded edge, attached to the front and thereafter to the back. Finally, two ribbons are attached by wrist on the front end. We knew it would take a lot of time to make the reconstruction of the lotus pattern in tapestry technique but we still wanted a sample weave. First we needed to make a test of quality. We used one of our thinnest twisted linen threads, 120/2, for warp and the thinnest single-‐ply thread, 130/1, in the weft and decided the warp density to be 21 threads per centimetre and reeds 105/10 with two threads in dents. This is a bit wider than the original but when we put the weft in, the structure looked almost likes that of the original. We did another trial set with the same warp to try out the lotus pattern. The width of the sample was 20 centimetres and we weaved approximately twelve centimetres. The weft was 130/1 with approximately 132 wefts per centimetre. It took eight hours to weave two rows of lotuses with 132 picked-‐in wefts per centimetre and one wonders how many weavers there were and what it time it took to weave all the metres of fabric required for Tutankhamun. When weaving in the tapestry technique one uses one’s eyes to see the pattern, but this was not sufficient for the weaving of the lotus pattern. We had to count the wefts in each pattern and also look at the total picture, otherwise the pattern becomes skewed. The pattern report is approximately 1.6 centimetres and consists of a blue and a red lotus flower bud, paced vertically. The lotus motif is adjusted sideways and when one describes the pattern the sequence becomes dot, lotus flower bud and stem. The lotus flow bud from the next pattern form ends up in the stem from the previous bud.
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The original glove is cut around all fingers and the wrist, and interestingly, when we cut the sample weave, the entire weft was stuck. The fineness of the thread and the density of the weaving mean that the fabric is so dense that the threads do not come off the fabric. Time and our values were the reasons why we chose to make an interpretation of the glove for the exhibition. We chose to print the lotus motif. A teacher in textile printing at The Swedish School of Textiles at the University of Borås, Christer Damberg, used a computer in his work and could scan the motif from a small part of photograph where the pattern was clear. It had many brown shades. The pattern was in many brown shades. After editing the pattern only three shades remained on the display. Three shades were interpreted to white base colour and pattern in red and blue. We had to scan the pattern, finish it, and transferring it to two frames Another task was to print the small lotus pattern with the dot and place the frame right so that there was an appropriate amount of white base between the reports. Every other row of pattern in lotus motif was red and the next was blue. The red lotus flower bud has a blue dot and the blue bud has a red dot. The fabric should make a contour around bud and dot. It was all about a steady hand in the manual printing work. The contour could not be to narrow or to wide but just wide enough. The amount of colour was also important, because even though the pattern shapes were small and a small frame was used, a certain amount of colour was required.
p. 64 The Striped Tunic Carter No. 50j A tunic in Egypt in the age of Tutankhamun was manufactured in thin, fine linen yarn and was either patterned over the whole surface or un-‐patterned. The shape was like a sheet, folded in the middle and sewn together in the sides. There are no shoulder seams and no sleeves. The striped tunic is in adult’s size. It is approximately 110 centimetres wide and 140 centimetres long and has a twisted fringe at the bottom. The tunic is simple in its patterning but beautiful with pattern over the entire surface in the weft direction, due to the colour sequence of the stripes being irregular. The striped tunic is placed in a double-‐size display case in the ground floor of the Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Measuring the striped tunic was difficult, since another tunic is placed on top. The striped one is in decomposed condition but it is still possible to see stripes in blue and rep on white background. The striping needed to be documented. We placed a painter’s adhesive tape on the side of the glass display next to the tunic. We had a permit to work in the museum, both by the Museum Director and by the Chief of Police who had two telephones on his desk. The Director is in charge of museum personnel and researchers. The Chief of Police is in charge of all security personnel. Both needed one day to inform all staff that we would be working for two weeks in the department where the Tutankhamun textiles are. That is why it was fine to place painter’s tape on a glass display case among all the visiting tourists around us. When the tape was in place it was all about crouching to its height in order to draw the whole striping of the tunic using red and blue pens. A technique used by carpenters looking for straight lines. It was also about looking for several wefts wove together and in the same
