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Fig. 7.—Tomb of the Vizier Daga. Date about end XI. Dynasty, B.C. 2000. Mr. N. de G. Davies’ Five Theban Tombs, Plate XXXVII.

The upper illustration indicates a woman warping or beaming, probably warping.

In the lower illustration note the left hand figure holding the spool in her hand. At first sight this small black line looks like a continuation of the “beater-in” in the hands of the other weaver, but Mr. Davies informs me that it is quite a distinct article, and that there can be no doubt about it. Just above the breast beam there are 8 or 9 threads of weft but they are too faint to be included.

The selvedge F on the one side of the cloth and not on both sides is also interesting from the fact that selvedges do not appear on the Egyptian cloths until the XVIII. Dynasty circa B.C. 1600.

The breast beam:—It appears to me that the three portions marked G1, G2 and G3 joined up are intended to represent the breast beam and its holding pegs, similar to the warp beam A and its pegs B1, B2, but the portion K is not clearly drawn in any of the reproductions. Wilkinson omits this altogether, but in its place has two black pieces which also are still less clear. Lepsius has omitted G2 altogether and appears to have made G1 and K and G3 into treadles, by raising G1 above the level of G3, and to support the view that these are treadles, he makes use of the overseer’s foot by placing it on the supposed treadle, and the casual observer thinks it is the foot of the woman weaver. However, Mr. Davies’ copy seems to offer a solution. He agrees with Cailliaud and Rosellini in so far as G1, G2 and G3 are concerned. With him K takes quite a different form, in fact it looks very similar to an article which an attendant woman in another panel has close by her, see Fig. 8. It might perhaps be a rest to prevent the beater-in being driven home too forcibly—this, however, is still only a surmise—as the length of the beater-in makes it heavy at the far end.

Fig. 8.—Weaver with the support K, Fig. 6; the woman appears to hold a beater-in in the right hand and a ball of thread in the left hand. Rosellini.

In Cailliaud the warp threads are coloured in pale blue and red on top of the black lines of the drawing; he has painted the selvedge and finished cloth a pale blue, as well as that portion of G2 which is covered by the cloth indicating that this is the breast beam, G3 and G1 are painted a dark red. Rosellini colours A, B1, B2, D1, D2, G3 orange; G1 and K dark red, but E from end to end light ochre. This shows that K is distinct from E.

Fig. 9.

Upright or Vertical Looms from the Tomb of Thot-nefer at Thebes, XVIII. Dynasty, circa B.C. 1425. From a drawing by Mr. N. de G. Davies. Size of original: Height from Base Line to top of frame at A, 11½" = 29 cm.

In consequence of this loom being represented as upright it is often spoken of as an upright or vertical loom. But it is drawn upright because the Egyptian artist did not understand perspective, and it was only by making the loom upright that he was enabled to show the details we have just been examining. For the same reason mat making is illustrated edgeways. If the loom were an upright one the two women weavers would have had their backs turned towards the onlooker as can be seen in Fig. 9. Any doubt on the matter has however been set aside by Prof. John Garstang’s extremely interesting discovery of a wooden model depicting a group of women spinning and weaving which he illustrates in his work, The Burial Customs of Ancient Egypt, London, 1907. After referring to the woman spinning, he continues: “The other seated figures apparently represent women at work upon a horizontal loom; the frame and the woof [sic, should be warp] threads are faintly represented upon the board. It is possible that they are making mats or, perhaps, weaving (p. 132).” He gives an illustration of the group taken from a photograph, but as it does not show the lines which indicate the loom lying horizontally on the ground nor the warp threads, I have asked him to let me have a drawing made of it and, with his kind permission, it is now reproduced here, Fig. 10. The threads of the warp and the finished piece of cloth at the breast beam end are clearly indicated. The whole model supports conclusively the well founded supposition that the loom we have been considering is a horizontal one. Curiously enough, Prof. Garstang does not appear to appreciate the important bearing of his discovery, for on a later page (p. 134) in speaking of Lepsius’ illustration, discussed above, he says: “the weavers are seen at work at an upright loom.”

Fig. 10.—Horizontal Loom. Outline sketch by Miss Davey of the original model of a group of one woman spinning and two women weaving, found by Dr. John Garstang at Beni Hasan. The model is in the Museum of the Liverpool Institute of Archæology.

It must not be thought that the Beni Hasan representation is the only one which illustrates a horizontal loom. A second one is reproduced by Prof. Percy Newberry from the tomb of Tehuti-hetep circa 1938-1849 B.C., see Fig. 11. In the upper portion the women are seen spinning and preparing the thread generally, while in the lower portion two women on the left are warping, and in the centre three apparently are “beaming,” i.e. putting the warp on to the beams preparatory to commencing to weave, the warp threads being apparently drawn over pegs to ensure the proper tension. This illustration shows the warp flat against the wall like the mat making shown at Beni Hasan.

Fig. 11.—Tomb of Tehuti-hetep. Date about 1939-1849 B.C. From Professor Percy Newberry’s El Bersheh I. Pl. 26.

Note the woman on the top right hand corner holding a “beater-in.”

A third representation of a horizontal loom is reproduced from the forthcoming volume of the Egypt Exploration Fund by kind permission of Mr. N. de G. Davies, who made the copy. In this, Fig. 7, already