Ephemeral Textiles of Egypt
Presented by Nancy Hoskins
Morning: ROOM 7
Evening AUDITORIUM
Egyptian pharaohs, gods, goddesses, and Minoan maidens and men wear garments of extraordinary patterned fabrics found only in Late Bronze Age Aegean frescoes and New Kingdom tomb paintings. Scholars have questioned if the fabrics were imaginary and — if not — what materials and methods were used to form the color-rich cloth? Art and archaeology merge in my quest to answer that question at the loom. Following the ancient weaving techniques that were used to create weft-faced or boundweave patterned bands that I have studied from the Tomb of Tutankhamun, I have recreated these façonné fabrics found in the Aegean and New Kingdom paintings. The results of this ‘experimental archaeology’ research, weaving, and writing project have been published in a series of ten articles in the Complex Weavers Journal, and were presented at the 2018 American Research in Egypt’s symposium. The program includes a slide presentation and a display of handwoven samples.
Nancy Arthur Hoskins, author, artist, and teacher has lectured, taught, exhibited, and researched nationally and internationally. She is the author of three books The Coptic Tapestry Albums and the Archaeologist of Antinoé, Albert Gayet, Weft-Faced Pattern Weaves: Tabby to Taqueté, Universal Stitches, and a video teaching tapeBoundweaving, and over one hundred articles. Nancy was a college weaving instructor from 1981-96. She led Textile Tours of Egypt in 2009 and again in 2010.
