Posted on 05/09/2007 2:42:53 PM PDT by blam
Greek archaeologists discover rare example of 2,700-year-old weaving
The Associated PressPublished: May 9, 2007
ATHENS, Greece: Archaeologists in Greece have recovered a rare section of 2,700-year old fabric from a burial imitating heroes' funerals described by the poet Homer, officials said Wednesday.
The yellowed, brittle material was found in a copper urn during a rescue excavation in the southern town of Argos, a Culture Ministry announcement said.
"This is an extremely rare find, as fabric is an organic material which decomposes very easily," said archaeologist Alkistis Papadimitriou, who headed the dig. She said only a handful of such artifacts have been found in Greece.
The cylindrical urn also contained dried pomegranates — offerings linked with the ancient gods of the underworld — along with ashes and charred human bones from an early 7th century B.C. cremation.
Papadimitriou said the material was preserved for nearly 3,000 years by the corroding copper urn. "Copper oxides killed the microbes which normally destroy fabric," she told The Associated Press.
Conservation experts from Athens will work on the fragile find.
"Our first concern is to save it," Papadimitriou said. "Afterward, it will undergo laboratory tests to tell us about the precise fabric and weaving techniques."
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Was he named Kennedy?
Fabric is quite a find.
I love when these AMAZING archeological find stories come with no pictures. Grrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!
Weaving in traffic or weaving the scene of a cwime?
The age of this material is a real astounding factor.It is interesting.
In Riddle of the Desert Mummies, plaid hand woven material on the corpses of Celts was found in the Takla Makhan Desert, which is probably older than 2700 years, about 3200 years old.
Chapter Seven, "Hami and Hallstatt" (pp. 131-145), looks at the remains of the fair haired people of this important oasis area some three hundred miles east of Urumchi. The plaid garments are reminiscent of the Celts.
For Tokharian shares more linguistic features with Celtic than with any other branch. Since the similarity extends to textile technology too, the case warrants careful investigation. In fact it was this puzzle that had drawn me to Chinese Turkistan in the first place. p. 133
She distinguishes relatively modern tartan design from Celtic plaid twills dating from at least the early first millennium B.C.E."
Ch. 6 THE MUMMIES OF URUMCHI, Elizabeth Wayland Barber, W.N. Norton and Company, New York, 1999
Fabric often tells a lot about a people. The above plaid fragment was analyzed to have been made from European sheep wool, it having a distinct fiber signature from oriental sheep. It was found thousands of miles East of Europe, worn by a Celt.
Perhaps this Mediterranean fabric will reveal more about the Argonauts. (The British ethnocentric cultural myth that plaid was invented in Scotland in the 15th Century is not true, and the Scottish folk tales about the ancient origin of Plaid are indeed true. The very underpinnings of Scottish, Irish and Breton culture are also likely very ancient)
Thanks. I have that book.
An even better one on the same subject is The Tarim Mummies by Victor Mair.
BTW, the oldest paper ever found was found with this area and it has Tocharian A written on it.
No problem...let's hear it.
Was it the piece Penelope weaved/unweaved?
Halpogroup R1b (male) migration map. 90% of Irish and 68% of all other Europeans are R1b. Many others are R1a.
No. The dna data lends zero support to this idea.
Haplogroup X in North America is a bit of a mystery though but, not Jewish.
Thanks, no. I don't do religion on FR.
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