Near Eastern Languages and Societies Commons^™

Sasanian Exegesis Of Avestan Textile Terms, Miguel Ángel Andrés-Toledo

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

The Zoroastrian religion, taking its name from the prophet Zoroaster, Greek version of the Avestan name Zaraϑuštra, developed in South and Central Asia out of the Indo-Iranian religious practices going back to the 2nd millennium BC, and is one of the few ancient Indo-European religions that still survive, concretely in some communities in Iran, India and the diaspora. The most ancient Zoroastrian sacred texts, commonly designated as the Avesta, were orally composed and transmitted during the 2nd and 1st millennia BC in the most archaic Iranian language preserved, known as Avestan, until they were eventually put down to writing in …

Beschaffung Und Handel Mit Farbstoffen, Peter Herz

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

Farbstoffe sind alles andere als ein leicht zu behandelndes Thema, denn von wenigen Ausnahmen abgesehen, die die mineralischen Farben betreffen, geht die archäologische Nachweisbarkeit in der Regel fast gegen Null, was gerade für die Textilfarben sehr bedauerlich ist. Die frühesten Nachweise auf einen internationalen Handel mit Farbstoffen stammen aus dem Ägypten der 4. Dynastie. In vielen Gräbern dieser Epoche finden wir Wandgemälde aus einem ganz speziellen Blau, dem sogenannten Ägyptischen Blau. Einer der Grundstoffe war Lapislazuli oder Blaustein, ein Mineral, das noch heute in den östlichen Teilen von Afghanistan abgebaut wird. Von dort aus wurde das Rohprodukt mit Eselskarawanen bis …

Ordinary People’S Garments In Neo- And Late-Babylonian Sources, Luigi Malatacca

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

The investigation of textiles and clothes in ancient Mesopotamia has been anything but neglected in Assyriological studies. For the Neo- and Late Babylonian periods, in particular, two fundamental monographs have shed light on the clothes worn by the deities worshiped in lower Mesopotamia. 2 Scholars, however, have focused almost exclusively on clothing in the cultic context. This is due to a prevalence of textual sources – mostly economic or administrative documents – recording clothing items worn by divine images during festivals and rituals. Sources on the clothes worn by common people, instead, are close to non-existent. Still, we cannot overlook …

Zur Textilterminologie Auf Römischen Bleitäfelchen: Probleme Der Lesung Und Interpretation, Herbert Graßl

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

Die Vorlage und das Studium römischer Bleitesserae, das in den letzten Jahren einen beachtlichen Aufschwung erlebt hat,1 lieferte gerade für die kaiserzeitliche römische Textilwirtschaft viele neue Einsichten. Dazu zählen neben dem in diesem Wirtschaftszweig tätigen Personenkreis vor allem die Herstellung, Verarbeitung und Vermarktung von Textilien, ihre Bezeichnungen und auch Preise in verschiedenen Provinzen des Imperiums. Trotz aller neuer Erkenntnisse bleibt auf diesem Feld aber noch viel zu tun: die Lesung der Texte ist häufig nicht gesichert, die inhaltliche Deutung auch wegen der häufigen Verwendung von Abkürzungen schwierig, dazu kommt noch die verstreute und oft nur schwer erreichbare Publikationsform. Dass sich …

Tools And Crafts, The Terminology Of Textile Manufacturing In 1st-Millennium Bc Babylonia, Louise Quillien

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

What did sheep shears in the 1st millennium BC Babylonia look like? We are not sure. Many cuneiform texts were written about textile work in Babylonia, but it was largely about administration or accounting. There were hardly any descriptions of the actual tools and processes. In this article we go back over the words, the iconography, and the archaeology in an attempt to find these missing descriptions. This study is limited to Babylonia during the 1st millennium BC, and this period correspond to a state of the Akkadian language, called Neo-Babylonian. At these times, major evolution took place. Mesopotamia entered …

Zur Bekleidung Der Krieger Im Avesta: Rüstung Und Magischer Schmuck, Götz König

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

Während die in Altavestisch komponierten Lieder des Avesta (die Gāϑās und das Yasna Haptaŋhāiti) einen rituellen Dichtungsstil pflegen, der sich in eigentümlicher Weise gegen die Dinge der Welt weitgehend verschließt, d.h. Wörter, die auf Materiales – auf in Raum und Zeit Identifizierbares – sich beziehen, vermeidet, stellen die in Jungavestisch abgefaßten metrischen wie prosaischen Texte des Avesta eine weitaus ergiebigere Quelle zur Rekonstruktion der materiellen avestischen Kultur dar. Richten dabei diejenigen Texte, welche die tägliche bzw. zu bestimmten Anlässen zu feiernde, um die altavestischen Texte herum komponierte Priesterzeremonie bilden (Yasna bzw. Yasna mit Vīsparad), ihre Aufmerksamkeit auf …