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colour as the “Duck” tunic. We later used the tape in the reproduction of the striped tunic. One learns structure and density by looking at the tunics, which we came very close to. It is also about looking for the air between the warp thread, even when there is more than 60 threads per centimetre. The whole striped tunic is made of a thin singly-‐ply linen yarn in both warp and weft. The construction is tabby. We were unable to document the density since we saw the tunic in a skewed perspective. Kazuyo tells: “In the reproduction I weaved a fabric that was 110 centimetres wide, out of white linen yarn, 130/1, in the warp and base weft. The warp threads were glued once in linseed reduction. The coloured stripes in blue and red had linen yarn, 90/1, as weft. The warp density was 60 threads per centimetre and the total number of warp threads was 6600 threads. The thinnest thread in the project was linen yarn 130/1. To get some air in between the threads, like the original, I chose to have 60 warp threads and 30 wefts per centimetre of the white thread and 28-‐29 wefts per centimetre in the coloured stripes. I warped to hanks with four threads. It was important to get the thread tenacity even. I warped on hank continuously, without pausing, the same as all other warps in the project. It took approximately four hours to warp one hank and the pre-‐sleying took approximately one day. The winding of the warp also required even tenacity. Then we pulled out the entire hank in the weaving room at the School of Weaving. We had experiences from previous projects when it came to wide and long linen warps. Even winding of linen warps is very important for the result. The warp for the striped tunic was approximately 6 metres. We have clear roles in the winding. Christina usually holds the warp and I pull it on, lay on the beam sticks and move the weaving sticks. When we pull on his type of warp, the weaving sticks cannot be moved haphazardly. I move them slowly and a little bit at a time until there is tension in the warp threads, then one is able to move the weaving sticks longer. When I start pulling on the warp I make sure that the warp is not too thick on the warp beam. The cooperation is important. After every couple of laps I carefully place beam sticks so that they are horizontal and in even distance to each other. I place them on top of each other so that the beam sticks fix the tension of the warp. When the winding is finished, I hang the weaving sticks right by the heddle. Most of Tutankhamun’s textiles are woven in tabby. One can weave tabby in two different harnesses, but I chose to heddle on eight harnesses due to high warp density. If one threads on two harnesses, it becomes 3300 harnesses, which doesn’t fit on a width of 110 centimetres. I can heddle 400 threads per hour straight through eight harnesses since my hands are quick and I have great concentration, but on average I heddle 300 threads per hour. The heddling of the striped tunic took 22 hours. I used a 200/10 reeds with three threads in each dents. The reed has two dents on 1 millimetre. The very tight reeds required great concentration so that it would not skip or put to many threads in the same dents. I carried out the sleying in two days. The tying of the warp means to stretch the threads evenly between the back beam and the hand, then the threads are tied around the rod. I adjusted the tension of the warp threads several times and tied a string between the groups of warp threads so that the threads would be placed in parallel. This took half a day. We had countermarch on all looms. The
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design of the loom was carried out. In order to start weaving, I needed to wind the weft. We had linen yarn, 130/1 as weft in the basic weave. Fine spools make the weaving easier. They are not to be so thick so that it becomes too tight in the shuttle, but one still has to have enough weft thread so that one does not need to change spool as often. Spools are to be tight, especially when using inflexible linen yarn. Soft spools can easily become loose during the shuttling. When all parts of the preparatory work are done, the weaving works as it should. What is special in the weaving of Tutankhamun’s textiles is the thin linen yarns and the high density. The threads now and then may have been different. The weavers of yesteryear used hand-‐spun threads and we use machine-‐spun ones. Many times, I wondered how the weavers managed to handle such thin threads and weave such fine fabrics, but they must have had strong hand-‐spun threads. We had our utensils in our work, but we know that their utensils and methods were different. I had a difficult time sometimes, since many threads, especially the dyed ones, could break easily. This was because we had steel reeds and our looms have fixed beams, that fix the warp in predetermined settings. This was not necessarily a trouble for those weaving without reeds and with a flexible warp in their simple ground-‐looms. I will never know whether those weaving for Tutankhamun had a difficult time. When the fabric was woven it was a raw fabric that needed to be soaked in water before it was ready for sewing. We placed the fabric in a washing tub at the department of textile conservation at the Museum of Textile History, Borås. We placed the striped fabric and filled up with water and a few drops of cleansing agent, tipped the tub to empty the water and rinsed a few times. Thereafter, the rest of the water was pressed out using a painter’s roll. We also placed pieces of glass on the edge of the fabric and put the fans on, and watched them. The fabric dried quickly and we rolled it onto a paper tube clad in gauze and carried it to the School of Weaving. We sewed the sides from the outside to the armpits, cut holes for the neck and slits, folded the edges with a rolled hem towards the outside, manufactured a braided string as ribbon and twisted a fringe at the bottom. For the fringe we used 30 warp threads with 15 threads in each hand, turned in the same direction until the fringe turns by itself in the opposite direction. This makes two fringes per centimetre and 440 fringes in total, around the whole tunic. It took five minutes to make two fringes and in total 18 hours and 30 minutes to make all fringes.
