Africana Studies Commons^™

Tackling The Technical History Of The Textiles Of El-Deir, Kharga Oasis, The Western Desert Of Egypt, Fleur Letellier-Willemin

Egyptian Textiles and Their Production: ‘Word’ and ‘Object’

The site of El-Deir is situated north of Kharga in the “Great Oasis” of the Egyptian Western Desert (fig. 1). The site was occupied between the 6th century BC and the 6th century AD. A complex history emerged with the influence of many cultures: Persian, Greek, Roman and early Christian. Archaeological finds in both El-Deir and the oasis itself (the site of Dush and the temple of Darius in Hibis, a city north of Kharga) confirm that the Great Oasis was a wealthy region. This is also substantiated by texts from Ain Manawir and Dakhleh. The presence of an artesian …

What Flaws Can Tell: A Case Study On Weaving Faults In Late Roman And Early Medieval Weft-Faced Compound Fabrics From Egypt, Barbara Köstner

Egyptian Textiles and Their Production: ‘Word’ and ‘Object’

Silk samites from Late Roman and Early Medieval Egypt are well-known objects in museum collections all over the world. One group of fragments, the so-called Akhmim silks, show a mechanically repeated floral pattern. More than 100 examples with this design are known; the fragments bear striking similarities in design and technique. Were they woven in the same workshop? If all or at least a large number of pieces could be traced back to several batches of production, this would lead to further insights concerning the economics of early silk weaving. A detailed analysis of two exemplary pieces reveals features that …

Ancient Greek Dyeing: A Terminological Approach, Peder Flemestad

Egyptian Textiles and Their Production: ‘Word’ and ‘Object’

The Oxford English Dictionary defines dyeing as: “to impregnate (any tissue or the like) with a colour, to fix a colour in the substance of, or to change the hue of by a colouring matter”. In ancient Greek this operation is in general expressed by the verb βάπτειν, but the process of dyeing could be designated by a multitude of other terms. The following contribution provides an overview of the extensive ancient Greek terminology for the action of dyeing. The focus therefore lies primarily on the verbs designating the dyeing process itself, while wider dye terminology is only occasionally touched …

Dyeing In Texts And Textiles: Words Expressing Ancient Technology, Ines Bogensperger, Helgo Rösel-Mautendorfer

Egyptian Textiles and Their Production: ‘Word’ and ‘Object’

The complex chaîne opératoire of ancient textile production in various stages has been frequently discussed by textile scholars. According to documentary papyri, textile manufacturing represented the highest taxed industry after agriculture. This emphasises its importance as a significant sector in the ancient economy. A highly specialised branch within the chaîne opératoire is the dyeing industry. Ancient dyers used natural and animal dyestuffs, as well as different dyeing techniques to achieve their colourful results. They were also aware of the specific properties of the different textile fibres. In ancient times, wool and linen were the characteristic materials for manufacturing textiles, but …

How (Not) To Organise Roman Textile Production. Some Considerations On Merchant-Entrepreneurs In Roman Egypt And The Ἱστωνάρχης, Kerstin Droß-Krüpe

Egyptian Textiles and Their Production: ‘Word’ and ‘Object’

For almost the last 100 years, various ancient historians have suggested that organisations comparable to the “putting- out” system existed in the Roman Imperial period. They are most commonly believed to have occurred in textile production. As early as 1913, Theodor Reil assumed that the production of textiles in Roman Egypt was organised through the putting-out system. This idea can subsequently be traced through more than a century to recent publications. However, as this assumption is rarely based on genuine source material, it seems appropriate to get to the bottom of this hypothesis. In this context, special attention will also …

Textile Production In The Papyri: The Case Of Private Request Letters, Aikaterini Koroli

Egyptian Textiles and Their Production: ‘Word’ and ‘Object’

Throughout the “papyrological millennium”, that is from the 3rd century BC to the 8th century AD, both administrative and private life in Egypt were largely based on letters. Apart from oral communication, letter writing, mostly on papyri and ostraca, was the only available form of communication for the inhabitants of the land of Nile when they needed to get in touch and exchange information with people who did not live in their immediate surroundings. Papyrus letters, written by and sent to private, ordinary people and not to the authorities, composed in the Greek vernacular and intended to fulfill a wide …

