Tapestries in the Mediterranean Late Bronze Age

AEGAEUM 33Annales liégeoises et PASPiennes d’archéologie égéenne

KOSMOS

JEWELLERY, ADORNMENT AND TEXTILES IN THE AEGEAN BRONZE AGE

Proceedings of the 13th International Aegean Conference/ 13e Rencontre égéenne internationale, University of Copenhagen,

Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre for Textile Research, 21-26 April 2010

Edited by Marie-Louise NOSCH and Robert LAFFINEUR

PEETERSLEUVEN - LIEGE

2012

95274_Aegaeum 33 vwk I Sec11 25/04/12 09:54

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface viiAbbreviations ix

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Robert LAFFINEUR For a Kosmology of the Aegean Bronze Age 3

I. ASPECTS OF KOSMOS

Elizabeth J.W. BARBERSome Evidence for Traditional Ritual Costume in the Bronze Age Aegean 25

Jean-Claude POURSATOf Looms and Pebbles: Weaving at Minoan Coastal Settlements 31

Andreas VLACHOPOULOS and Fragoula GEORMAJewellery and Adornment at Akrotiri, Thera: The Evidence from the Wall Paintings and the Finds 35

Marie-Louise NOSCHFrom Texts to Textiles in the Aegean Bronze Age 43

II. TEXTILES

Evanthia PAPADOPOULOUTextile Technology in Northern Greece: Evidence for a Domestic Craft Industry from

Early Bronze Age Archontiko 57

Malgorzata SIENNICKATextile Poduction in Early Helladic Tiryns 65

Vassilis P. PETRAKIS‘Minoan’ to ‘Mycenaean’: Thoughts on the Emergence of the Knossian Textile Industry 77

Maria Emanuela ALBERTI, Vassilis L. ARAVANTINOS, Maurizio DEL FREO, Ioannis FAPPAS, Athina PAPADAKI and Françoise ROUGEMONTTextile Production in Mycenaean Thebes. A First Overview 87

Marta GUZOWSKA, Ralf BECKS and Eva ANDERSSON STRAND“She was weaving a great Web”. Textiles in Troia 107

Margarita GLEBA and Joanne CUTLERTextile Production in Bronze Age Miletos: First Observations 113

Peter PAVÚKOf Spools and Discoid Loom-Weights: Aegean-type Weaving at Troy Revisited 121

Richard FIRTHThe Textile Tools of Demircihüyük 131

ii TABLE OF CONTENTS

Sascha MAUELSummarizing Results of a New Analysis of the Textile Tools from the Bronze Age Settlement

of Kastanas, Central Macedonia 139

Joanne CUTLERAriadne’s Thread: The Adoption of Cretan Weaving Technology in the Wider Southern Aegean

in the Mid-Second Millennium BC 145

Carlos VARIASThe Textile Industry in the Argolid in the Late Bronze Age from the Written Sources 155

Trevor VAN DAMMEReviewing the Evidence for a Bronze Age Silk Industry 163

Brendan BURKELooking for Sea-Silk in the Bronze Age Aegean 171

Vili APOSTOLAKOU, Thomas M. BROGAN and Philip P. BETANCOURTThe Minoan Settlement on Chryssi and its Murex Dye Industry 179

Philip P. BETANCOURT, Vili APOSTOLAKOU and Thomas M. BROGANThe Workshop for Making Dyes at Pefka, Crete 183

Thomas M. BROGAN, Philip P. BETANCOURT and Vili APOSTOLAKOUThe Purple Dye Industry of Eastern Crete 187

Helène WHITTAKERSome Reflections on the Use and Meaning of Colour in Dress and Adornment

in the Aegean Bronze Age 193

Pietro MILITELLOTextile Activity in Neolithic Crete: the Evidence from Phaistos 199

Eva ANDERSSON STRANDFrom Spindle Whorls and Loom Weights to Fabrics in the Bronze Age Aegean

and Eastern Mediterranean 207

Sophia VAKIRTZIAkr 8794: A Miniature Artifact from Akrotiri, Thera, and the “Whorl or Bead” Question

in Light of New Textile Evidence 215

Bernice JONESThe Construction and Significance of the Minoan Side-Pleated Skirt 221

Janice L. CROWLEYPrestige Clothing in the Bronze Age Aegean 231

Joanna S. SMITHTapestries in the Mediterranean Late Bronze Age 241

Abby LILLETHUNFinding the Flounced Skirt (Back Apron) 251

Valeria LENUZZADressing Priestly Shoulders: Suggestions from the Campstool Fresco 255

Eleni KONSTANTINIDI-SYVRIDIA Fashion Model of Mycenaean Times: The Ivory Lady from Prosymna 265

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

Alessandro GRECOThe Background of Mycenaean Fashion: a Comparison between Near Eastern and Knossos

Documents on Sheep Husbandry 271

Joann GULIZIOTextiles for the Gods? Linear B Evidence for the Use of Textiles in Religious Ceremonies 279

Jörg WEILHARTNERGender Dimorphism in the Linear A and Linear B Tablets 287

Anne P. CHAPINDo Clothes Make the Man (or Woman?): Sex, Gender, Costume, and the Aegean

Color Convention 297

David A. WARBURTONEconomic Aspects of Textiles from the Egyptian Standpoint, in the Context of the Ancient Near East 305

Katherina ASLANIDOUSome Textile Patterns from the Aegean Wall-Paintings of Tell el-Dab‘a (‘Ezbet Helmi):

Preliminary Reconstructions and comparative Study 311

Emily Catherine EGANCut from the Same Cloth: The Textile Connection between Palace Style Jars and Knossian

Wall Paintings 317

Fritz BLAKOLMERBody Marks and Textile Ornaments in Aegean Iconography: Their Meaning and Symbolism 325

Elisabetta BORGNARemarks on Female Attire of Minoan and Mycenaean Clay Figures 335