p. 69 The “Duck” tunic Carter No. 50a Christina tells: “One of the first times we were in the Egyptian Museum working, I was looking at the “Duck” tunic during a pause in the reproduction work. It was then hanging with the backside outward to the left in the room with Tutankhamun’s textiles, a little high in a wall-‐mounted display. The two lower rows of ducks where almost at eye level. I then discovered a difference in size between the first and second row of ducks and went to fetch a ruler to see if I was right. Using the ruler, I could see that there was a difference of two millimetres. The first row of standing ducks was on the red line. The next row
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ducks was a bit smaller and was standing a little above the woven line. The second row’s ducks were crouching slightly and that made curious as to how the ducks looked further up. I borrowed a stool from the guards and got up to see that the third and fourth row of ducks were flying with their wings spread and with their feet angled backwards, as birds do when picking up speed. On the “Duck” tunic there is a hole down to the left in the tunic and there I saw that the ducks on the bottom of the front side were erect, as on the first row of ducks on the backside. The sequence of events would then be that the first row’s ducks are standing erect, in the second row they are crouching a little, they are flying in the third and fourth rows before coming in to land, and finally they are standing up at the bottom of the tunic. At one point Inger Dahlin-‐Roos, a journalist from Borås Tidning, a Swedish newspaper, went with us to Cairo. Then, an analysis of all ducks and stripes on the backside of the tunic was carried out. I was on a stool and was reading out what I saw and Inger wrote down what she heard. The notes were transcribed and I got them back with analysis of the whole backside. It looks like this:
p. 70 Weaving analysis From the bottom/The birds on the bottom row. Outer edge from right – warp direction Red, white, blue, white, red, white, blue Weft direction: fringe 7 white, 5 red, 7 mm white, 3 red (together) Note! The bird’s foot and red wefts in the same reed. Foot and leg red, the belly between the legs blue. Several threads together. Belly – back = 12 weft. Note! The tabby wefts are in the same reed as the pattern weft, but the pattern weft does not tie tabby to vertical lines (under one, over two). 22 warp threads between the legs 59-‐60 warp threads in the back 10 warp threads the beak 14 warp threads I the upper part of the head 6-‐7 warp threads the throat 26 warp threads the wing. The wing is 23 warp threads from the back. Weft The legs 8 wefts high From blue bottom line 3 white wefts. 4:th weft is wing. The wing 8 wefts The bum 4 wefts The throat, backside vertical or curved, front side curved neck line 17 wefts. The head 6 wefts. Note: blue bird, red wing and red bum.
