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Description: | Textile medallion. Eight-pointed star. Purple-brown wool on undyed linen. The points of the star enclose serrated leaf clusters, presumably vine leaves. A fine interlace pattern is in the Centre. Similar to W858. Such medallions would have been used to decorate tunics in the First millennium A.D. This is similar in design to the Late Roman medallions illustrated in Pritchard, F. 2004 'Clothing Culture. Dress in Egypt in the First millennium AD. Clothing from Egypt in the collection of The Whitworth Art Gallery, The University of Manchester.' Manchester. It is also very similar to the medallion in Lewis, S. 1969 'Early Coptic Textiles' p 29 plate 21, which is dated to the 5th century AD. Diane Lee Carolle believes that complex interlace patterns were believed to have protective powers against the evil eye as they force the eye to move backwards and forwards over the surface (Carroll, 1986, 'Looms and Textiles of the Copts'. p86). The eight pointed star is a Bryzantine motif of the fourth to sixth century AD (Lewis 1974, 171) -Lewis, S. 1974. 'Review of 'Coptic Textiles in the Brooklyn Museum' by Deborah Thompson' JEA 33, 1. 169-171). Erikson (1997, 139) states that eight had a cosmological meaning of eternity and heavenly harmony and the eighth day was the day of Christ's resurrection (Erikson, M. 1997 'Textiles in Egypt 200-1500 AD in Swedish Collections' University of Gottenburg). Vine leaves are found in Roman and Coptic art and belong to both the Dionysian and Christian religions (Erikson 1997, 101). | Format: | text/html | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ | Rights holder: | University of Swansea, Egypt Centre | Subjects: | [none] | Temporal: | 400 AD-700 AD
Roman, Late | Source: | Egypt Centre | Identifier: | http://www.egyptcentre.org.uk/index.asp?... | Language: | en-GB | Format: | text/html | Go to resource |
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