Sophie Lee and Professor Kristin South, Honor’s Department

Burials play a particularly important role in understanding ancient cultures because, presumably, they provide insight into the most important objects of a belief system. People bury their dead with objects essential to the afterlife, which means the artifacts from burials may provide crucial information as archaeologists try to reconstruct their world. Textiles are included in these crucial artifacts. The objects, or textiles used in burials have the potential of marking the burial as belonging to an established time period, and even a religion. It could also indicate a transition period between two different belief systems, such as the transition from pagan traditions to Christianity in Egypt; these burial objects are a material record of the transition. The very type of fabric, its process of production and even the dye used on the textiles reveal religious influences and traditions (e.g., Christian or Pagan), the socio-economic status of the deceased, and the broader mercantile practices of the community. Particular textiles being researched are the bindings of the body wrappings first noted with interest in connection with Christian traditions, in the cemetery of Fag el-Gamous. The bindings have also been found in burials throughout Egypt dating to the first through sixth centuries. It is possible the wrappings could be an indicator of Christianity. They cannot yet stand alone as an indicator until they have been established as such with more supportive research and evidences, although the research thus far has revealed that this burial tradition and similar ones are found only in Christian burials dating between the first and sixth centuries.

In the research I conducted under the mentorship of Kristin South, we examined the bindings of the body wrappings that hold the wrappings together from the burials in Fag el-Gamous. Scholars have called such bindings tapes, bands, or cordage; we decided to call them “ribbons” because ribbons are purposefully woven. This means that they are woven to be about a centimeter wide, and they are not torn from a larger piece of cloth. Some wrappings that have been found were strips of linen torn from a larger piece of cloth, but ribbons are specific in that they were woven individually. The average width of ribbons is about a centimeter (10 mm), though the width does vary. They also vary in other ways. Ribbons are typically composed of brown, red, or undyed linen, and they can be composed of a solid color or a combination of two, or sometimes three colors. The most common combination found in Fag al-Gamous is red and white linen; another common combination is brown and white. The ribbons are generally woven in a similar pattern, though variations on the basic weave do exist. The basic weave has 12 warps. The warp threads are the threads that are held tightly in a loom, while the weft threads are the threads woven between the warp threads. The weft thread is not visible if the ribbon is tightly woven. A loose weave creates a visible weft. The width of each ribbon is determined by the thread size, the number of threads used, and how well the ribbon is made (including how tight the weave is and whether the weft can be seen). In our research we recorded our measurements of width, color, the find location of the ribbons, thread sizes, the number of warps and wefts, notes about each particular ribbon, etc.

Using our recorded information about the ribbons from Fag al-Gamous, I created a typology of the ribbons, which followed the consistent variations on the number of wefts, single and double wefts or warps, color patterns, and a tight or loose weave. From the collection of textiles we had access to, we discovered at least five types of ribbons, with subtypes of the variations.

Ribbon Types:
Type I – red and white
I.1 – 12 warp w w w r w r w r w r w w , single, 10 mm wide, weft not visible
I.2 – 16 warp, w w ww r ww r ww r ww r w w , single and double, 10 mm wide, weft not visible
I.3 – 24 warp, ww ww ww rr ww rr ww rr ww rr ww ww , double, 10-12 mm wide, visible weft
Type II – brown and white
II.1 – brown and white 5 warp, b w b w b, single, 6-8 mm wide
II.2 – 7 warp, white and brown b w b w b w b, double weft
Type III – red, 6 warp (or 10), r r r r r r , single, 6 mm wide
Type IV – white, IV.1 – 6 warp w w w w w w , single, 6 mm wide
IV.2 – 12 warp, double weft, 5 mm wide
Type V – brown, 6 warp b b b b b b , single, 6 mm wide

Exceptions to the five types were found as well, but it is not known whether their variations are simply mistakes of production, or if they were produced with such variations on purpose. It seems as if ribbons were a cottage industry, which means ribbons were produced locally and singly. Again, this could mean the variations came because individuals either made mistakes because they were not practiced at producing ribbons, or they just decided to vary the design.

Once this typology was created, Kristin and I both searched for other sites that utilized ribbons in their burial practices. We have written more extensive papers on this research, which we are trying to have published. We found that all other sites in which we discovered possible ribbon use were Christian sites. This cannot yet be made as an argument in defense of ribbons as a Christian practice only, but the research thus far has indicated that it is plausible for ribbons to be an identifiably Christian tradition. More research needs to be conducted concerning ribbons, especially to establish a more comprehensive collection of examples of ribbon use. This is only the beginning of ribbon research. Scholars did not originally pay special attention to the use of ribbons, which means there could be many more examples of ribbon use that simply have not been recorded. Hopefully ribbons will become more recognized and recorded now that they have been identified.