Through the Eras

Fashionsent it already. This papyrus thus suggests that cloth wasshipped long distances within Egypt. A list of 38 servantsin Papyrus Brooklyn 35.1446 includes twentyweavers. This list suggests through the titles that weaverscould specialize in particular kinds of cloth. From thesepapyri, many scholars have also concluded that clothplayed an important economic role in Egyptian life.Egyptians needed cloth for their own clothing but alsoused it as an offering to the gods. From archeological evidence,it can be seen that cloth could also be used topay wages in-kind. Cloth was produced both in privatedomestic settings and in large institutions such as palacesand temples and was a vital cog in ancient Egyptian economy.SOURCESJ. Allgrove-McDowell, “Kahun: The Textile Evidence,” inThe Pyramid Builders of Ancient Egypt. Ed. RosalieDavid (London: Routledge, Kegan Paul, 1986):226–252.Rosalind Hall, Egyptian Textiles (Aylesbury, England: Shire,1986).Elizabeth Riefstahl, Patterned Textiles in Pharaonic Egypt(Brooklyn: Brooklyn Museum, 1944).CLOTHINGEVIDENCE. Two kinds of evidence survive for modernscholars to study ancient Egypt clothing. The Egyptiansincluded complete wardrobes for the deceased intheir tombs to wear in the next world. Thus it is possibleto study garments that were folded for storage inthe tomb. Many Egyptian garments, however, were notconstructed like modern Western clothing, but ratherwere simply squares, rectangles, and triangles of clothor leather that were arranged on the body in differentstyles and foldings. Thus some garments such as elaboratelyfolded dresses or kilts can only be understoodthrough the second kind of evidence available: a carefulstudy of artistic representations. Yet this evidence isoften problematic in itself. Artists who worked in twodimensions presented combined perspectives on a garment,including, for example, both a side view and afront view in the same representation, as was the conventionfor representing the human face in two dimensions,and these often left the viewer without a clearview of the shape of a garment. Three-dimensionalworks of art are thus more helpful in understanding theshape of a garment, though not all the details of thefolds would be obvious even from the best statues. Furthermore,certain artistic conventions forced artists torepresent clothing as tight-fitting when it is clear fromthe archaeological evidence that dresses, for example,were usually worn looser—otherwise walking wouldhave been impossible. Furthermore, in art, especiallyfrom tombs and temples, people wear only their bestclothing even in situations that seem incongruous forsuch finery. Senedjem and his wife, two Nineteenthdynasty(1307–1196 B.C.E.) tomb owners, are representedin their tomb plowing in their most elaborateclothing. Everyday wear thus can only be observed fromthe wardrobes left in tombs for the deceased to wear inthe afterlife. For these reasons scholars have tried tocombine the archaeological evidence of tomb wardrobeswith artistic evidence to achieve a fuller understandingof ancient Egyptian clothing.LOINCLOTHS. The loincloth was most likely a universalitem of clothing in ancient Egypt. Tutankhamun’stomb contained fifty loincloths, andworkmen also wore them, as is seen in tomb paintings.Loincloths were made from both cloth and leather,though leather loincloths had a specialized use. Thecloth loincloths, worn by both women and men, consistedof two triangular pieces of linen sewn together toform a larger triangle with three equal sides. The topand sides were hemmed and strings were attached at eithercorner of the top. The strings allowed the wearerto tie the loincloth around the waist with the cloth coveringthe wearer’s buttocks. Some representations ofworkmen suggest that some men did not bother to makeadditional ties in the garment, leaving the front open.Others tucked the tip of the garment in the front ofthe waist after pulling it between the legs. Some peopleadded a sash that tied at the waist. The major differencesbetween the loincloths of royals and theloincloths of workmen were in the quality of the clothand the stitching. Tutankhamun’s loincloths were softand silky linen while workmen’s loincloths were moresturdy and coarser. The stitching in Tutankhamun’sloincloths was more delicate with smaller stitches thanthose found in ordinary people’s loincloths. Men beganwearing leather loincloths starting in the New Kingdom(1539–1075 B.C.E.). Soldiers, sailors, craftsmen, andservants wore them to protect their linen loinclothswhile they worked. Yet they were also found in tombsbelonging to kings, officials, and Nubian mercenaries.The burials that Egyptologists call pan graves, long associatedwith Nubians, often include mummies wearingleather loincloths. Leather loincloths consisted ofone piece of hide, usually thought to be gazelle skin.The hide resembled a mesh because the leather workercut either slits or diamond-shaped holes in it. SomeArts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.) 91