Looms and Textiles of the Copts - First Millennium Egyptian Textiles in the Carl Austin Rietz Collection of the California Academy of Sciences #223680

HE weaver's art is an ancient one, its history rooted in the remote past. Trac ing the path of this history from its distant beginnings is a difficult under taking, largely because textile materials are highly perishable. There are long gaps in the record. The conditions that prevail at most archaeological sites do not favor the preservation of textiles in their original form. Rare indeed are the special situations needed to protect textiles from complete destruction: dry caves, watertight tombs, or a region without significant rainfall. Because of textile preservation problems, some phases of the history of weaving must be recovered almost entirely by means of secondary sources, principally depic tions in art, and tools — bobbins, needles, spindle whorls, bone awls, and the like. Even here there are problems because many weaving tools were made of perishable materials as well.