Dyed textiles and dyeing: ‘Murex shell’ motif Reference to dyed textiles and dyeing has been recognised

in possible depictions of ‘murex shells’. Murex snails were used to produce a purple that was exploited as a precious textile dye and pigment in wall-paintings.⁸⁷ Since there is evidence of a purple-dye industry on Crete as early as MM I–II, or perhaps even EM III, it has been assumed that the art of purple-dyeing might have been a Cretan inven-tion.⁸⁸ Three species of snail, Hexaplex trunculus, Murex brandaris and Purpura haemastoma, were used to produce purple dye in the Mediterranean. Of these, the Hexaplex trunculus was the one favoured at many eastern Cretan sites (Fig. 2.2.b).⁸⁹ A ‘murex shell’ motif has been identified on

a few seals, with five potential examples in MM glyptic⁹⁰ (Fig. 2.7.a). Its form, resembling a sculptured shell body with spines, has provided the basis for this interpretation.

These motifs have been previously described as a ‘murex’⁹¹ or ‘triton shell’.⁹² No iconographic comparisons with this have been found.

4) Weaving

References to weaving have been recognised in a series of motifs identified as potential textile tools. They comprise motifs associated with the main type of loom used in Bronze Age Greece (the ‘warp-weighted loom’ and ‘loom weights’), as well as a tentatively suggested band loom, ‘rigid heddle’

and tools such as weaving swords, knifes, pins and ‘combs’, all collectively called ‘weft-beaters’.

‘Warp-weighted loom’ and ‘loom weights’

Use of the warp-weighted loom has been recorded in Greece since the Neolithic, throughout the Bronze Age and then into classical antiquity.⁹³ The evidence of Aegean loom weights, for example spherical, cuboid, pyramidal, spools, etc. implies diachronic developments in weaving technology, a variety of woven fabrics and, possibly, dif-ferent regional weaving traditions.⁹⁴ The widespread use of discoid loom weights, first on Crete and then across the southern Aegean, has been connected to the transmission of the technical innovations that accompanied their use;

and also to the likely mobility of female weavers from Crete who may have spread the entire warp-weighted loom technology.⁹⁵

A warp-weighted loom generally consists of a frame made of uprights, a cloth beam and a shed bar (Fig. 2.2.c).⁹⁶ The warp threads, tensioned by loom weights, are separated into at least two layers by a shed bar. The front layer hangs over the shed bar whereas the back layer(s) hang freely.

By means of the heddles fastened to a heddle bar, the warp threads from the back are moved to the front, creating an artificial shed. Since the geometry and weight of a loom weight affects the final properties of a woven fabric, for example whether it is fine or coarse, balanced, weft- or warp-faced,⁹⁷ there are good reasons to consider loom weights to have a key functional significance.

‘Loom weights’ were the first textile tools to be rec-ognised in seal imagery (Fig. 2.7.d–i).⁹⁸ The relationship between ‘loom weights’ and the way the actual loom weights are suspended and hang from the loom is emphasised by a number of distinct characteristics and features of practical significance in the image. These are: various shapes of the

‘loom weights’ that correspond roughly to the different types of Minoan loom weights;⁹⁹ the V-shape ending in a ‘loom weight’ that demonstrates how warp threads hang tensioned over a shed bar; and a series of parallel lines occasionally shown above the bar that represent the warp threads arranged in separate parallel groups above the shed bar (Fig. 2.2.d).

Alternatively, when two bars are shown, the parallel lines

Agata Ulanowska 30

resemble the heddles fastened to the heddle bar (Fig. 2.7.f).

When appearing in combination with a ‘weaver’, the stand-ing position of a male figure corresponds, in a simplified form, to the working position during weaving.¹⁰⁰ However, the specific technical gestures required by weaving, for example drawing the heddle bar using two hands in order to change a shed, or picking the weft with two hands upraised, are missing in these depictions (Fig. 2.7.g–i).

Although ‘loom weights’ are one of the most frequent textile production-related motifs (see Tab. 2.1), depictions of an entire warp-weighted loom are rare in Aegean glyptic.

In addition to the already recognised ‘warp-weighted loom’

on a MM cuboid seal,¹⁰¹ another possible depiction comes from a three-sided prism CMS II,2 288b(Fig. 2.7.b–c).

Here, a frame-like shape suggests uprights, a cloth beam, a heddle bar and a shed bar; and two circular blobs may represent loom weights or the stands required if the loom was free-standing.¹⁰²

The hitherto conventionally accepted identifications describe ‘loom weights’ as ‘string vessels’ and ‘pole slung with string vessels’.¹⁰³ According to Brendan Burke, the