III. JEWELLERY

Eleni SALAVOURAMycenaean “Ear pick”: A Rare Metal Burial Gift, Toilette or Medical Implement? 345

Birgitta P. HALLAGERPins and Buttons in Late Minoan III Dresses? 353

Ute GÜNKEL-MASCHEKReflections on the Symbolic Meaning of the Olive Branch as Head-Ornament in the Wall

Paintings of Building Xesté 3, Akrotiri 361

Cynthia COLBURN Bodily Adornment in the Early Bronze Age Aegean and Near East 369

Evangelos KYRIAKIDISHow to see the Minoan Signet Rings. Transformations in Minoan Miniature Iconography

379Julie HRUBY

Identity and the Visual Identification of Seals 389

Konstantinos KOPANIASRaw Material, Exotic Jewellery or Magic Objects? The Use of Imported Near Eastern

Seals in the Aegean 397

Salvatore VITALEDressing Up the Dead. The Significance of Late Helladic IIIB Adornments from Eleona

and Langada at Kos 407

iv TABLE OF CONTENTS

Petya HRISTOVA Overlaying Mycenae’s Masks in Funerary and Living Contexts of Symbolic Action: Jewellery for Body Adornment, Portraits, or Else? 417

Judit HAAS-LEBEGYEVConstructions of Gendered Identity through Jewellery in Early Mycenaean Greece 425

Maia POMADÈREDressing and Adorning Children in the Aegean Bronze Age: Material and Symbolic Protections

as well as Marks of an Age Group? 433

Robert Angus K. SMITH and Mary K. DABNEY Children and Adornment in Mycenaean Funerary Ritual at Ayia Sotira, Nemea 441

Lena PAPAZOGLOU-MANIOUDAKI Gold and Ivory Objects at Mycenae and Dendra Revealed. Private Luxury and/or Insignia Dignitatis 447

Jeffrey S. SOLES The Symbolism of Certain Minoan/Mycenaean Beads from Mochlos 457

Walter MÜLLER Concepts of Value in the Aegean Bronze Age: Some Remarks on the Use of Precious Materials for Seals and Finger Rings 463

Anastasia DAKOURI-HILD Making La Différence: The Production and Consumption of Ornaments in Late Bronze Age Boeotia 471

Jacke PHILLIPS On the Use and Re-Use of Jewellery Elements 483

Dora CONSTANTINIDIS and Lilian KARALI Floral or Faunal? Determining Forces on Minoan and Mycenaean Jewellery Motif Selection with a GIS 493

Magda PIENIĄŻEK Luxury and Prestige on the Edge of the Mediterranean World: Jewellery from Troia and the Northern Aegean in the 2nd Millennium B.C. and its Context 501

Ann-Louise SCHALLIN Mycenaean Jewellery and Adornment at Midea 509

Thanasis J. PAPADOPOULOS and Litsa KONTORLI-PAPADOPOULOU Specific Types of Jewellery from Late Bronze Age Tombs in Western Greece as Evidence for Social Differentiation 515

Jane HICKMAN Gold and Silver Jewelry Production in Prepalatial Crete 523

Elisabeth VÖLLING, Nicole REIFARTH and Jochen VOGL The Intercultural Context of Treasure A in Troy - Jewellery and Textiles 531

Naya SGOURITSA Remarks on Jewels from the Mycenaean Settlement and Cemetery at Lazarides on Eastern Aegina 539

Constantinos PASCHALIDIS Reflections of Eternal Beauty. The Unpublished Context of a Wealthy Female Burial from Koukaki, Athens and the Occurrence of Mirrors in Mycenaean Tombs 547

TABLE OF CONTENTS v

Elizabeth SHANK The Jewelry worn by the Procession of Mature Women from Xeste 3, Akrotiri 559

Helena TOMAS Alleged Aegean Jewellery from the Eastern Adriatic Coast 567

IV. ADORNMENT

Carole GILLIS Color for the Dead, Status for the Living 579

Marcia NUGENT Natural Adornment by Design: Beauty and/or Function? Botanic Motifs of the Bronze Age Cycladic Islands 589

Anna SIMANDIRAKI-GRIMSHAW and Fay STEVENS Adorning the Body: Animals as Ornaments in Bronze Age Crete 597

Vassiliki PLIATSIKA Simply Divine: the Jewellery, Dress and Body Adornment of the Mycenaean Clay Female Figures in Light of New Evidence from Mycenae 609

Eugenio R. LUJÁN and Alberto BERNABÉ Ivory and Horn Production in Mycenaean Texts 627

Josephine VERDUCI Wasp-waisted Minoans: Costume, Belts and Body Modification in the Late Bronze Age Aegean 639

Angelos PAPADOPOULOS Dressing a Late Bronze Age Warrior: The Role of ‘Uniforms’ and Weaponry according to the Iconographical Evidence 647

Mary Jane CUYLER Rose, Sage, Cyperus and e-ti: The Adornment of Olive Oil at the Palace of Nestor 655

Louise A. HITCHCOCK Dressed to Impress: Architectural Adornment as an Exotic Marker of Elite Identity in the Eastern Mediterranean 663

Karen Polinger FOSTER The Adornment of Aegean Boats 673

Cynthia W. SHELMERDINE Mycenaean Furniture and Vessels: Text and Image 685

Thomas G. PALAIMA Kosmos in the Mycenaean Tablets: the Response of Mycenaean ‘Scribes’ to the Mycenaean Culture of Kosmos 697

Annette Højen SØRENSEN A Toast to Diplomacy! Cups in Diplomacy and Trade: the Case of Minoica in Cyprus and the Levant, 2000-1500 BC 705

