dyeing linen

[Cheyenne]

This is interesting. I have not heard of linen tunics with clavii. Actually, I had expected linen tunics to be rare. How were the clavii attached?

Most of the tunic fragments bar maybe 3-4 (one I have myself from a Turkish collection) have been made from linen. It is usually due to the preservation conditions being somewhat more desirable in hotter countries (such as egypt, syria & Byzantine) and as such, the everyday wear in such countries tend to be linen derived. Most of the more complete tunics I have seen at the Bolton Museum, the V & A & the Bode Museum in Berlin have been linen with woolen clavii/orbiculii embellishment. We should also remember however, that what we are seeing in these collections are also textiles that have seen some recycling from other garments in most instances. Regardless of how we porytray our rather more complete tunics which we strive to provide the 'woven in' image - it was probably more common for the 'man in the street' to have been portraying a tunic which was patched up - maybe also with fine woolen decoration reused from an earlier example and re-attached to a coarser linen example.

Its a thought, and the more I study coptic textiles, the more convinced I am that re-use was far more wide spread that we usually talk about

Claire