How was this tunic ornament made?
This fragment was originally part of a tunic, woven from wool and linen threads. Fabrics like this one were produced on looms, devices that allow an artisan to tightly weave together threads in a variety of patterns. Both upright (vertical) and horizontal looms were used by weavers in Egypt at the time this fabric was produced (sometime between 400 and 600 CE). In both types of looms, one long set of "warp" threads would be stretched out on a frame, kept under tension by rigid wooden beams; the weaver then would run another skein of "weft" back and forth through the warp threads to create the fabric. Designs were produced by placing the weft threads above and below the warp threads in set patterns, with the warp threads lifted up to form a space ("shed") through which the weft thread could be passed from side to side. This piece of cloth was produced with a "tapestry weave", meaning that most of the warp threads (here, made of linen) are covered by weft threads (here, light-colored linen and dark-colored wool) that produce the fabric's patterned surface.