Iphiyenia TOURNAVITOUFresco Decoration and Politics in a Mycenaean Palatial Centre: The Case of the West House

at Mycenae 723

Maria C. SHAW Shields made of Cloth? Interpreting a Wall Painting in the Mycenaean Palace at Pylos 731

vi TABLE OF CONTENTS

Olga KRZYSZKOWSKA Worn to Impress? Symbol and Status in Aegean Glyptic 739

John G. YOUNGER Mycenaean Collections of Seals: The Role of Blue 749

Nancy R. THOMAS Adorning with the Brush and Burin: Cross-Craft in Aegean Ivory, Fresco, and Inlaid Metal 755

Anaya SARPAKI and Melpo SKOULA Case Studies of the Ethnobotany of Adornment and Dyeing in Crete: Insights for a Dialogue with Archaeological Models in Greece 765

Jason W. EARLE Cosmetics and Cult Practices in the Bronze Age Aegean? A Case Study of Women with Red Ears 771

Aikaterini PAPANTHIMOU and Ioannis FAPPAS Ceremonial Adornment and Purification Practices in Mycenaean Greece: Indigenous Developments and Near Eastern Influences 779

Caroline ZAITOUN The “Immanent” Process of Cosmetic Adornment. Similarities between Mycenaean and Egyptian Ritual Preparations 789

Katherine M. HARRELL The Weapon’s Beauty: A Reconsideration of the Ornamentation of the Shaft Grave Swords 799

“QU’IL EST PERMIS DE RIRE ...”

Thomas G. PALAIMAKO Ko 2010 Cloth Fragments of the Rapinewiad 807

TAPESTRIES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN LATE BRONZE AGE

Introduction

Among the many varieties of multicolored textiles from the ancient world were tapestries, textiles in which the weft was woven in discontinuous sections and beaten in to achieve solid fields of color. Usually woven such that the design was flat and finished on both sides, the two sides being mirror images of one another, tapestry was valued highly and was nearly synonymous with royalty in both Mesopotamia and Egypt. The weaving of large decorated cloths that may be tapestries appears in Homer’s epics. The question remains, however, whether tapestry weave formed part of the array of patterned textile techniques used in the Aegean during the Bronze Age. It is possible that bands of figural designs in Greek vase painting as early as the Mycenaean period preserve for us the content of tapestries created for funerary and other ritual purposes.1 However, there is some question as to whether tapestries could be the products of weavers who used the warp-weighted loom.2

There is material, linguistic, and technological evidence for tapestry weaving by the early second millennium BC in the Near East and, somewhat later in Egypt and the Mediterranean. In the Aegean, Linear B words that might relate to later Homeric and Classical terms for tapestry suggest the possibility of the knowledge of tapestry woven fabrics during the Mycenaean period. Bone tools used to pack in weft-faced fields of color suggest where and when weavers made tapestry designs. Evidence from these tools allows for links between tapestry and an Aegean type of band weaving on Cyprus and in the Levant. The techniques became intertwined, which suggests how the weaving of tapestries could have come to be part of the repertoire of Aegean weavers near the end of the Late Bronze Age.

Tapestry in ancient Egypt

The earliest surviving tapestries come from Egypt, all from 18th dynasty contexts.3 Slit and dovetail techniques were used to delineate neighboring fields of color on decorated tunics, fringed cloths (hangings?), sashes, a quiver, gloves, gauntlets, and other textiles of uncertain purpose. A full rectangle of tapestry cloth was used for most objects, but some tapestry was cut and sewn. Most of these objects allowed for only one side of a tapestry to be seen, emphasizing only its quality as a technique for making elaborate, densely packed, colorful decoration. In Egypt, tapestry’s reversible quality does not seem to have been important.

A packed weft weave can be woven on any loom, horizontal or vertical, with weights or without. The orientation and weighting of the loom will determine the width and length of the cloth, not whether a weaver could pack in the weft. Most commonly associated with tapestry is the vertical loom, which makes its earliest appearance in Egypt at the same time as the earliest preserved fragments of tapestries there in the 15th century BC. In some examples of tapestry weave in Egypt, the bending of weft fibers when weaving so as to achieve more rounded shapes compares with later Coptic “eccentric” weft techniques. At least these examples must have

1 Prehistoric Textiles, 359-382.2 E.J.W. BARBER, “The Peplos of Athena,” in J. NEILS, Goddess and Polis: The Panathenaic Festival in Ancient

Athens (1992) 109.3 For a summary of tapestries from ancient Egypt with further references see G. VOGELSANG-EASTWOOD,

“Textiles,” in P.T. NICHOLSON and I. SHAW (eds), Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology (2000) 274-275. The earliest examples come from the tomb of Thutmosis IV, including one bearing the name of Thutmosis III. The Egyptian word mk, used in New Kingdom contexts, may refer to high quality linen cloth woven in the tapestry technique, see J.J. Janssen and R.M. Janssen, “mk. An Obscure Designation of Cloth,” LinguaAegyptia 7 (2000) 177-182.

242 Joanna S. SMITH

been woven on a loom with some flexibility in the warp, as on a warp-weighted loom, only limited evidence for which exists in Egypt.4

The surviving tapestries show that several approaches were taken to the design of tapestry weave. Some textiles feature hieroglyphic signs within a larger plain ground. Both bands of tapestry woven motifs and larger areas of figural designs exist. The most elaborate figural design features a row of captives.5 Its multicolored decoration, however, relied not only on weaving colored threads, but also on the application of paint to the finished product.6 Several tapestries found in Egypt could have been created there. Gloves and gauntlets, which are not characteristic of Egyptian clothing, are thought to be imported,7 probably from northern Syria.

Tapestry in the ancient Near East

The earliest evidence for tapestry in the Near East relies on the meaning of the word mardatum. It first occurs in an Old Assyrian document at Kanesh from the 19th century BC. The word continues to appear throughout the second millennium BC in texts from Mari, Alalakh, Nuzi, Ugarit, and Kār-Tikulti-Ninurta.8 Textiles designated as mardatum are sometimes described as Yamhad- or Byblos-type. Makers of mardatum are mentioned at Alalakh and Nuzi, which points to the spread of the craft by the 15th to early 14th century BC. J.-M. Durand thinks that the massilâtum may also have been made of tapestry weave.9 It was stored in large numbers in the palace at Mari and was used during a festival concerning Ishtar. Unlike the mardatum, which appears in connection with the king and the throne, the massilâtum was delivered to women. Like the mardatum, the massilâtum appears to be a term from the west, from northern Syria.