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Above the birdie: 4 white wefts 3 red threads in one reed 26 white 4 blue 6 white 5 red 7 white 4 blue White (re-‐measurement) Birds on the row: 28 sure several unsure, probably total 33. Note not thread-‐straight placed but approximately. Birds on second row approx. 33. Birds on row 2 are not standing in the same reed as the thick line but one step (weft) above. 3 white above the head, thereafter… Bird count second row The back 70 warp threads The length of the wing 28-‐30 From the bum to the wing 24 warp threads In front of the wing (in the upper edge) 28 warp threads. = 80 warp threads warp threads may vary. 8 warp threads the throat from right to left. 12 wefts inside of the body 10 wefts between the blue line around the stomach. 8-‐9 wefts the head. The beak is in the upper edge and a completely straight line. If the line is blue – red legs and red body or blue legs. Blue body has red wing and red tail and vice versa meaning blue tail for red legs. Colour sequence Birds: farthest down from the right: blue, inside of the line, red outside. Above the red, blue, red, blue. When the blue comes it meets a red on the other line. Other line ends with red (?) Comparasion between the two lower rows. Birds on the lower row are ½ of a body closer to each other than the line. Bird sequence the second row from the top Bird colour Wing Colour Legs Tail Red blue red blue Blue red Red blue Blue red Red blue Blue red Red blue Blue red Red blue
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Blue red Red blue Blue blue blue Red red Blue blue red? Red Red blue Blue blue blue red Red blue Blue blue
p. 74
Christina tells: “When I returned to the Egyptian Museum, the staff had taken down the “Duck” tunic to be examined and the display was empty. The staff had previously heard me talking about the ducks and their position on the tunic. They could look at the front side and shot a slide that I was given. It showed the fifth row with woven ducks in height with the chest on the front side. The ducks were flying and their movement was larger than on the third and fourth row on the backside. The flight began a little carefully before they were flying for real on the front of the tunic and on the sixth and seventh row they are beginning the landing, until they are standing still on the eighth row down at the front of the tunic. Who drew the pattern? That is not known today, but it was someone who knew the symbolic meaning of birds flying and that birds that fly have their feet placed backwards. I believe it was an important ceremonial tunic, since the ducks signify re-‐birth. Tutankhamun may have worn it when he returned to Thebes and there was a ceremony for the new god who came and resurrected the old faith. At that occasion, the “Duck” tunic could have been a suitably patterned tunic. It was then he was given a new name by the priests – Tutankhamun. The tunic was woven in a single-‐ply linen yarn in the warp and weft with a tabby base but the stripes and the birds feature double wefts together. The warp density was very high, 68 threads per centimetre, but still has a certain transparency so that one can see through the stripes on the front from the back side. Carter wrote that the tunic was yellow with green ducks. I saw that the tunic was light and it is usually difficult to separate white and yellow in archaeological textiles. I also saw that all ducks are woven in blue or red thread. They are not woven vertically over each other but it looks straight. The weavers of yesteryear knew how to weave by rock of eye. The reproduction of the “Duck” tunic was woven by Eva Nilsson, former student at the School of Weaving. She had participated in an analysis project, in which she weaved small birds from a cashmere shawl from the collections of the Museum of Textile History. She listened to a lecture on Tutankhamun’s textiles and wanted to weave the “Duck” tunic even before the Tutankhamun project started. When it became real, she went on one journey to Cairo and analysed each duck more closely.
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Eva tells: “I came to Borås in the beginning of May 1999 and began heddling and sleying of 5600 threads. After that I did sample weaving but in mid-‐May I started weaving and was ready by mid-‐August. The colours of the tunic I weaved were: white, red and blue. The pattern of the tunic was striped in repeatedly red, white, blue, white or blue, white, red, blue with circa 4 centimetres of white in between the rows. In the warp there was rows in the sides, also these two were blue, white, red, blue, 3 centimetres white, then red, white, blue, white, red towards the middle. Between these two rows, ducks were woven. I weaved eight rows of ducks. All rows were different. On the first row the ducks were standing on the ground, one the next row they had taken off a bit. One the next two rows, over the shoulders of the tunic, the ducks had taken off and spread their wings. When I came to the shoulders, I weaved the ducks upside down. On the next two rows, the ducks were flying with the wings spread. On the last two rows they landed and on the last row they were standing again. I found out, when I made the reproduction, that all ducks were different from each other. Every other duck had a red body with tail and wing in blue and the other way if the duck had a blue body. In the sides of the tunic, where the duck go all the way up, every other is blue and every other is red. In total I weaved 430 ducks. The height of the ducks was circa 1.7 centimetres and the width circa 1.9 centimetres. The flying ducks were 2.8 centimetres high and 3.8 centimetres wide. The first row of ducks took me three days to weave, while the last row took me one day.” If one is to weave a duck, one begins with the feet and puts the yarn butterflies in the same reed as the tabby. The legs are woven in soumak and through six wefts. Thereafter the yarn butterflies are crossed in the same reed over 22 warp threads and woven in two wefts. The wing is woven in. For the body one thereafter weaves twelve wefts and then the width should be 59-‐60 warp threads, while 32 warp threads and fours wefts are required for the tail. In the front by the stomach the coloured yarn butterflies are crossed again and one weaves 17 wefts for the throat, five for the head and two for the beak. The tunic was sewn from the outside and had twisted fringe at the bottom. The tunic’s neck opening and vent was rolled outwards with a rolled seam, using thin twisted linen yarns and with many stitches. In the reproduction we have cut holes for the neck opening and also cut the vent at the neck opening. We twisted fringes at the bottom that were 10.5 centimetres long. We attached strings as ribbons at the neck opening. Did they have scissors and needles in 1400 B.C.? In a crafts grave in Luxor they have found a sewing needle made from silver, but one does not know if they had scissors even though they have found a hinged object made from bronze from Pharaoh times. After some time the “Duck” tunic was back in the Egyptian Museum, but then in a wall-‐mounted display case to the right in the exhibition. It hangs like before but with the front side out and it is completely brown and looks like archaeological finds usually do. After the failed conservation, all colours are gone.
