INTRODUCTION

A century ago invaluable evidence of early

civilization was lost through poor excavation
methods.

Egypt was thought to be the only ancient land

to have preserved organic material such as
cloth.

Modern excavation techniques on new sites

have revolutionized knowledge of textile
production in the ancient Near and Middle
East.
 FIBRES
Flax was the commonest ancient
plant fibre, though hemp, palm and
papyrus were also used.

Seeds of domesticated flax found with

spindle whorls are indicative of textile
activity in west Asia.
They have been found in north
Syria,c.6000 BC, in Samarra villages in
north Iraq, c.5000 BC.

In Upper Egypt, c.5500 BC, flax seeds,

whorls, bone needles, cloth and
matting were found.

Spindles of wood and looms have not

survived from these early times.
The domestication of sheep, goats and
dogs started in the uplands of north Iraq,
c.9000 BC and in Iran, Palestine and
Turkey from seventh to sixth millennia BC.

Sheep rearing became a major industry in

Samaria, c.3500 BC to 3000 BC by which
time both hairy and woolly sheep were
known.

Wool became Urs principal export, often

simultaneously with flax cultivation in
mixed farming economies.
Cotton, native to India, with a variety
growing in Sudan is first documented,
c.700 BC, where it is described as tree
bearing wool.

Silk , was originally exclusive to

China, but the recent discovery of
Bombyxmori silk thread in a German
tribal chiefs grave dating from 6th
century BC, puts back the silk trade
by 4 centuries.
 DYES
Although the ancient Egyptians, and
later, the Jews preferred garments of
white linen and wool, often for
religious purposes, there is plentiful
evidence that others did not.

They included those whom the

Egyptians described as Barbarians,
Nubians and Libyans.
In ancient Egypt, dyed textiles are rare,
but Egyptians tiles and wall paintings
depicting these foreigners survive.

Most famous is the painting of family

group of tribal Aamu at Beni Hassan
tomb of the 12th dynasty who is wearing
brightly striped garments , of wool.

Three of thirty-seven visiting Semitic

traders/artisans depicted full scale in the
19th century BCE tomb of an Egyptian
baron, at Beni Hassan on the middle Nile.
The clothes of the men, women and
children in the group are woven on an
upright loom and dyed in many colours.

Both the loom and the dyes were

unknown in Egypt at the time; the
technologies were first introduced into
Egypt by Semites four centuries later.

The principal dye plants and mordents

such as alum must have been known
from early times.
Leonard Woolley found traces of red
garments at Ur from 2100 to 2000 BC,
as the most celebrated dye.

The royal purple together with other

cheaper dyes, and dyed wool became
the major trade goods of the
Phoenicians.

Recent excavations on the Syrian and

Palestine coasts have exposed crushed
murex shells, c.1450-1365 BC.
 THE EARLIEST
TEXTILES
The title of earliest textile has recently
shifted from Egypt to Anatolia, with
Egypt and Palestine as close contenders.

James Mallart's dig at the Neolithic

village in Southern Turkey, dating from
the sixth millennium BC, exposed fine
spun and plied thread, plain weave tabby
cloths and garments.
Some of them were showing darns, while
others had been dyed with local dye
plants.

Remains of sheep but none of flax led at

first to identification of fibres as wool or
mohair, but this has been challenged by
fibre tests also revealing flax.

A burial coach found at Gordion, in

ancient Phrygia, dated back to the late
8th century BC.
It was covered by some twenty layers of
linen and wool cloth, together with traces
of tyrian purple cloth and fragments of
hemp and mohair.

Widespread Israeli excavation has revealed

that this countrys deserts provide ideal
conditions for the preservation of fibre.

Finds from Neolithic Hemal Cave dating

from, c.7160 to 6150 BC, include rope,
netting, matting, spun and plied thread,
chiefly flax, and tabby woven cloth,
including blue dyed textile with shell and
bead decoration.
Arad, a town site of, c. 3500-2650 BC,
yielded whorls, linen thread wrapped
around tool handles, and pottery
impressions of fine plain weave.

At the copper mine of Timna,

established by the Egyptians using
local labour, c.1300 BC, rare
fragments of a large tent shrine of
thick red and yellow wool tabby were
found.
 EARLY TRADE
Archaeological evidence shows that trade
was established as early as the Neolithic
period in the seventh millennium BC.

Wool and cloth were important trade

goods in the East-West trade; Urs textile
goods were exchanged for raw materials.

Ur also traded up-river to Babylon and

Mari in north Syria.
War and territorial conquests were largely
motivated by trade; the lucrative Phoenician
trade in dyed wool relied on the wool of its
hinterland, the profits from which were later
shared by the Jewish kings.

Sheep and goats from Arabia, white wool

from Hebron and Egyptian linen were all
marketed in Damascus.

These trade links were the foundation of

later Hellenistic and Roman trade around the
Mediterranean.
 TERMINOLOGY
EXTRACTION
Organic - derived from, like, of the nature of.
Near East - now generally describes the
countries ofWestern Asiabetween
theMediterranean SeaandIran.
Middle East - is aregionthat encompasses
southwesternAsiaandEgypt.
Papyrus - is a thickpaper-likematerial
produced from thepithof the papyrus
plant,a wetlandsedgethat was once
abundant in theNile DeltaofEgypt.
Samarra a city in Iraq.
Dead sea - is asalt lakeborderingJordan to the
east, andIsraeland theWest Bankto the west.
Bombyxmori - thesilkwormis
thelarvaorcaterpillarof thedomesticated silk
moth, Bombyxmori.
TheNubians - are an ethnic group originally from
northernSudan, and southern Egypt.
Phoenicians - was an ancient civilization centered
in the north of ancientCanaan, along the coastal
regions of modern dayLebanon,Syria andIsrael.
Murex sea snails.
Neolithic new stone age.
Arad city in ancient Israel.
Timna an ancient city in Yemen.
Babylon ancient Mesopotamia, now Iraq.