‘string vessels’ in fact comprise two separate motifs: one that does indeed represent vases and the other that shows

suspended loom weights.¹⁰⁴ The ‘warp-weighted loom’ on CMS II,2 288b, as published, has been rotated 180° and tentatively interpreted as a ‘ladder’ with three steps, end-ing with two points that recall a ‘lyre’ or two ‘dumbbell’

motifs.¹⁰⁵

Evidence for ‘loom weights’ as an abbreviated reference to weaving has also been found in LBA III Enkomi, Cyprus, where a seal with a motif resembling ‘loom weights’ was impressed on an actual pair of loom weights.¹⁰⁶ Depictions of the ‘warp-weighted loom’ are more frequent, especially in the iconography of the later post-Bronze Age, for exam-ple on the urn from Sopron, a Cypro-Geometric bowl and several Greek vase paintings.¹⁰⁷ In these depictions, the loom weights shown as a part of the implement resemble the ‘loom weights’ motif. It has already been noted that, in terms of the Aegean Bronze Age, the closest analogies to these can be found in the Linear A sign AB 54 interpreted as a schematic depiction of a warp-weighted loom, and in the CHIC sign 041 (‘fabric with fringes’).¹⁰⁸ A series of rock-carvings with warp-weighted looms from Naquane, in the Camonica Valley in Italy, provides another good comparison, even though the precise dating of these petro-glyphs is disputed.¹⁰⁹

Fig. 2.7. ‘Murex shell’, ‘warp-weighted loom’, ‘loom weights’ and ‘weaver’ motifs on Aegean seals. A. ‘Murex shell’. CMS II,2 262a.

B–C. ‘Warp-weighted looms’. CMS II,1 64a; CMS II,2 288b. D–I. ‘Loom weights’ and ‘weavers’. CMS IV 125c; CMS III 195c; CMS II,2 151b; CMS II,2 214a; CMS II,2 224a; CMS VII 17b.

2. Textile production in Aegean glyptic 31

‘Rigid heddle’

The rigid heddle is a frame-like construction made of a row of slats or reeds with drilled holes and slots in between them (Fig. 2.1.f). It is a simple and efficient loom for band weav-ing but there is no archaeological evidence for its existence before the Roman era:¹¹⁰ band looms are usually invisible in the archaeological record. Nevertheless, narrow bands were important textile products and band weaving must have been one of the oldest weaving techniques, as is demonstrated both by excavated textiles with starting borders (bands woven on band looms which form the beginning of fabrics to be woven on the warp-weighted loom) from Neolithic Central Europe and by band iconography.¹¹¹

It has been provisionally suggested that the ‘rigid heddle’ was the real-life version of CHIC sign 038.¹¹² It appears frequently with ‘flax’ (=031) as part of the formula CHIC 038–010–031 (Fig. 2.3.c and 2.8.a), or in a shorter combination CHIC 038–010 (Fig. 2.8.b).¹¹³ Occasionally, the ‘rigid heddle’ is depicted alone on inscribed and non-inscribed prisms as the main motif (Fig. 2.8.c–d).¹¹⁴ Its graphic form consists of an elongated rectangle with several ‘slats’ inside; it is often shown with one of its sides slightly longer that the other which brings to mind a handle

(Fig. 2.8.c). If this ‘handle’ did indeed exist, then, if placed in an upright position, it would have been useful for shed changing and could be considered to be a feature of func-tional significance. Rigid heddles with elaborated handles or upper borders are numerous in the ethnographic record.

Traditionally, the ‘rigid heddle’ motif has been described as a ‘gate’ and ‘fence’¹¹⁵ or classified as ‘buildings and parts of buildings’.¹¹⁶ Indeed, the graphic form of the sign resem-bles a door inside a door jamb. In CMS and Anastasiadou’s monograph it is termed a ‘ladder’.¹¹⁷ This motif has been tentatively compared to depictions of fabrics and ‘vertical looms’ on Mesopotamian seals.¹¹⁸

‘Weft-beater’

In weaving, the weft should be packed before a new weft and after the shed has been changed. Several tools, largely invisible in the archaeological record, could have been used to do this, such as bone, antler or wooden knives, combs, so-called weaving swords and other types of beaters, for example pins or pointed wedges (Fig. 2.1.e).¹¹⁹ Many of these tools might have had more than one purpose as they were also practical for picking up the chosen warp threads in pattern weaving or for helping to keep a shed clearly open.

Fig. 2.8. ‘Rigid heddle’, ‘weft-beater’, ‘interlaced band’, ‘textile with fringes’ and ‘spider’ motifs on Aegean seals. A–D. ‘Rigid heddle’.

CMS II,8 67 (CHIC #162); CMS XI 299a (#214a); CMS III 236a; CMS III 206c. E–H. ‘Weft-beaters’. CMS II,2 302a; CMS II,2 302b;

CMS XII 047a; CMS IV 125b. I–J. ‘Interlaced bands’. CMS II,5 167; CMS II,1 471a. K–L. ‘Textiles with fringes’. CMS II,2 244c (#271β);

CMS II,2 227 (#200).

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The ‘weft-beater’ motif has been provisionally recog-nised on six prisms. It appears in combinations showing a pointed elongated object, together with a ‘dagger’ that itself may also be regarded as a potential ‘weft-beater’¹²⁰ (Fig. 2.8.e–h) – and with a human figure who could be inter-preted as a ‘spinner’ and ‘weaver’¹²¹ (Fig. 2.8.e–f). A pointed edge and the slightly curved shape of this tool could point to its practical importance. In earlier interpretations, this motif has been recognised as a ‘dagger’, ‘wedge’, ‘spear’ and a

‘bar’; and it has been recorded on other seals that lack any clear references to weaving.¹²² Tools for weft-beating were depicted in Greek vase paintings linked to warp-weighted loom technology: for example on a lekythos of the Amasis painter in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and an aryballos from Corinth.¹²³

5) Final products: ‘Interlaced bands’ and ‘textiles