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p. 78 The “Falcon” tunic Carter No. 367i Tutankhamun had one richly patterned tunic. It hangs in an air-‐tight wall-‐mounted display case between two sheets of glass with a wooden frame in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The case is one wall with daylight shining on the tunic, thus it is partially bleached and the air-‐tightness has caused the colour to transfer to the glass, in the same way as slide photographs placed in air-‐tight frames. It is in poor condition today, but was most beautiful when it was new. It hangs with the back facing the viewer. Along the outer edges, both at the back and front, is a pattern that consists of the pointed crown leaves of the blue lotus. The blue crown leaves are woven all the way down and up and from top down on both outer edges. The whole bottom of the tunic has been blue with striped rosettes in red, blue and white. On the top of the neck a woven falcon with hanging legs is visible, with its wings spreading across the shoulders. On the bottom of the tunic there are hieroglyphs as well as twisted fringes. The technique is tapestry weaving in thin, fine linen yarn. The warp is with twisted linen yarn with 18-‐19 threads per centimetre. The weft is single-‐ply linen yarn and the density varies between 66 and 88 weft per centimetre and the colour is red, blue and white. It must have taken more than year to manufacture the tunic. Half a square metre of Swedish tapestry weave with wool weft takes 50 hours to weave, but then the warp density is four times lower and the weft density ten times lower than in Tutankhamun’s “Falcon” tunic. We never considered the possibility of reconstructing the “Falcon” tunic. The tapestry woven gloves are of even higher quality. There are handloom weavers who spend more than a year of working time making one tapestry weave, even today. The “Falcon” tunic is 133 centimetres long and the width is 83-‐85 centimetres. It is short and therefore Tutankhamun could not have been fully grown when he wore it. The tunic is probably ceremonial, since the falcon is an important and multi-‐faceted god named Horus. Horus is the god of heaven and light and can be portrayed as a man with the head of a falcon or as winged sun figure. The tunic is probably made in Amarna. Tutankhamun may have worn it at his father’s funeral.
p. 81 The “Syrian” tunic Carter 367j-2 Tutankhamun had tunics with birds, flowers or with stripes over the whole surface. There is one tunic that differs in form and pattern from the rest of Tutankhamun’s tunics. It is the so-‐called “Syrian” tunic, sewn with sleeves, lining and pattern around the outside edges. It is 100 centimetres wide and 118 centimetres long with twisted fringe at the bottom. The tunic has sleeves that are approximately 38 centimetres long, with three dark blue ribbons applied, with two fringes on each sleeve. It has a collar woven in a circle with Tutankhamun’s crowning name Nebcheperture woven around the entire collar. On the chest of the tunic there is a pattern in the shape of a cross with small embroidered squares in split seam and with a woven band in a small checked pattern around the embroideries. The motifs are lotus flowers and cobra snakes. The cross shape looks like the old Ankh sign and it means long life. Around the outside edges and at the bottom of the tunic there are applied embroideries and a woven ribbons.
