Gebel Adda (Sudanese Nubia). Cemetery II, tomb 1039 (-B) (funerary). Field registration number: n.d. Museum textile number #35.
Christian period.
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (Canada). Inventory number ROM 973.24.3420.2
9x19.5
Warp-faced tabby.
White stripes on a cream ground and a decorative band with geometric patterns, alternating in black on a white ground and black in a black ground; this band is framed with red lines. The setting of the warp for the linen stripes is as follows: 8 linen threads, 3 silk threads, 2 linen threads, 3 silk threads, 8 linen threads, 21 silk threads and again 8L/3S/2L/3S.
- silk / linen
- I / Z spun
- ecru / undyed
- 50 warps/cm for areas woven in silk, 34 warps/cm for areas woven in silk and linen
- linen
- Z spun
- undyed
- 22-24 picks/cm
The band is a finishing border, it seems that the textile's warps were used there as wefts. Dr Sarah Fee, a curator of the ROM, suggests the possible use of a heddle-loom (similar process seen in Yemen - personal communication, November 2017). Edge with unlooped warps twisted 2 by 2 into fringes in S direction.
Textile fragments examined by M.M. Wozniak in November 2017. This textile bears the same inventory number as another silk textile decorated in red and blue plaid effect (ROM 973.24.3420.3 and 3420.7). However, despite the presence of a fragment with dark blue and red silk warp preserved in the present ensemble, the construction of weft differs in the two textiles: in the present textile only linen (undyed) wefts are used, while in the other piece linen threads alternate with red/blue silk threads, which might point to the identification of two different textiles.
n.c.
Imported.