Sha’Atnez – The Biblical Prohibition Against Wearing Mixed Wool And Linen Together And The Observance And Enforcement Of The Command In The Orthodox Jewish Communities Today, Orit Shamir

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

Jewish law forbids Sha’atnez – wearing mixed wool and linen together was forbidden for the Jewish population. The article will first explain the meaning and acronym of sha’atnez, and then review the sha’atnez textiles which were found in the Land of Israel. The possible reasons for the prohibition of sha’atnez will be presented and remarks on observance and enforcement of the law in Orthodox Jewish communities today will be made according to ethnographic investigation.²

The concept of sha’atnez: Jewish law forbids sha’atnez – wearing garments of mixed wool and linen. This is mentioned twice in the Hebrew Bible: …

A Name Of A Private Factory (Or Workshop) On A Piece Of Textile: The Case Of The Document A.L.18 (Vienna), Anne Regourd, Fiona J. L. Handley

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

The Arabic Leinwand (A.L.) collection is held by the Department of Papyrus (Papyrussammlung) in the Austrian National Library of Vienna.1 The collection was acquired in Egypt in the late 19th century by an antiquity trader in Cairo commissioned by Joseph von Karabacek, the famous papyrologist, and contains 68 items.2 Almost all of these have an association with writing, hence the reason why they were collected for the Library, and only eight objects have no association at all. The language for the most part is Arabic with a few texts in Greek, or with Greek with Arabic. The collection of pieces …

The Textile Term Gammadia, Maciej Szymaszek

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

This paper aims to investigate the origin of the term gammadia by determining the oldest examples of its use both in source texts and secondary literature.1 For nearly four centuries this term was commonly applied to the various motifs on mantles of figures represented in art of the 1st millennium AD.2 These right-angled and letter-like signs attracted the attention of several authors who were seeking to explain their possible symbolic meaning, but they did not pay attention to the correctness of the term adapted to name such motifs.3 This approach contributed to the terminological confusion and difficulties in understanding the …

A Diachronic View On Fulling Technology In The Mediterranean And The Ancient Near East: Tools, Raw Materials And Natural Resources For The Finishing Of Textiles, Elena Soriga

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

Among the operations required in the overall cycle of the ancient production of textiles, Greek and Roman sources refer to the fulling of woollen fabrics as the most complex and expensive technical process performed both in the 1st millennium BC and the 1st millennium AD. Indeed, the finishing of woollen clothes needed a large amount of time, energy and labour, as well as involving the use of specialized skills and costly raw materials. Fulling fulfilled two functions that were necessary for the proper finishing of cloth, namely the scouring and consolidation of the fibres in the fabric. Woven cloth straight …

Sabellic Textile Terminology, Peder Flemestad, Birgit Anette Olsen

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

Despite numerous recent studies of Italic textiles and textile production etc., no systematic study has so far been attempted regarding the textile terminology of Italic languages besides Latin. The present study seeks to remedy this, making a first step into the textile terminology of Sabellic languages, predominantly Oscan and Umbrian. There are two types of sources for Sabellic textile terminology: inscriptions and glosses in Greek and Latin literature. Both are, however, fraught with uncertainties. The glosses, as for example seen in the case of Etruscan, may have been misunderstood or misinterpreted and should be treated with due caution, and there …

Purple And Its Various Kinds In Documentary Papyri, Ines Bogensperger

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

The colour purple evokes an inestimable, priceless luxury in our understanding. It almost belongs in a legendary world along with other exquisite goods. Purple is seen as example par excellence for a symbol of social status, a token of prestige. A significant study on the importance of purple has brought to light the persistent desire for this colour throughout the Greek and Roman world.2 Literary sources from Roman times provide us quite comprehensive information on the colour and its sources. The most often quoted author is doubtlessly Caius Plinius Secundus, known as Pliny the Elder, who compiled specialist knowledge in …

Flax And Linen Terminology In Talmudic Literature, Nahum Ben-Yehuda

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

Material culture data is mentioned in Talmudic (or ‘rabbinical’) literature when a relevant legal (‘halakhic’) or homiletic (‘midrashic’) context arises. Therefore, certain details may be lacking or ambiguously stated. This however is not presented in a systematic and detailed manner, such as in ‘Pliny’s Natural History’.2 Additional classical authors mention flax and linen. First and foremost: Diocletian3 in his edict of maximum prices. And in less scope and detail: Xenophon,4 Virgil,5 Strabo,6 Columella,7 Pausanias,8 and Theodosius II9 – in his codex. In some instances, these sources may be useful for comparison, contrast and clarification – to Talmudic sources. It is …