Domestic Textile Production In Dakhleh Oasis In The Fourth Century Ad, Jennifer Cromwell

Egyptian Textiles and Their Production: ‘Word’ and ‘Object’

Ancient Kellis, modern Ismant el-Kharab is located in Dakhleh Oasis in Egypt’s Western Desert. The main occupation of the village was from the early to late Roman period (late 1st century to the beginning of the 5th century AD). Excavated as part of the Dakhleh Oasis Project, the site has revealed textual and archaeological evidence from which a detailed picture of life can be painted. To date, the main publications of the village’s finds have focussed on the textual remains, of literary and documentary texts in Coptic, Greek, and Syriac.1 A comparable publication of the archaeological evidence from the site …

Egyptian Pit-Looms From The Late First Millennium Ad — Attempts In Reconstruction From The Archaeological Evidence, Johanna Sigl

Egyptian Textiles and Their Production: ‘Word’ and ‘Object’

In discussions on the development of weaving technology, specifically treadle looms in the Mediterranean area, Egypt is often referred to as one of the earliest countries in which people used foot-powered looms for producing cloth. It is thought to have been in regular use in the production of cloth as early as the second half of the 1st millennium AD. This belief is built on results from excavations undertaken during the early 20th century by the Egypt Exploration Fund at the hill of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna in Luxor, as well as on textile studies. Unfortunately, none of the postulated looms …

Conclusion: Egyptian Textiles And Their Production, Dominique Cardon

Egyptian Textiles and Their Production: ‘Word’ and ‘Object’

This book, “Egyptian textiles and their production: ‘word’ and ‘object’ (Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine periods)” is both very useful and… frustrating. Indeed, all volumes of transactions of a scientific symposium are bound to be so, since research is a never-ending story. However, this is particularly true of textile research, which involves so many different approaches. Most of the relevant scientific domains are represented in this volume. There is a good combination of several reports on new research – recently studied archaeological textiles and iconographic documents on weaving – with attempts at syntheses of available evidence, both archaeological and textual, alongside …

Reconstruction Of A Deconstructed Tunic, Anne Kwaspen

Egyptian Textiles and Their Production: ‘Word’ and ‘Object’

Tunics of the 1st millennium AD can be classified into two main groups according to the direction of the warp in the finished tunic. The first group of tunics has horizontal warp threads in the finished tunic. This means that the cloth as it is worn is rotated 90° from the weave direction on the loom. In the second group of tunics the warp runs vertically in the finished tunic. Each group of tunics has their typical technological features and finishing methods, with additional distinctions between wool and linen tunics. This article focuses on the study of a tunic belonging …

Amjambo Africa! (March 2020), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In This Issue...

Why participate in the Census ..p. 4

City Announces Expo Grants .....p. 6

Justice for Women.......................p. 9

Fulbright Scholar Escajeda .........p. 9

Portland Adult Ed .....................p. 11

English Classes...........................p. 14

Musician Angelikah Fahray.......p. 19

Cameroon’S Relations Toward Nigeria: A Foreign Policy Of Pragmatism, Julius A. Amin

History Faculty Publications

Existing literature argues that the tactics of Cameroon foreign policy have been conservative, weak and timid. This study refutes that perspective. Based on extensive and previously unused primary sources obtained from Cameroon’s Ministry of External Relations and from the nation’s archives in Buea and Yaoundé, this study argues that Cameroon’s foreign policy was neither timid nor makeshift. Its strategy was one of pragmatism. By examining the nation’s policy toward Nigeria in the reunification of Cameroon, the Nigerian civil war, the Bakassi Peninsula crisis and Boko Haram, the study maintains that, while the nation’s policy was cautious, its leaders focused on …

Flax Growing In Late Antique Egypt: Evidence From The Aphrodito Papyri, Isabelle Marthot-Santaniello

Egyptian Textiles and Their Production: ‘Word’ and ‘Object’

While flax culture was a major economic sector in Egypt throughout antiquity and the medieval period, one can only agree with John R. Rea, the editor of P. Coll.Youtie II 68, when he says: “it has not escaped notice that surprisingly little information about [flax and linen] has been recovered from the Greek papyri”. By way of example, the specific word for the flax plant, linokalamē, appears in Greek papyri only in around 60 of more than 60,000 published texts. More specifically, the agricultural conditions set to produce flax are seldom visible in the texts: little more than twenty documents …

Amjambo Africa! (February 2020), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In This Issue...

