Sample of Cloth: Old Kingdom ca. 2353–2323 B.C.
A Sample of Cloth from Ancient Egypt
This cloth is older than the “Odyssey” by more than 1,000 years, and it doesn’t come from Greece, it comes from Egypt. Nevertheless, there’s a strong connection with Penelope at her loom here for me.
Among the hundreds of objects from Ancient Egypt on display at the Met, I find the large and small pieces of cloth absolutely breathtaking. Usually objects made from organic fibers will completely decompose after a few hundred years. Because these fabrics were concealed in tombs, and because of the extremely low humidity in Egypt, they have survived for more than four thousand years.
I love to “zoom in” on the high resolution pictures the museum offers and look at the beautiful, highly skilled craftsmanship of the interwoven threads. This makes it easy to imagine a living Egyptian holding the thread and creating the cloth. From here, my imagination can wander to the daily life of this unknown artisan - how old were they? did they have children? which gods did they pray to? what did they have for lunch on the day they made this? what stories did they tell?