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There are side ribbons attached to both sides of the tunic that are 12 centimetres wide. They go from the front, over the shoulders and down the back. They became a little short. One needed to adjust them at the bottom, lengthwise. The side ribbons are patterned in a geometrical pattern and the ribbons may have been made by Bedouin, who still weave similar patterns in a similar technique today. These ribbons are woven in several colours. From the outer edge of the ribbon, there is first a small chequered section with three colours and these checks are woven as a warp rep. After the rep, one has weaved with several colours and that pattern has a large report width-‐wise, which is all over the ribbon. First the pattern and then two stripes, with smaller patterns and large patterns with four colours that are in the middle of the ribbon. The square in the middle of the ribbon is in yellow colour that is fully visible. There, the pattern turns and ends with a double zigzag line. The technique is unique and the same as in circle-‐woven collars, since the ribbons are woven with four warps, double wefts and threads not used in the pattern hanging loose from the back side. The pattern also has a large report. If one was to weave the ribbons today, one would use a jacquard loom, even if this was not available in Tutankhamun’s time. In the Cairo bazaars, in 1997, there was newly made carpets in the same technique as in Tutankhamun’s time. The carpet dealers replied that these were from the Sahara. It took us a couple of trips westwards until we found weavers who could show us methods, utensils and weaving. The weavers are Bedouin and are all 50-‐70 years old. All work is carried out manually, without measuring tape, paper or pens. The spin the wool on a spindle, by throwing the spindle in the air, around and around and they twist on the thigh. Every year, in the beginning of March, the collect the wool from their sheep and they know from tradition and own experience that they have wool that is enough for a weave that is 40-‐50 centimetres wide and approximately 3.5 metres or 4 metres long. This is the annual production and next year in March new wool is collected and the next weave is made and sewn together with the first length. They usually weave three or four weaves that are sewn into a whole carpet. The length of the weave can vary from year to year since the nutrition can vary. The weavers know all patterns by hand. They pick the patterns with their fingers and using a weaving sword. To be able to see this manual manufacture was of great help in the analysis of the ribbons for Tutankhamun’s tunic. We could use the knowledge shown to us by the weavers, using our own equipment and our own methods in the reproduction work. In the “Syrian” tunic many parts are fastened to the base fabric. The whole base fabric is lightly and airily woven out of fine linen yarn. The tunic is lined with a denser fabric than the base fabric, which carries all the applications. It is plausible that the entire base fabric has been yellow. We were unable to analyse the quality of the fabrics since the tunic was in a glass case and the distance was too great for one to be able to count threads. We went by the style of the fabric and saw the lightness and airiness in the base fabric, which looked like the head cloth. The reproduced base fabric in this tunic was woven in the same quality as the head clothe, with 130/1 linen yarn in warp and weft and with 45 threads per centimetre and 26-‐27 wefts per centimetre. The lining is coarser and denser. We decided to weave like the underwear fabric with 90/1 linen yarn in the warp and 130/1 linen yarn in the weft and with 54 warp thread per centimetre and 30 wefts per centimetre.
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After having studied the Syrian tunic closer we would claim that this is the crowning tunic of Tutankhamun. The pattern contains wishes for the new Pharaoh. He was wished long life by the ankh sign applied in the middle of the chest. Around the whole collar the text Nebcheperture is woven. This was Tutankhamun’s crowning name. The tunic is probably woven in the workshops of Armarna. The tunic is in children’s size and we assume that Tutankhamun grew before the crowning took place. Probably there should have been ten embroidered squares at the front of the tunic but twelve squares ended up in the front and 8 in the back. One applied woven parts to fill the gap at the side of the eight squares. One also needed to expand the decorations on the height so that all looked complete. The squares consist of hunting motifs where wild animals attack domesticated animals and also flower motifs with pots and lotus flowers. All squares are embroidered in split seam technique. The embroideries were completely brown and we could only see a part of the patterns. We had great use of the drawings of the tunic made by Mrs. Burton in 1929. We did not reproduce this tunic, but have not let our thoughts leave this object even if time has passed. At one occasion, we decided to colour the squares at the bottom. The lotus flowers in flowerpots are blue with pointed crown leaves. We painted all lambs in the patterns light blue, all domesticated animals blue and all wild animals red. We painted the bases of all squares light yellow. We compared with the preserved colours of the side ribbons and made some adjustments. We took threads, fabrics and patterns to Berber women in the Siwa oasis, which is in the Libyan Desert on the Egyptian side. The women there still use split seam in their traditional embroideries. We had Mrs. Mahdi embroider freely, using split seam after our colourful drawings. She had first made several samples that we could see. Women in Siwa usually embroider with silk for their wedding scarves and she was not quite used to embroidering with linen yarn. After several samples the embroidery became really good with even tension in the threads and vivid surfaces depending on how the stitches were placed. In a few squares she had added her own colours to make it nice. We liked that too. Once upon a time one probably embroidered without a sketch. The result was powerful and vivid, like she had been given complete freedom. When we sewed 20 squares into an edge and five squares into the sign of the ankh we understood the powerful impression that the complete tunic which could have made, which could have been yellow to begin with.
p. 91 Wings Carter No. 44r There are two very interesting objects in a display case at the second floor of the Egyptian Museum, where the Tutankhamun textiles are exhibited. The shape of them is like an even-‐sided carpenter’s square with a width of each angle of circa 12 centimetres. The outer length is circa 38 centimetres and the inner length is circa 26 centimetres on each leg. One object has sharp corners and the other has rounded corners all around. They are in the pattern form of a falcon’s wing and have been placed over the shoulders with cap sleeves attached to the middle of the outer edge of the angle.