Free English classes in Portland.. p.4

From Jordan to Maine............... p.13

Legislative Update.................... p.16

African Heritage And African-American Experience, Tanzeem S. Ajmiri

Open Educational Resources

This class is Introduction to Black roots from ancient Africa to contemporary America as an orientation to the nature of Black Studies emphasizing its relationships to world history, Europe, Asia, the Americas, slavery, Reconstruction, colonization, racism, and their politico-economic and cultural impact upon African descendants worldwide. In this course we will learn to do close readings of texts to draw evidence from them and use that evidence to produce well developed, historically situated arguments using evidence to support conclusions. Students will evaluate evidence and arguments critically and analytically to build their critical thinking skills.

Finally, students will gather, interpret, and …

Textiles From A Late Roman/Byzantine Ecclesiastical Centre At Abu Sha’Ar, Egypt, Lise Bender Jørgensen

Egyptian Textiles and Their Production: ‘Word’ and ‘Object’

Around AD 400 a group of Christians were looking for a new home. An abandoned Roman military fort at what is now called Abu Sha’ar, c. 20 km north of Hurghada on the Egyptian Red Sea coast, became the answer to their prayers. Steven Sidebotham of the University of Delaware excavated the site in 1987-1993. The fort had been established in AD 309-311 to house a mounted unit, the Ala Nova Maximiana, guarding the Via Nova Hadriana. The military phase was however short-lived: the soldiers abandoned the fort before AD 400. The new settlers turned the former military headquarters into …

Amjambo Africa! (January 2020), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In This Issue...

Transportation planning ...........p. 2

Celebrating Diversity in Maine .p. 3

Opinion on refugee numbers....p. 4

Jamat Ibrahim dreams big..........p. 9

In Her Kitchen ...........................p. 10

Lewiston author pens children’s book.........................p. 13

Food Co-op and MAIN ............p. 18

World Affairs Council...............p. 19

Youth Get Together..................p. 19

An Appraisal Of The Evolution Of Western Art Music In Nigeria, Agatha Onyinye Holland

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Nigeria has greatly evolved as an intercultural society given her history of colonization, the influence of foreign religion (Christianity and Islam, primarily) and the impact of globalization. Africa had her socio-cultural practices and art idioms before these foreign influences. For instance, music existed in everyday Africa as part of culture, religion, vocation, and drama. However, music never existed as an entity on its own. The culture of stage performers and audience never existed. This status quo changed with the introduction of Western art music through Christianity and education by the missionaries; since then, music assumed a bi-cultural status. This research …

Resilience, Resistance And Revival In 20th-Century Yoruba Art, Charles Mason, Andie Near

Kruizenga Art Museum Exhibition Catalogs

Kruizenga Art Museum, Hope College Catalog for exhibition: “Resilience, Resistance and Revival in 20th-Century Yoruba Art”. Exhibition dates: January 17—May 16, 2020. Charles Mason, author; Andie Near, photographer, designer; Lisa Barney, editor; Cecilia O’Brien ‘21, typographer.

Kruizenga Art Museum Online Collection - Exhibition Gallery

Colonial Patronage: Evolutions In The Critique Of Sartre’S “Orphée Noir”, Gus Huiskamp

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

One of the most interesting and controversial episodes in the history of the Négritude literary and philosophical movement came when two white, French authors prefaced the texts of two of the movement’s most significant authors. Jean-Paul Sartre’s “Orphée noir” is one of these texts in question, and it served as the preface for Léopold Sédar Senghor’s Anthologie de le nouvelle poésie nègre et malgache de langue française. In one sense, one might characterize Sartre as a friend to the Négritude movement, exposing it to the francophone mainstream and thereby helping it gain traction in Western academia. Viewed a different way, …

