Piazza Armerina mosaic question

[Martin Moser]

Catalogue of Coptic textiles from burying-grounds in Egypt vol1 has references to Swastikas on clothing...

Thanks for that and the links, Ivor - you're a great help as always :-)
I had found vol 2 earlier, but not vol 1

I should have been clearer, sorry. What I meant was a single, central swastika as the dominating motif in an orbiculus. I am aware that there are tunics etc. with swastikas on their own as decoration. I don't know of a combination of swastika and orbiculi/clavi where the swastika is the central motif. I found one pic at the V&A where there are four in the corners surrounding the cnetral motif, but that's all so far (cf. http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O264401/woven-linen/).

[Robert Vermaat]

Back to the original question: IMHO it is 4 leaves of wine or hedera in a circular pattern. It has parallels in textile finds.

No swastika there.

[attachment=10297]detail1.jpg[/attachment]

[Robert Vermaat]

There is of course a swastika on a tunic elsewhere in the PA mosaics and another appears on a cloak in a fresco in Rome.

Indeed

[attachment=10298]detail2.jpg[/attachment]

[Graham Sumner]

Martin Moser wrote:

Thanks for the information! I've been going through the wrong books then - do you have a reference handy with larger, singular swastikas perhaps, Graham?

Hi Martin. Many textile finds are possibly not from clothing at all. It is believed that some of those large square designs are probably from cushions.

Equally forgotten is the idea that Romans had carpets and wall hangings, we just seem to think they had frescoes and mosaics. One of the large textile finds I have seen myself with the swastika design inside appeared to have been a wall hanging. It is on display in the private collection at Katoen Natie and has been published in one of the proceedings of the Textiles from the Nile Valley conferences in Antwerp.

Clothing the House: Furnishing textiles of the 1st millennium AD from Egypt and neighbouring countries. Edited by Antoine De Moor and Cacillia Fluck. 2009 Antwerp.

[Longovicium]

Thanks for the reference, Graham - that is a gap in my library I didn't even know existed!

[Robert Vermaat]

Clothing the House: Furnishing textiles of the 1st millennium AD from Egypt and neighbouring countries. Edited by Antoine De Moor and Cacillia Fluck. 2009 Antwerp.

I got that one last february! Great book with many many illustrations of Late Roman curtains, cushions et al. Indeed you see the very same clavi and orbiculi that you find on the tunics. fascinating.