The mardatum is often described as multicolored. One example described at Mari bore a figure of a lammasatum, a protective goddess.10 Another example described in a late 13th century BC text from Kār-Tikulti-Ninurta was decorated with figures of people, animals, fortified towns, and images of the king.11 The mardatum’s purpose was for covering, usually items of furniture, especially thrones. Its reversible quality could have been emphasized in its use as a wall hanging or curtain. Whether it was an item of clothing is difficult to understand, but it was associated with wardrobe of the king. At Mari there are fractions of a mardatum listed, yet there is no firm evidence for tailored garments made of mardatum textiles or cut up pieces of mardatum fabrics. At Nuzi, mardatum cloths seem to have had a slightly wider range of purposes. Only some of the mardatum textiles at Nuzi are described as of royal quality. Other mardatum textile products at Nuzi include blankets, cloths for beds, cushions, headdresses, and loincloths. For some items the mardatum portion might only have been an edging or a section rather than the whole fabric.12

4 On “eccentric” weft see W.G. THOMSON, “Tapestry-woven fabrics,” in H. CARTER and P.E. NEWBERRY, The Tomb of Thoutmôsis IV (1904) 143. B.J. KEMP and G. VOGELSANG-EASTWOOD, The Ancient Textile Industry at Amarna (2001) 307-426 discuss the evidence for weaving and the vertical loom in detail, including the use of weights.

5 G. DARESSY, Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du musée du Caire nos 24001-24990. Fouilles de la vallée des rois (1878-1899) (1902) 302-303, no. 24987, pl. LVII.

6 E.W. BARBER, Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times (1994) 264.7 G.M. VOGELSANG-EASTWOOD, Tutankhamun’s Wardrobe: Garments from the Tomb of Tutankamun (1999)

88.8 See with further references A.L. OPPENHEIM and E. REINER (eds), The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental

Institute of the University of Chicago 10: M Part I (1977) 277-278 and most recently J.-M. DURAND, Lanomenclature des habits et des textiles dans les textes de Mari: Matériaux pour le dictionnaire de Babylonien de Paris I, ARM 30 (2009) 61-65. In the first millennium BC the term is less common, but its use continues.

9 DURAND (supra n. 8) 65-66.10 J.-M. DURAND, Textes administratifs des salles 134 et 160 du palais de Mari, ARM 21 (1983) 410, 454-455, no.

342.11 F. KÖCHER, “Ein Inventartext aus Kār-Tukulti-Ninurta,” AfO 18 (1957-1958) 306-307, col. III.32-38.12 For a more detailed discussion of the variety of mardatum cloths and other evidence for tapestries in the

ancient Near East and Egypt see J.S. SMITH, “Tapestries in the Bronze and early Iron Ages of the Ancient Near East,” in a volume to be edited by E. ANDERSSON STRAND and M.-L. NOSCH, Textile Production and Consumption in the Ancient Near East, based on a workshop held at the 7th International Congress on the

TAPESTRIES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN LATE BRONZE AGE 243

Tapestry in Linear B and Homer

Among the words related to woven products in the Greek world, only the word ki-to, χιτών (chiton), has been linked with any certainty with an Akkadian word, kitû, meaning flax, linen, and linen garment.13 There is no such overlap between Akkadian mardatum and the vocabulary for textiles in the Aegean. In Linear B, only pa-we-a (TELA + PA) cloths, the manufacturing processes for which have been studied in detail by John Killen,14 seem to have the potential to bear multicolored decoration. As with the larger and heavier cloth, te-pa (TELA + TE),15 pa-we-a are sometimes listed instead with the TELA ideogram (no. 159) plus a single sign, PA, indicating that pa-we-a are full rectangles of cloth woven on the warp-weighted loom rather than specifically sewn or otherwise shaped garments. The term pa-we-a usually occurs in its plural form rather than as the singular noun, pa-wo, the Homeric Greek parallel for which is the φᾶρος (pharos).

In their final forms, pa-we-a cloths can be designated as pa-ra-ku-ja (see below), o-re-ne-ja(of a pattern), ko-ro-ta2 (dyed), po-ki-ro-nu-ka (multicolored fringed or bordered), re-u-ko-nu-ka (white fringed or bordered), nu-wa-i-ja (of something new), ke-se-nu-wi-ja (of foreign or guest gift type), e-qe-si-ja (of the followers, attendants or court of the king?), and so on. In their initial form, pa-we-a are listed as pa-we-a ko-u-ra. Possibly ko-u-ra relates to κουρά, cropped or cut off, referencing the state of pa-we-a once removed from the loom. The idea of pa-we-a ko-u-ra as fresh from the loom fits with the need then to have pa-we-a worked on further before being deposited in the palace and listed as pa-we-a (with no mention of ko-u-ra) that are dyed, fringed, and so on. Our understanding of the manufacture of pa-we-a indicates that any of these colorful decorations, including any potential figural designs, were added after pa-we-a were woven.

