Berenike BE98 1037 Wool casing of a child’s felt ball(?), made in ‘god’s eye’ wrapping technique
Catalogue number
BE98 1037
Inventory number
0550 I
Description
Wrapped ‘tetrahedron’ structure.
A "crushed three-dimensional object ... Taken at first to be a purse with surface decoration, wanting a base as a result of damage, it was later interpreted as an armlet (4-5 cm in internal diameter) or (as Hero Ganger-Taylor has suggested to us) the casing of a ball. Its foundation layer is dark blue felt. The applied decoration consists of six linked polychrome tetrahedra in two rows, so arranged that there is a triangular gap between each, and a larger triang ular gap at top and bottom. The tetrahedra are built up on a skeleton of three strings (of eight yarns each) which cross one another, not quite at right angles: they pass right around the object, and a knot is visible in one of them. Each tetrahedron consists of a blue central 'eye', framed by a series of rectangles successively in pale yellow, red, light brown and (outennost) green. The latter are built up out of pai rs of coloured yarn wrapped in turn round each 'arm' of string. The construct is familiar today under the name 'god's eye.'" (Wild & Wild 2000, p. 263-264)
Context
Basic information
Preservation state
organic
Warp and weft identified
✓
| System 1 | System 2 | Warp 2 | Suppl. yarn | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Material | wool | |||
| Fibre identification method | naked eye | naked eye | ||
| Colour | various colours | various colours | ||
| Yarn structure | single | |||
| Twist strength | medium | |||
| Twist | s | |||
| Twist angle average | ||||
| Twist angle range | ||||
| Diameter average | ||||
| Diameter range | ||||
| Thread count average | ||||
| Thread count range |
FURTHER DETAILS
Colours
Various colours of yarn in both systems.
Other features
Tetrahedrons linked by a bridge, core made of wool string around which coloured wools are wound.
References
Wild, Felicity C., and John Peter Wild. “Textile Contrasts at Berenike.” In The Eastern Desert of Egypt during the Greco-Roman Period: Archaeological Reports, edited by Jean-Pierre Brun, Thomas Faucher, Bérangère Redon, and Steven Sidebotham. Collège de France, 2018. https://doi.org/10.4000/books.cdf.5254.
Wild, John Peter, and Felicity C. Wild. “The Textiles.” In Berenike 1998: Report of the 1998 Excavations at Berenike and the Survey of the Eastern Desert Including Excavations at Wadi Kalalat, edited by Steven E. Sidebotham and Willeke Wendrich, 251–74. CNWS Publications. Leiden: Research School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies (CNWS), 2000.
Data recorded by
Felicity Wild and John Peter Wild
Data entered by
Bela Dimova
Date of study
1994-2001
