11/25/2023 0 Comments Minecraft loom more than six patterns![]() In the 1950s, Marta Hoffmann found women in western Norway and others in Finland who could demonstrate the operation of the warp-weighted loom as they had learned it from their elders. While she did not know of the still-living tradition of the Scandinavian warp-weighted loom, her essay, which lists most of the important references to the loom in Greek texts and some ancient Greek textile vocabulary, remains a good, brief introduction to the subject. In 1936 Grace Crowfoot brought her extensive experience as a weaver, textile archaeologist, and ethnologist to the subject. Understanding of the ancient Greek warp-weighted loom has increased greatly over the past 75 years or so. Elaborately patterned textiles were certainly produced and probably were a means of recording culturally significant information. Cloth production was highly organized in palace workshops controlled by elite members of the society. In the Bronze Age, textiles were among the most valuable trade goods. While no part of this poetic tradition of Homeric weaving can be taken as historical evidence, the Iliad and the Odyssey seem to reflect certain realities in the history of textile production. For Homeric women, however, their skill as weavers and the great value of cloth made them vulnerable to ending up as booty as the result of heroic activity among men. Helen weaves the story of the Trojan War, Andromache weaves flowery love charms, not knowing that Hector is dead, and Penelope weaves a stratagem to forestall betrayal of Odysseus. They wove patterned cloth which, in the case of the first three, expressed their own qualities, as well as their relationship to particular men. Circe and Calypso wove, to say nothing of Athene herself, warrior and weaver both. It was the work of elite women: Helen, Andromache, Penelope, Arete, as well as goddesses. The Homeric poems portray weaving as heroic, magnificent, clever, valuable, the womanly counterpart to warfare. Nevertheless, there would be certain constants-notably the warp-weighted loom, which was the dominant weaving technology in Greece and adjacent areas from at least the late Neolithic into classical times. Ancient audiences, like any audience, would respond to the Homeric poems with their own mental picturing, which in the case of weaving imagery would have varied according to the local weaving traditions with which each audience member was familiar. Whether Penelope’s loom looked just like Circe’s loom or whether they used the same techniques or produced similar cloth are not questions that ought to be posed. By ‘weaving’ I mean both the process and the product-although the ‘picturing’ I present will necessarily focus on the former. ![]() I use the expression Homeric weaving to convey a certain detachment from time and place within the history of textile technology. ![]()
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