Part 4 (1/2)

lib_ But to work an upright eighted looreat practical inconvenience, and this difficulty has, no doubt, been one of the chief causes of the complete discardance of this class of loom

In spite of the evidence in favour of the existence of eighted looms, the Director of the Hermannstadt Museum, Dr v

Kimakovicz-Winnicki, sees fit to deny their existence He found that in some parts of Transylvania the peasants use wooden pyrahts for winding the thread from the spindle on to the shuttle For this purpose sockets are bored into the thin or top end of two pyramids, which are placed just so far apart that a spindle can rest horizontally with one end in the socket of one pyramid, and the other end of the spindle in the socket of the other pyra wound off on to the shuttle causes the spindle to revolve in the sockets Froues that e have hitherto taken to be eights are not eights at all (_Spinn-u Webewerkzeuge_, Wuerzburg, 1911), and having denied these articles to be eights he gets over the difficulty presented by the illustration of Penelope at her loo to prove that e take to be a loo frame! He then attempts to pull to pieces the idea that the Scandinavian looen Museum is a loom and conde as he defines his ter (_Weben_) he describes ”as the absorption of two groups of parallel les to each other, and the principle of plaiting (_Flechten_) as the absorption by itself in one plane of one group only of ra clearly what hefrom his remarks one must conclude he has not seen a primitive loom of any sort, and were it not for the official position he holds, his re

It has, I believe, been suggested more than once that some of the perforated stones, pieces of burnt clay, pieces of chalk and like objects may be and are net-sinkers, and there is some justification for Dr Kimakovicz-Winnicki's statehts; but it does not follow that all the perforated articles are either spindle-holders or net-sinkers, yet that is what his subsequent statements lead one to infer It is, however, difficult to prove that these perforated articles are eights

[Illustration: Fig 34--Side view and section of chalk eight found at Great Driffield Of three of the weights the following di, 2 lbs 3 oz (10 k) 6” (152 ” ) ” 1 lb 8 oz (07 k) 6-3/8” (162 ” ) ” 1 lb 3 oz (06 k)

Hull Museuht, 6” 4” 2” (152 cm 102 51), similar to those found in pits, at Mount Caburn and Cissbury near Worthing, Sussex Found with eighteen _ of pit 7, Winkelbury Hill” _Excavations in Winkelbury Camp_, by Lieut-Gen Pitt-Rivers (_Excavations in Cranbourne Chase_, Vol II, 1888) As Pitt-Rivers also found at Winkelbury the fragment of a comb and a chalk spindle whorl, which are textile tools, we may safely presuhts]

In 1875 several flat irregular oblong perforated pieces of soft chalk were found in enlarging the cattle market in Great Driffield, Yorkshi+re; they were found in a hole about three feet deep with Anglo-Saxon potsherds, animal remains, and bits of iron They can now be seen in the Mortimer Collection in the Hull Museum They consist of pieces of chalk, similar to those which drop annually in thousands upon thousands down the cliffs froh On so 34, most have one perforation, but in a few specimens, where the thin portion above the hole has been broken off, a second hole has beento the soluble nature of the chalk they could not have been used as net-sinkers in the sea (about nine miles off) for they would quickly dissolve in salt water, and the sah in a lesser degree But I do not think they were used even in fresh water as net-sinkers, for it was a characteristic of primitive peoples, hohly--what they made was intended to last, and chalk net-sinkers would not have lasted That these were found in a limited quantity, I believe about seventeen in nuhts, for only a few are required for every loom, in spite of the considerable number shown in the non-technical illustration of Penelope's loo able to find any other use for these pieces of chalk, and judging that they are suitable for the purpose, I should say they are eights In this case the weaver has iven hiland he has had to fashi+on the weight out of the rough chalk, Fig 35

In the Museum at Devizes there are several hard pieces of perforated and fashi+oned chalk which offer ton, the Curator, writes h Two large ones stand easily on the floor Others are ht

This latter type is, as far as I am aware, the more usual in this part of the country They are coh about 3 or 4 lbs (15-2 Kilos) We think these weights are loohts because we find them with Romano-British remains, as at Westbury, and late Celtic re could have been carried on With the sa combs, numerous spindle whorls and other tools of bone that were also probably used in weaving operations” The Westbury, in Wiltshi+re, referred to, is soht line frolish Channel These pieces of chalk cannot therefore have been used as net-sinkers, leaving out of consideration their co tools and they fit the position So far the ingenuity of our ablest archaeologists at ho the use of these objects to anything else than net-sinking or warp tension The adaptability of the articles for use as eights, the s ie of the Greek representations of eighted looen Museuhts

As regards the practical possibility or i a ”Greek” loom, I had a simple frame made in the Museum and showed Mr

J Smith, a mill ”Overlooker” at Messrs Wayman and Sons, Ld, Halifax, the illustration in Montelius' book already referred to, and asked him to weave me a small piece of cloth on it In the course of a few hours he did the warping, bea a ball of weft thread instead of a spool or shuttle The result is shown in the acco that weaving on such a fra that Olafsson's and the Copenhagen eighted looms are properly constructed workable loohted loo by this method There is no heddle nor shuttle used The weaver ers He naturally worked _doards]

[Illustration: Fig 37--Diagram to sho the warp is kept taut on a Syrian loom]

Finally, it may not be out of place here to point out that there are other looms, besides the Greek and Scandinavian, on which the warp is hts The Rev Dr Harvey Porter, of the A about the year 1901, thus describes the coht posts are fixed in the ground, which hold the roller to which the threads of the warp are fastened, and upon which the cloth is wound as it is woven The threads of the warp are carried upward towards the ceiling at the other end of the roohted to keep theh, 1902, IV, p 901)” He has kindly sent hts are not clearly shown, and the same is the case with an illustration of a loo 37, shows the principle In a Shan loom illustrated by Mrs Leslie Milne, in _The Shans at Home_, London, 1910, p 120, the warp makes a somewhat similar detour over the head of the weaver, it is, however, not weighted but tied to a beahted looms are horizontal and not perpendicular, and also that the weaving is the reverse of that on the Greek loom but similar to that on our horizontal loo in co 38--Hand of Penelope clutching her shuttle From a corner of a piece of sculpture discovered by O Kern and described by C Robert, (_The Feet Washi+ng of Odysseus_, fifth Century BC, _Mitt Kais Deutsch Arch Inst_, Athens, XXV, 1900, pp 332-3)