In Homer, the word pharos appears in the Iliad16 as a large cape-like textile thrown on or taken off as a character steps into action. Sometimes it is colored red. Hector was wrapped in his pharos after he was killed. White ones were stored with other valuable woven cloths that could be used to ransom his body. In the Odyssey,17 Telemachus puts on a large pharos. It is much more common in the Odyssey, however, to mention the pharos as an outer cloak worn over a chiton. This pairing characterizes the clothing of Odysseus and Telemachus. The pharos of Odysseus, when described, is purple and is large enough that it can form a hood to be drawn over his face. Having a clean or fresh pharos and chiton is mentioned frequently and such a pairing of garments was made as a gift to Odysseus during his travels. When Odysseus is with a woman who dons a pharos, he dons a χλαῖνa (chlaina) instead. This change to a chlaina and chiton is possibly more in order to differentiate male from female than to suggest that he is wearing a different kind of garment. The pharos of a woman, whether of Circe or Calypso, is defined as bright rather than large or of a purple-red color. Best known is the pharos that Penelope weaves for Laertes as his funerary cloth. These references show that the pharos, like the pa-wo (pa-we-a), can be bright, perhaps a bright color and certainly of a red-purple color,

Ancient Near East on April 16, 2010.13 E.J.W. BARBER, “The PIE Notion of Cloth and Clothing,” JIES 3 (1975) 317.14 On pa-we-a cloths see J.T. KILLEN, “The Knossos Lc (Cloth) Tablets,” BICS 13 (1966) 105-109; J.T. KILLEN,

“The Knossos Ld(1) Tablets,” in E. RISCH and H. MÜHLESTEIN (eds), Colloquium Mycenaeum (1979) 151-181; and J.T. KILLEN, “Cloth Production in Late Bronze Age Greece: the Documentary Evidence,” in AncientTextiles, 50-58.

15 About te-pa cloths see KILLEN (supra n. 14). Once made, te-pa cloths were delivered to the palace with no need for finishing work; there is no indication of multicolored decoration on them. Some te-pa was used for religious purposes. Some are described as wa-na-ka-te-ra or royal, whether of a high quality or for use by the king. The Homeric equivalent, τάπης (tapis), is used in both the Iliad (9.200; 10.156; 16.224; 24.230, 645) and the Odyssey (4.124, 298; 7.337; 10.12; 20.150; 24.276) to refer to a textile laid out on a bed, a rougher cluster of bedding material, and seats. The tapis could be bright or shining, of the color purple, woolly, or soft. The tapis formed part of Priam’s store of valuable textiles with which he could ransom the body of Hector. In the Odyssey they were appropriate as gifts. The meaning of tapis is problematic, but is taken to refer to furniture or floor covering, not a wall hanging or garment.

16 Iliad 2.43; 8.221; 24.588.17 Odyssey 2.97; 3.467; 4.355; 5.230; 6.214; 7.234; 8.84, 88, 392, 425, 441; 10.543; 13.67; 15.61; 16.173; 19.138,

142; 23.155; 24.132, 147.

244 Joanna S. SMITH

possibly dyed. It could also be new or at least freshly cleaned, it may be part of a guest gift, and it was appropriate for a funerary rite.

Only one textile in the Homeric epics, however, is described with a weave that forms figural decoration and that is the δίπλαξ or δίπλακα (diplaks or diplaka), usually translated as twofold.18 Its literal meaning of double flat surface is a precise wording of a tapestry as a double-sided, flat fabric, suggesting that its reversible quality might have been valued. Only women in the Iliad at Troy, Helen and Andromache, weave the diplaka. Both diplaka are described as purple. That by Andromache bears multicolored, repeated figures or possibly floral designs. Helen weaves in the struggle of the Trojan War. In the Odyssey, Odysseus wears a diplaka that is purple, but there is no mention of figural decoration. The word is rare in later Greek literature, making its appearance usually in commentaries about the word or stories in Homer. In the Classical period, it may describe a textile associated with Persians.19 Importantly it is the term used for the elaborately decorated figural cloths woven by Athena in the Argonautica and, rather clumsily, by Aphrodite in the Dionysiaca when she attempts to compete with Athena in her craft.20

If something can be diplaks or diplaka, others clearly can be simply πλάξ or πλακός (plaks or plakos), or even πλατύς (platus). Such a word meaning flat with the Indo-european root *plak, flat surface, or *plat, flat layer, is thought to form the basis for the word πέπλος (peplos),21 another term that appears frequently in Homer and that has been connected with tapestry, especially in its context within the Panathenaic festival in Athens.22 Both the peplos in the Iliad that Athena removes before putting on her war chiton and the peplos given to Penelope in the Odyssey as a gift by one of her suitors, Antinoos, are described as multicolored. The peplos can be purple or yellow. When worn, they belong to women and are described as beautiful, long, flowing, or well constructed. They are bridal gifts, used to wrap the container of Hector’s ashes (a pharos was used to wrap his body), suitable as part of the ransom for Hector’s body, dedicated to Athena, and kept in quantity in storage. Aphrodite’s peplos even seems to have a magical, protective quality. They form part of the contents of the Trojan king Priam’s chest but not that of Greek Achilles. The peplos was used as a covering for a chariot and a throne. They are clearly untailored and colorful textiles and might have featured elaborate figural decoration. Yet, in Homer, the peplos is not definitely a textile with figural decoration. The peplos woven in the Classical period for the Great Panathenaia does seem to have been a figural tapestry23 and the link between tapestry weaving tools (see below) and the word peplos in Classical literature indicates that the peplos woven on an annual basis for the Panathenaic festival was also probably a tapestry with figural designs.