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We know nothing about the symbolic meaning, but one can imagine that Tutankhamun was to resemble the god Horus, which is the god of heaven and light and is sometimes portrayed as a falcon. The wings may have been a ceremonial garment. Today they are very brown from being exposed to washing and the applications are gone. The small cap sleeve is exhibited in the same display as the wings. Before the washing we could see colour and partial patterns, but not form, since the objects were bundled up in the display. What we saw were applied “feathers” in red, blue and white made from thin, fine linen fabric cut in long strips attached to half a centimetre feather shapes with split seam around each feather. There were round punched golden metal parts attached and spread over the wings. In order to make a pair of wings one needs a white linen fabric as base fabric. One can cut two parts, a long angle leg and a short angle leg and sew both of the two legs to each other into one angle. Then fold the short side two millimetres and lay it over the unfolded long side and sew them together with thrown stitches. For the application one cuts strips of red, blue and white linen fabric, which is to make feathers in a width of half a centimetre. Then attach them with split seam around each feather, using blue twisted thread. The colour sequence of threads is red, white, red, white, blue, white, blue and white. A ready feather is circa 8 centimetres long and ½ centimetres wide. After all feathers are attached, one sews a double red thread in split seam around all blue and red feathers so that the red stitches appear in between the two rows of blue stitches. How the complete wing pattern look, we do not know. We also miss patterns from the edge and from the middle. The wing has an interlining and is to be lined. Tutankhamun’s wings had a cap sleeve attached to the outermost part of the centre of the wing, made from white fabric and sewn like a ring, where he put his hand and put the sleeve on his shoulder, which meant he needed two, one on each shoulder to be dressed. The ring is small. Tutankhamun was either young or had slender upper arms. The wings were not reproduced.
p. 94 The Small Leopard Carter No. 21t There is a small fabric leopard at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The leopard is not complete today and is all brown. The fragments are in parts in a glass display case. Most parts are still there, the body, the tail, the paws and some of the legs. The leopard has had a wooden head, covered in gold. The head is also exhibited in the museum. There are two heads, one head has Tutankhamun’s cartouche on the forehead and it has been placed on a real leopard’s skin. The other head without cartouche is smaller and has been sitting on the small fabric leopard that Tutankhamun must have had as a child, hanging from one shoulder. Both objects have been used in ceremonious contexts. The small fabric leopard has claws made from silver in the shape of cones, a little bended. This was a luxury, since silver was not available in Egypt in Pharaoh times, so the silver plates were imported. There was gold plates, that one could punching into fantastic forms and patterns and one could pulverize gold to paint with which is still done in Egypt today.