Armenian Karmir, Sogdian Karmīr ‘Red’, Hebrew Karmīl And The Armenian Scale Insect Dye In Antiquity, Agnes Korn, Georg Warning

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

This paper looks at three terms denoting the colour ‘red’, viz. Armenian karmir, the obviously corresponding Sogdian word karmīr, and karmīl ‘scarlet’ found in the Hebrew Bible. It will first briefly discuss the etymology of these words (summarising an argument made elsewhere) and argue that the words in question represent a technical term for a red dye from Armenia produced by scale insects. We will then attempt to show that historical data and chemical analysis of extant historical textiles confirm the Armenian red as the relevant dye.

Late Biblical Hebrew karmīl occurs only three times. All three attestations are …

Ars Polymita, Ars Plumaria: The Weaving Terminology Of Taqueté And Tapestry, John Peter Wild, Kerstin Droß-Krüpe

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

In Roman Egypt papyrologists and archaeologists sometimes seem to inhabit two different, if parallel, worlds, each apparently unaware of the treasures to be found in the other. This paper, however, is a co-operative venture between an ancient historian with papyrological interests – Kerstin Droß-Krüpe – and an archaeologist – John Peter Wild. In the research field of textiles we overlap, and we want to offer you insights from each of our worlds. At some point in the later 2nd century AD an unnamed magnate in the territory of the Lingones in central Gaul dictated a will in which he stipulated …

Terminology Associated With Silk In The Middle Byzantine Period (Ad 843-1204), Julia Galliker

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

During the 1st millennium AD, silk became the most desirable fibre in the Mediterranean region. While the expansion of silk production and consumption is widely acknowledged, specific features of the industry’s development are more difficult to discern. Chroniclers had little reason to document silk manufacturing processes, and producers were not inclined to record or publicise their trade secrets. Historical knowledge of silk comes mainly from accounts of its consumption in a variety of forms and contexts.

For the middle Byzantine period (AD 843-1204), the two most elaborated sources associated with silk date from the 10th century. The Book of the …

Garments, Parts Of Garments, And Textile Techniques In The Assyrian Terminology: The Neo-Assyrian Textile Lexicon In The 1st-Millennium Bc Linguistic Context, Salvatore Gaspa

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

At its political and territorial apex in the 8th and 7th centuries BC, Assyria developed into an imperial society characterised by the coexistence of languages and cultures of various origins. The policy of deporting and resettling conquered peoples across the Empire’s territory caused the spread of the Aramaic language and alphabetic script as well as the use of Aramaic as a co-official language alongside Akkadian. The linguistic change caused by these events in the Empire’s core territory emerges from the late stage of the Assyrian dialect, which shows the impact of Aramaic on various grammatical and lexical elements of the …

Textilnet.Dk – A Toolkit For Terminology Research And Presentation, Susanne Lervad, Tove Engelhardt Mathiassen

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

Since February 2015, the digital dictionary or term database, textilnet.dk, has been accessible on the Internet.1 The purpose of this paper is to present the background and methods of this pilot project. Since 2010, the project has collaborated with The Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre for Textile Research (CTR), University of Copenhagen, and has gained moral support from Sabine Kirchmeier-Andersen, director of Dansk Sprognævn, the Danish National Language Advisory Committee.2 From 2011 to 2015, we have been working with generous funding from the Danish Ministry of Culture. The objective of textilnet.dk is to preserve and communicate the cultural heritage of …

Irritating Byssus – Etymological Problems, Material Facts, And The Impact Of Mass Media, Felicitas Maeder

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

Byssus and sea-silk made of the fibre beard of the Pinna nobilis – zoologically called byssus – have both become subjects of scholarly interest in the last decade. The subject is discussed not only in scientific books and journals, but also in mass media around the world. Although scientific research has clarified some old misunderstandings, the double meaning of the term byssus has created new doubts and scepticism in the scholarly debate, bearing the danger of new, additional erroneous interpretations. This article recapitulates the present state of knowledge and calls attention to the consequences of assumed ‘old/new knowledge’ entering the …

The Oscillum Misunderstanding, Francesco Meo

Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe, 1000 BC to 1000 AD

In this passage the Latin term oscillum refers to a particular class of objects: a small face or mask hung on trees during certain religious feasts celebrated by the Ausones in honour of Bacchus (Fig. 1). The Roman oscilla most probably derives from the Aἰῶραι, small images related to Dionysus hung on trees during the Aἰῶρα, an Athenian public feast. They were believed to purify the air as they swung in the wind. Both the Greek and the Latin words refer to objects used during particular sacred feasts, in the first case public and in the second case …