Both diplaks or diplaka and peplos, in their root, *plak, parallel the infrequent Linear B words containing the initial syllabic sequence of pa-ra-ku/. In the Knossos Ld series of textile tablets (KN Ld 575.b, Ld 587.2), pa-ra-ku-ja (and its equivalent *56-ra-ku-ja) is used to designate one of the forms of final pa-we-a textiles. Current readings of pa-ra-ku-ja (*56-ra-ku-ja), as well as the similarly infrequent and related word pa-ra-ku-we (pa-ra-ke-we) among the Pylos Ta series furniture records (PY Ta 642.1, Ta 714.1.3, Ta 715.3), suggest that it refers to a green color. This reading takes pa-ra-ku/ as baraku/ and relates them via Neo-Babylonian barraqtu and Hebrew bāreqet to Greek σμάραγδος, a gem, specifically a green stone.24 Yet, the reading of the word as green in the context of textiles at Knossos is problematic because that color was not

18 Iliad 3.126; 22.441; Odyssey 19.241. 19 See διπλάκεσσιν in Aeschylus, Persians, 277.20 Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, I.722; Nonnos, Dionysiaca, 24.316.21 BARBER (supra n. 13) 314.22 For peplos in Homer, see Iliad 3.228; 5.194, 315, 424, 734; 6.90, 271, 289, 302, 372, 378, 383, 442; 7.297; 8.1,

385; 18.385, 424; 19.1; 22.105; 23.227; 24.229, 695, 769, 796; Odyssey 4.305; 6.38, 49; 7.96; 12.375; 15.105, 124, 171, 363; 18.292; 21.160. About the peplos in Homer see the PhD dissertation by M.M. LEE, The Myth of the Classical Peplos (1999) esp. 58-63.

23 Especially see the PhD dissertation by J.M. MANSFIELD, The Robe of Athena and the Panathenaic Peplos (1985) 51-65 on the subject of the tapestry woven for the Great Panathenaia.

24 F.A. JORRO and F.R. ADRADOS (eds), Diccionario micénico (DMic.) II (1993) 82-83, especially under pa-ra-ku-we n. 3. Readings of this word in J. CHADWICK, Documents in Mycenaean Greek (1973) 340 offer this meaning, but also suggest that the word might be related to words for silver or an unknown metal alloy.


characteristic of Minoan and seems also not to be a descriptor of Mycenaean fabrics.25

The need to read the word pa-ra-ku-we (pa-ra-ke-we) in the furniture records at Pylos as a hard material such as stone derives from its listing there among a series of words, including ku-wa-no (κυανός), a blue substance, and ku-ru-so (χρυσός), gold, designated as a-ja-me-na/-no.26 The term a-ja-me-na/-no is usually taken to mean inlaid, but it is important to remember that it probably has the more general meaning of adornment.27 In the context of furniture, the blue substances of lapis lazuli and glass paste could certainly be inlaid. Gold could also be inlaid, but with furniture it was also common to apply gold foil to the surface of objects. Perhaps instead of thinking of pa-ra-ku-we (pa-ra-ke-we) in terms of a precious stone that was inlaid, the word should instead be read as a kind of cloth, perhaps upholstery, which formed parts of very elaborately decorated thrones and stools, even special tables, possibly those on which precious objects rested.28 Such an approach would allow pa-ra-ku-ja (*56-ra-ku-ja) in the Knossos Ld textile tablets to be a textile rather than a green color that was used to finish pa-we-a. This reading also clarifies a word reconstructed as pa-ra[-ku]-we-jo that would then have the sense of cushioning added to (bronze?) protections (wo-ra-e) in a chariot at Knossos (KN Sp 4451).29

This reinterpretation of pa-ra-ku/ suggests that pa-we-a that were finished as pa-ra-ku-ja(*56-ra-ku-ja), furniture with added pa-ra-ku-we (pa-ra-ke-we), and chariot protections that were pa-ra[-ku]-we-jo were all finished or ornamented with a kind of cloth. If the parallels among pa-ra-ku/, *plak, and peplos hold, that cloth in Linear B may reference the kind of flat and densely packed weave that seems to be characteristic of the tapestries that are termed peplos and even diplaka in later Greek. All three Linear B occurrences of pa-ra-ku/ would especially suit the Homeric peplos that was an elaborate textile, a chariot covering or padding, and a throne cover. They also are closer to the Near Eastern uses of mardatum than to the Egyptian uses of tapestry cloths for garments.

Looking forward to the later Greek peplos and even the diplaka, pa-ra-ku/ objects are easily understood as densely woven upholstery cloths that were colorful or that even featured figural designs. However, where the pa-ra-ku/ things used to elaborate cloth, furniture, and chariots were made is unknown. It is possible that Syrian tapestry cloths were imported during the Minoan and Mycenaean periods, but that the word mardatum remained unknown in the Aegean as in Egypt. Overall, terms with pa-ra-ku/ are rare and its elaboration of cloth and furniture was less common than decoration with other materials.30 In all instances, the pa-ra-ku/ items can be understood as things used to form parts of larger composite objects. It is unclear whether they formed a band or bands of decoration or whether they covered a larger surface area. Furthermore, adorning something with pa-ra-ku/ material could reference both a cloth and its specific application. How such cloth was used in the Aegean might even have led to the rare use of a similar word in the Near East for uses of cloth, even a type better known to them as mardatum. For example, the word, purāku, occurs only in the Nuzi texts from the mid-second millennium BC and is thought to be a foreign word that designates a kind of upholstery textile. The purāku textiles there are listed among military gear for chariots and soldiers, garments, and items from a military storehouse. Also, the Old Babylonian verb palāku, is used only once

25 Prehistoric Textiles, 330, 337.26 For a discussion of the words used to describe these complex pieces of furniture with further references, see

A. BERNABÉ and E.R. LUJÁN, “Mycenaean Technology,” in Y. DUHOUX and A. MORPURGO DAVIES (eds), A Companion to Linear B: Mycenaean Greek Texts and their World (2008) 201-205.

27 F.A. JORRO and F.R. ADRADOS (eds), Diccionario micénico (DMic.) I (1985) 30-31. Initial readings of this word in CHADWICK (supra n. 24) 528 considered that the word’s “meaning (is) clear, but (its) form and etymology (are) obscure.” CHADWICK (supra n. 24) 334 suggests that it “apparently describes the inlay or veneering of wood with more costly materials, especially ivory.” It could hence refer to any additive decoration rather than the subtractive forms that removed parts of the wood.

28 Well preserved examples of inlay, veneer, and gilding on furniture were found in the tomb of Tutankhamun. One footstool had the remains of a cushion attached to it (M. EATON-KRAUSS, The Thrones, Chairs, Stools, and Footstools from the Tomb of Tutankhamun [2008] 143-144). While there were many well preserved textiles in this tomb, textile preservation was highly variable, see VOGELSANG-EASTWOOD (supra n. 7) 15-17.