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We discussed which colour the leopard could have had and looked at the photographer Nino Monastra’s image. We could not make out any colour. Therefore we asked him to copy the photograph manually using different filters. In Nino’s new images we could see that the leopard had been red and that it had red and blue spots attached over the entire body of the now completely brown leopard. On each spot a punched golden star had been and there was split seam around each spot. Between all fabric spots there were smaller spots out of white fabric. Around the white spots there were five spots embroidered in split seam to enhance the white spots on the leopard’s body. There was a small falcon applied to the leopard made from red, blue and white fabric. What we saw in Nino’s images was there was a coarser interlining from white fabric and on the backside there was a layer of red, thin fabric, like on the top. The bottom and application fabrics are very fine and airy and the quality is the same. They were woven in tabby binding. The fabrics have a lot of air in between the threads and are airier than the fabrics for the tunics. The variation in thread density is great, partly due to embroideries and applications and because the fabric is cut on a bias. We measured the warp density in four places and counted to 48, 56, 58 and 61/centimetre and weft density at 40, 40, 44 and 56/centimetre. The fabrics have a feeling of gauze, which is airy and light. For the reproduction we weaved the base fabric and the application fabric from linen yarn 130/1 with 45 warp threads/centimetre and 28 wefts/centimetre. The reed width was 80 centimetres and the complete number of threads was 3600. Blue fabric was also needed for the applications and this woven in the same quality as the red fabric. During the weaving of the red fabric the warp threads snapped so many times that mending the weave took longer than the actual weaving, in spite of the red warp thread being glued twice. This can be compared to the weaving of the blue and white fabrics. The white fabric was un-‐dyed and glued once, during the weaving the threads sometimes snapped. The blue fabric, which was indigo dyed and glued twice worked better than the red, but the warp often broke during the weaving. Dyeing the threads weakened them, rolling and winding in conjunction with the weaving also weakened the threads. The dyeing method is of importance and indigo dyeing (blue) is gentler than synthetic dyeing (red). The interlining was white and woven in tabby technique with air in between the threads. Both the warp and the weft were in single-‐ply linen yarn and looked like each other with 20-‐25 threads/centimetre. The fabric was coarser than all other fabrics that we had seen among Tutankhamun’s textiles. This fabric has a quadratic setting, which is unusual among the other fabrics. We weaved the interlining from linen yarn 50/1 with 20 threads/centimetre and reed 200/10 with one thread in dents. The weft was the same thread as the warp. We started with a photograph to get the shape of the leopard. We cut out all the parts from a photocopy of the whole leopard and placed them in the right place, like a puzzle. Eventually we had almost a complete leopard with all four legs and tail in the right places. The base fabric and interlining for the leopard was cut on the bias. The shape of leopard was cut the same way. Then we cut the fabric thread-‐straight in squares of blue and red woven linen fabric in 2 by 2 centimetres. We placed the squares on the leopard’s tail with folded edges as spots. We noticed there was room for nine spots on the tail, which corresponded to the original. Thereafter we placed all squares on the
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little leopard’s body, like a chess board and adjusted them and attached them with interlining as spots, using split seam around. When the applications and embroideries were ready, we sewed gold stars on the spots and assembled the leopard. All three fabric layers are sewn from the outside. The new leopard has good weight and hangs well from the shoulder.
p. 103 The Bag Tutankhamun brought a small linen fabric bag to his grave, now it is in a display case at the Egyptian Museum. The bag is a piece of fabric folded on the diagonal and tied at the top. Below the knot a string has been wound, approximately ten centimetres from the top of the knot. The string is wound 2-‐3 times around the bag and is tightly wound with a seal. Someone may have tried to tear the knot and the fabric has torn. It is open on one side and has lost its content. What was on the bag is unknown today. The size of the folded and tied bag is approximately 24 centimetres long and approximately 13 centimetres wide. The thread density is 17-‐18 warp threads and with 11 wefts/centimetre. The fabric is relatively coarse and the warp is untwisted in an S-‐shape. We have tried to tie a piece of fabric and have concluded that the piece of fabric was large, circa 60 x 60 centimetres. Reproduction of the bag was not carried out. Our ancestors had a similar object before there were purses or wallets. They placed their money in a piece of fabric and tied a string around and put it in the pocket. There were no money in Pharaoh times, but Tutankhamun may have had something valuable in the bag, perhaps some nice jewellery or something else important.
p. 105 Concluding Remarks Ten years have passed since the intense exhibit work finished. During this time we have worked on the projects at several short occasions. At the same time, we have had intense periods of our own work as teacher, textile artist and designer. Many times, we have wondered what we did during the exhibit work. The thoughts have never let go of us. To write a report on the work has been suggested several times by those with scientific interest. We have compiled and registered all our work material, which is now at the Museum of Textile History in Borås. We were stubborn and wanted to finish this, otherwise our work would not have tailed off. Our ambition to convey our experience from the point of view of the craftsman matured over time. We also believe that hind sight enabled us to view the work objectively. In 1998 the exhibit work became intense. During about a year the work carried on and was both physically and mentally intense. From where did the intensity and strength we summoned during this period come? Much of the work was repetitive, like rolling, warping, heddling, reeding, weaving, twisting, and mending warp threads. Millions of metres of thread passed through our fingers. It was calm under pressure. The intensity of the work was great and it consumed so much of our resources that it took a long time to recover.
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When working with hand loom weaving as a craft one develops a wider perspective over time, like problem solving, that we became experts at. The human contacts were also important as well as our difference that became dynamic.