The Clothing Makers

Clothing is rare in the archaeological world of the ancient Near East. Because the material is organic, it often deteriorates long before archaeologists can find them; but occasionally the right conditions align to preserve such material, as seen in the pictures on display. Otherwise, archaeologists must fill in their understanding of what ancient clothing looked like through the discovery of pictures, clothing accessories, and the items used to make clothing. The artifacts on display show examples from each of these categories. Picture #1 is a replica of an ancient Egyptian tomb painting that shows what the clothing (and hair) styles of the ancient Egyptians and West Semitic peoples (such as the ancient Canaanites and Israelites) looked like.  Some of the more common clothing accessories found are cloak pins, some of which are also known as toggle pins or fibulas. The ancient people made their clothing from a variety of materials, including wool, leather, and linen, spinning the yarn and weaving the fabrics themselves. The practice of dying cloth was not uncommon, though it could be painstaking (it would take about 119 pounds of murex shells (#14) to produce  1 gram of purple dye)!

Artifacts on Display:

1. Two Toggle Pins
   Date: unknown
   Provenance: unknown
   Composition: bronze
   Collection: LCA Permanent Collection

2. Two Partial Toggle Pins
   Date: unknown (longer one) and Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000 - 1500 BC) (shorter one)
   Provenance: unknown (longer one) and Tell el-Hayyat, Jordan (shorter one)
   Composition: bronze
   Collection: LCA Permanent Collection (longer one) and Tell el-Hayyat Collection (shorter one)

3. Hellenistic Child Figurine
   Date: Hellenistic Period (c. 4th - 2nd century BC)
   Provenance: unknown
   Composition: clay
   Collection: on loan from the Cobb Institute of Archaeology at Mississippi State University

4. Scythian or Early Sassanian Belt Buckle with Horse Design
   Date: c. 6th - 5th century BC
   Provenance: unknown
   Composition: bronze
   Collection: on loan from the Cobb Institute of Archaeology at Mississippi State University

5. Fibula Fragment
   Date: Middle Bronze Age (c. 2000 - 1500 BC)
   Provenance: Tell el-Hayyat, Jordan
   Composition: bronze
   Collection: Tell el-Hayyat Collection

6. Fibula
   Date: unknown
   Provenance: unknown
   Composition: bronze:
   Collection: LCA Permanent Collection

7. Goat Hair Fabric
   Date: modern
   Provenance: Israel
   Composition: goat hair
   Collection: LCA Collection

8. Needle
   Date: unknown
   Provenance: unknown
   Composition: iron
   Collection: LCA Permanent Collection

9. Loom Weight
   Date: Iron Age (c. 1200 - 6th century BC)
   Provenance: unknown
   Composition: stone
   Collection: LCA Permanent Collection

10. Spindle Whorl
    Date: unknown
    Provenance: unknown
    Composition: stone
    Collection: LCA Permanent Collection

11. Spindle Whorl
    Date: unknown
    Provenance: unknown
    Composition: bone
    Collection: LCA Permanent Collection

12. Spindle Whorl
    Date: unknown
    Provenance: unknown
    Composition: clay
    Collection: LCA Permanent Collection

13. Three Spindle Whorls
    Date: unknown
    Provenance: unknown
    Composition: stone
    Collection: LCA Permanent Collection

14. Murex Shell
    Date: modern
    Provenance: Israel
    Composition: shell
    Collection: Patterson Collection

Pictures on Display

1. Replica of Tomb Painting from Beni Hasan
   Date: c. 1900 BC (Middle Kingdom Period)
   Provenance: original is from the Beni-Hasan cemetery, Egypt
   Composition: replica is paint on papyrus
   Collection: LCA Permanent Collection

2. Egyptian Pleated Linen Tunic
   Date: c. 2435-2118 BC (Old Kingdom Period)
   Provenance: Asyut, Egypt
   Composition: linen
   Collection: Egyptian Museum, Turin, Italy

3. Egyptian Sandals
   Date: c. 1390-1352 BC (New Kingdom Period)
   Provenance: Tomb of Yuya and Tjuyu, Valley of the Kings, Egypt
   Composition: grass, reed, papyrus
   Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art

4. Beadwork Apron of Senebtisi
   Date: c. 1850-1775 BC (Middle Kingdom Period)
   Provenance: Tomb of Senwosret, Lisht, Egypt
   Composition: faience
   Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art

5. Scene of Women Making Cloth from Lekythos Depicted in #7 Rolled Out
   Date: c. 550-530 BC
   Provenance: unknown
   Composition: clay
   Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art

6. Reconstructed Israelite Upright Loom
   Date: based on looms used in the 10th - 7th centuries BC
   Provenance: Israel
   Composition: wood and clay
   Collection: Eretz Israel Museum, Israel

7. Lekythos Showing Women Making Cloth
   Date: c. 550-530 BC
   Provenance: unknown
   Composition: clay
   Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art

8. Egyptian Model of Women Making Cloth on a Horizontal Loom
   Date: c. 2150-1991 BC (Dynasty 11, Middle Kingdom Period)
   Provenance: Tomb of chancellor and high steward Meketre, Thebes, Egypt
   Composition: wood and paint
   Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art