29 For wo-ra-e as protections, see BERNABÉ and LUJÁN (supra n. 26) 207, n. 5.30 On the volume of pa-we-a that were pa-ra-ku-ja (*56-ra-ku-ja) in relationship to other kinds of pa-we-a, see J.T.

KILLEN and J.-P. OLIVIER, “155 Raccords de fragments dans les tablettes de Cnossos,” BCH 92 (1968) 119.

246 Joanna S. SMITH

in its second and less common meaning; there it refers to processing textiles, possibly to sewing several bands together. Single bands of decoration are well known in the ancient Near East, but sewing several bands together was more characteristic of the Aegean (see below).31

Tapestry weaving tools

The tools used to fashion tapestry woven cloths support the idea that tapestries were possibly not made in the Aegean before the very end of the Bronze Age, even if they were known and used on a limited basis in the Mycenaean and even the Minoan worlds for specific types of elaborate cloth, furniture, and chariot covers. The κερκίς (kerkis) in Homeric and later Greek is usually translated as shuttle. Grace Crowfoot identified it instead as the pin beater that was used to beat in the weft so as to cover the warp in tapestry weaving.32 In the Iliad, the kerkis is the tool used by Andromache as she wove her diplaka. In the Odyssey, Calypso wielded her kerkis as she wove and sang.33 In the Classical period, the kerkis continued to be linked with weaving figural designs in textiles and was associated with the weaving of peplos textiles.34

While the work of the kerkis can be done with the fingers, it is useful to have a pointed tool as a beater. In the second millennium BC, bone tools suitable for beating in the weft for solid fields of color come from the Syro-Palestinian area, Egypt, and Cyprus. They are usually fashioned from a bovine rib, cut down to be flatter along its length in part or in whole. One end is pointed and resembles a very large fountain pen nib. Pointed bone tools of this design were found at Alalakh where mardatum weavers are listed in texts.35 Bone tools of this type subsequently appear in Egypt in the New Kingdom and are found in quantity at sites such as Gurob and Tell el-Amarna.36 Many examples were found at sites along the coastal Levant and in Cyprus.37 It does not appear that bone beaters form parts of Bronze Age Aegean assemblages of tools. However, a beater can be made of many different materials, including wood, and some may yet be found.

In Egypt, bone beaters are often found with fibers and several wooden spinning and weaving tools that would not survive in most Mediterranean climates. On Cyprus, beaters from Late Bronze Age and Iron Age sites are contextually associated with loom weights and other weaving-related tools (Pl. LVI). It has been shown that the weights found in the same contexts

31 The same verb in its more common use means to draw boundaries, delimit, or divide. On palāku and purāku with further references see R.D. BIGGS et al. (eds), The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago 12: P (2005) 49-50, 517. On the meaning of palāku see S. LACKENBACHER, “Un texte vieux-babylonien sur la finition des textiles,” Syria 59 (1982) 142-143.

32 G.M. CROWFOOT, “Of the Warp-Weighted Loom,” BSA 37 (1936/1937) 44-46.33 Iliad 22.441, 448; Odyssey 5.62.34 Several references were noted by CROWFOOT (supra n. 32) 45-46. Prehistoric Textiles, 360ff and (supra n. 2)

112ff has commented on the links among kerkis woven figural cloths, the peplos for Athena, and tapestries. In the plays of Euripedes, there are several important links made between the kerkis and the peplos (Electra, 307), the kerkis and figurally designed textiles (Iphegenia among the Taurians, 222-224), and weaving done as a maiden and figurally designed textiles (Ion, 1417-1425).

35 On the tools see L. WOOLLEY, Alalakh: An Account of the Excavations at Tell Atchana in the Hatay, 1937-1939 (1955) 402-403, fig. 77 and the texts see D.J. WISEMAN, The Alalakh Tablets (1953) 65, 67, 79-80, nos. 136, 148, 227 and M. DIETRICH and O. LORETZ, “Die Soziale Struktur von Alalah und Ugarit I. Die Berufsbezeichnungen mit der hurritischen Endung –huli,” Die Welt des Orients 3.3 (1966) 192. A. YENER mentioned to me that there are other such tools from the current excavations at the site.

36 A.P. THOMAS, Gurob: A New Kingdom Town: Introduction and Catalogue of Objects in the Petrie Collection, Egyptology Today 5, 1 (1981) nos. 80-169; a thorough discussion of the examples from Amarna and the spread of this kind of tool in Egypt is given in KEMP and VOGELSANG-EASTWOOD (supra n. 4) 358-373.

37 See O. TUFNELL, Lachish (Tell ed-Duweir) III: The Iron Age (1953) 397 on these objects as pattern sticks and note the range of the examples in G. VAN BEEK and O. VAN BEEK, “The Function of the Bone Spatula,” BibArch 53 (1990) 205-209 that are there given the unlikely interpretation as tools for removing chaff from the eye. The discussion of wear marks on Egyptian (KEMP and VOGELSANG-EASTWOOD (supra n. 4) 359-373) and Cypriot examples (J.S. SMITH, “Bone weaving tools of the Late Bronze Age,” in P.M. FISCHER (ed.), Contributions to the Archaeology and History of the Bronze and Iron Ages in the Eastern Mediterranean: Studies in Honour of Paul Åström (2001) 83-90) compares with wear on at least some Levantine pieces making the interpretation put forth by the VAN BEEKS highly unlikely. A thorough study of wear on Syro-Levantine examples is needed.


at Kition in Cyprus were designed for weaving weft-faced cloth.38 Most Cypriot examples have pierced ends with wear indicating that they hung from fibers. Wear marks on the pointed ends of pierced and unpierced examples show that they rubbed against fibers. On Cyprus, a single pierced tool was probably worn on a string around the neck; each weaver had one beater. Those from Egypt and other places are often without a piercing and tend to be smaller; those have abrasion wear around the handles and can be found in groups, suggesting that they served both to guide a particular color of weft fiber and to beat it in. This recalls much later tapestry weaving as in 19th century Europe.39 The single Greek kerkis, like the pierced bone beater from Cyprus, was used by an individual weaver.

