Karanis / Donkey Harness? / Palm

About this Item

Record Details

Object Identifier

0000.00.7714

Object Name

Donkey Harness?

Lot

University of Michigan excavation (Karanis)

Collections

Kelsey Permanent Artifact Collections

Object Type

Textiles

Materials

Palm

Length

33

Width

33.5 cm

52

Height

52.0 cm

Inscribed

161

Full Artifact Description

Mat made of woven hair? The threads used are course, [and] black [and] gray. It has been covered with leather, but most of the leather has either rotted or has been eaten away by bugs. Strand fibers are stuck to leather [and] bag. Bag is frayed on one end. A small piece of woven hair is sewn to the center on one side. - On a Post-it note

Brown/black woven goat hair bag (?) with remnants of attached leather that was sewn on both sides and leather trim around three edges. There is a fold along the edge that does not have leather trim. The leather trim closes the three edges except for a 10.5 cm long opening in the center of the weft-wise edge. Here, the leather overlaps both edges. The leather pieces were sewn on with leather strips. A small piece of goat hair fabric was sewn on to one side, possibly as a repair patch. There are remnants of selvedges along both warp-wise edges. There is also a remnant of a selvedge along one edge of the repair patch.

Unit Grid Number

0230

Component/Room

00C

Area

R

Verbatim Provenance

Egypt

Verbatim Site

Karanis

Countermark

161

Condition Notes

Very dirty, brittle and worn. There are many small and large interior holes. Both warp-wise edges are damaged, especially one side. Much of the leather has disappeared.There are bits of plant material and fibers adhered to the surface.

Fabric Structure

Bag - balanced plain weave.

Repair patch - weft predominant plain weave.

Border Type

none

Selvedge Type

Ribbed 1(cord) The large bag and patch have the same type of selvedges.

Selvedge Width

5 (both)

Selvedge Details

A cord consisting of 5 2-ply yarns S-twisted together was used for the single rib on both pieces of fabric.

Sewing

Large pieces of leather were put on each side of the woven sack and narrow strips of leather were put along each of three sides overlapping the two large pieces. Thin strips of leather were used to stitch the large pieces, narrow strips and goat hair fabric together along the edges. The leather stitches are from 0.4 cm to 2.1 cm long. The goat hair fabric patch was sewn on over a large hole using coarse linen stitches. The only intact stitch is 1 cm long. There are two overhand knots present, adjacent to each other.

Yarn #

7714.WA.01

7714.WE.01

7714.WA.02

7714.WE.02

7714.YN.01

Function

warp - bag

weft - bag

warp - patch

weft - patch

sewing - patch

Color

brown/black (440) with light fiber blended in

brown/black (440)

pale beige (OISH)

Yarns/cm

4

3

5

Structure

2-ply

Spin

ssZ

zzS

Twist Level

med

Fiber

goat hair

flax

Exhibition Title

Fabric of Everyday Life: Textiles from Karanis

Exhibition Curator

Thomas, Thelma K.

Exhibition Year

2001

Type Category

29

Technical Details

Collection

Kelsey Museum of Archaeology Art & Artifact Collection

Image Size

2272 x 1704

File Size

385 KB

Record

0000.00.7714

Link to this Item

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/k/kelsey/x-0000.00.7714/0000_00_7714p01.tif content_copy

Related Links

IIIF

Manifest

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/i/image/api/manifest/kelsey:0000.00.7714:0000_00_7714P01.TIF content_copy