Queen Nanny, A Case Study For Cultural Heritage Tourism: The Archaeology Of Memory And Identity, Lacy Risner

Liberal Arts Capstones

This research project is intended to provide a foundation of knowledge of the Maroon culture in Jamaica, through the legends of one of their most prominent founders, Queen Nanny, as an aid for those who want to educate themselves before approaching community leaders about tourism development. Documentation of Queen Nanny’s life is contested and shrouded in mystery. Yet, that is part of what makes her memory so powerful. The various roles that Queen Nanny is associated with feature her adamant pursuit of an independent life for herself and her Maroons. Whether she is catching bullets or teaching the Maroons how …

Amjambo Africa! (December 2019), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In This Issue...

New American Leaders .............p. 2

Ladder to the Moon Conference p. 3

Appeal from 350 Maine .............p. 3

Asylum Seekers & Work Permits p. 4

Palaver Strings ............................ p. 9

Ikirenga Cy'Intore .................... p. 11

New Deal for New Americans Act .............p. 13

Coffee by Design Supports Arts ..........................p. 18

DACEP & ILAP in Lewiston...... p. 18

Mid Coast New Mainers Group ............................................... p. 19

Housing Scams ......................... p. 19

Amjambo Africa! (November 2019), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In This Issue...

Palaver Strings.........................Page 2

Elections ..................................Page 3

Asylum Seeker Update..........Page 3

Mainers Prepare for Winter Page 13

Namory Keita .......................Page 19

Table Of Contents, Regennia N. Williams

The Journal of Traditions & Beliefs

No abstract provided.

Amjambo Africa! (October 2019), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In This issue...

Lewiston ..................................Page 2

Mana Abdi

Lewiston High School

Lewiston Adult Education

African Gala.............................Page 9

Candidates Talk Issues ...Page 10/11

Queer Spaces, Future Places: Conversations With 3 Black Capetonian Femmes On Embodying Liberation, Ivana Onubogu

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Black femme bodies face multi-axial oppressive forces resting on their racialization, gendering, sexuality and possible other factors like socioeconomic status and ability. I interviewed 3 queer-identified Black femmes between the ages of 18 and 35 that are based in or work out of the Cape Town area. Femmes is defined as trans womxn, nonbinary femmes, femme lesbians and femme bisexuals, effeminate mxn, or any other femme-identified queer person. The purpose of this project is to investigate the possibility of a liberated Black queer future as an embodied practice within the context of the Black Capetonian queer community. Participants were selected …

Still Writing At The Master’S Table: Decolonizing Rhetoric In Legal Writing For A “Woke” Legal Academy, Teri A. Mcmurtry-Chubb

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

When the author wrote Writing At the Master’s Table: Reflections on Theft, Criminality, and Otherness in the Legal Writing Profession almost 10 years ago, her aim was to bring a Critical Race Theory/Feminism (CRTF) analysis to scholarship about the marginalization of White women law professors of legal writing. She focused on the convergence of race, gender, and status to highlight the distinct inequities women of color face in entering their ranks. The author's concern was that barriers to entry for women of color made it less likely that the existing legal writing professorate, predominantly White and female, would problematize the …

African Literature Association, Vivan I. P. Steemers

Instructional Development Grants

The primary mission of the African Literature Association is to facilitate the attempts of a world-wide audience to appreciate the efforts of African writers and artists. Its annual conference brings together scholars, teachers and writers that focus on themes related to African literature. This year’s main theme revolved around issues connected to “Institutions of African Literature: Future, Present, Past,” including sessions on the following topics: publishers, institutions of literary criticism, journals of African literature, discourse founders in African literary criticism and the university campus as an institution of African literature. However, a multitude of other themes were discussed during the …

Amjambo Africa! (September 2019), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In This Issue... Maine’s Way of Life................Page 9

ILAP Statement ....................Page 16

Amjambo Africa! (August 2019), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In This Issue...

Welcome Feast........................Page 8

My Life as a Refugee ............Page 11 by Veronica Kaluta

Wedding of Irene Yao & Romeo Adji....................Page 13