Coptic woodblock printing in the 4th c. AD

[Eleatic Guest]

The stunning blonde on top aside , who robs a bit of attention, but have you ever heard of printing in late Roman Egypt?

In his Natural History, Pliny states that this technique was particularly utilized in Egypt. Printed material is only represented by fabrics of the fourth century at the earliest and continues until the Arab period. In those days, there were great textile centers such as Alexandria, Panopolis, Oxyrhynchus, Tinnis and Damietta, but regrettably we know this only from texts, because any trace of weaving shops and their fragile wooden looms has vanished. However, by studying the fabrics themselves, scholars are often able to derive their origins.

Any scholarly references to the subject?

[Robert Vermaat]

The stunning blonde on top aside , who robs a bit of attention, but have you ever heard of printing in late Roman Egypt?

Fabric printing, why not? It's no rocket science, and tunics were painted so why not with this?

[Eleatic Guest]

With hindsight, printing on fabrics may seem a self-evident idea, but in my mind to put the idea first into practice required a lot of ingenuity.

[Robert Vermaat]

Would it not be the same idea as using a seal? That was already around for some time, I think?