Pattern woven bands

Even though the bone beater is not characteristic of the Aegean, a clay tool typical of textile production in the Late Bronze Age Aegean has been found in the Levant40 and on Cyprus,41 sometimes together with bone beaters.42 It is a waisted cylindrical object usually called a spool or reel. Barber has suggested they are analogous to tools used for making bands or cords as in Japanese kumihomo.43 Reels are found among loom weights at Kition and several other Cypriot, Levantine, and Aegean sites. Several examples of reels at Kition and the loomweights found with them preserve impressions of cords and bands, which lends support to the idea that bands of various kinds were made there.44 Whether reels were used with a circular stand or were used in some other fashion,45 they served to weight fibers during the plaiting or braiding of flat bands and round cords. As the number of reels used together increased, the pattern woven into a single band could have had more colors and an increasingly complex pattern. Bands could be sewn together make a larger cloth.46 Just as with some tapestry weaves in the Near East, braided bands and cords served as edging for fabrics with a larger surface area.

Fields of Color, from Cypriot to Aegean weaving On Cyprus, the distribution of bone beaters and clay reels in 13th through 11th century

BC contexts shows that some places integrated production, such as at Kition, while others were more closely tied to either tapestry, as at Enkomi in the east, or braiding as at Maa in the west.47 Even though we do not have the woven products of Cyprus, toward the end of the S.Bronze

38 E. ANDERSSON, J. CUTLER, M.-L. NOSCH, and J. SMITH, “Textile Tools from Kition, Cyprus,” in M.-L. NOSCH and E. ANDERSSON (eds), A Functional Typology of Textile Tools (in press).

39 For example, see an 1890 photo of tapestry production of the Merton Abbey workshops of Morris and Company in B. PHILLIPS, Tapestry (1994) 118.

40 For example, see the finds from Tel Miqne-Ekron in O. SCHAMIR, “Loomweights and Textile Production at Tel Miqne-Ekron: A Preliminary Report,” in S.W. CRAWFORD, “Up to the Gates of Ephron”: Essays on the Archaeology and History of the Eastern Mediterranean in Honour of Seymour Gitin (2007) 44-45.

41 For a discussion of the best preserved contexts of textile production on Cyprus, including evidence for the use of bone beaters at Kition and Enkomi and the profusion of band weaving tools especially at Maa, see SMITH’s Cypriot contributions in J.S. SMITH and I. TZACHILI, “Cloth in Crete and Cyprus,” in G. CADOGAN, J. WHITLEY, K. KOPAKA, and M. IACOVOU (eds), Parallel Lives: Ancient Island Societies in Crete and Cyprus (in press).

42 Interestingly, both tools have been found in the Egyptian garrison at Beth She’an, see F.W. JAMES and P.E. MCGOVERN, The Late Bronze Egyptian Garrison at Beth Shan: A Study of Levels VII and VIII (1993) 188, 198, figs. 118, 138-139, pl. 47. While no such band weaving tools come from Egypt, it is perhaps significant that bands and cords sewn to larger cloths came into Egyptian fashion only in the New Kingdom (VOGELSANG-EASTWOOD [supra n. 7] 29-30).

43 E.J.W. BARBER, “Minoan women and the challenges of weaving for home, trade, and shrine,” in TEXNH, 516.

44 J.S. SMITH, “Changes in the workplace: women and textile production on Late Bronze Age Cyprus,” in D. BOLGER and N. SERWINT (eds), Engendering Aphrodite: Women and Society in Ancient Cyprus (2002) 294-95, fig. 6.

45 Cf. R. OWEN, Making Kumihimo: Japanese Interlaced Braids (2004).46 BARBER (supra n. 43) 517.47 J.S. SMITH in SMITH and TZACHILI (supra n. 41).

248 Joanna S. SMITH

Age tapestry woven cloth became an important product as did braided textiles. The crossovers among different media in Cyprus suggest that the flat, repetitive designs preserved in the impressions of large wooden rollers on clay pithoi preserve some of the kinds of figural and geometric designs in Cypriot bands of tapestry and braid.48 People in the Aegean already knew how to create bands. They assembled them to create a larger cloth or attached them to larger rectangles of woven fabric. They also may have been familiar with the flat, colorful weave of tapestries. On Cyprus the two techniques of making colorful braided and tapestry woven bands for cloth came together in a context where an individual weaver used a single kerkis for forming solid fields of color. It is in this context that the transmission of the technology of tapestry weaving, a technique producing banded designs, rather than just the final product of tapestry woven cloth, may have come to form part of the repertoire of Aegean weavers. Connections with Cypriot weavers of tapestry are found again in the Classical period when larger full field tapestry came to characterize the large peplos for the Great Panathenaia, the first one of which was the product of the Cypriot weavers Helicon and Acesas49 from Salamis, the Iron Age successor to Bronze Age Enkomi.

Joanna S. SMITH

48 J.S. SMITH, “Theme and Style in Cypriot Wooden Roller Impressions,” Centre d’études chypriotes cahier 37 (2007) 359-361.

49 Athenaeus, The Deipnosophists, II.48.b.


ILLUSTRATIONS

Pl. LVI Examples of the various sizes of bone beaters from Enkomi, Cyprus: (a) Schaeffer 1959/10, (b) Schaeffer 1949/4060, (c) Dikaios 4548. In the Cyprus Museum, Nicosia. Drawings by J.S. Smith.

LVI

95274_Aegeum Cartes LVI 5/04/12 11:56