The Textiles from Mons Claudianus in a North African Context

Abstract

Recent Excavations at a series of sites in the Eastern Desert of Egypt such as the Roman Quarry of Mons Claudianus have recovered large quantities of well dated textiles. Textiles from these sites are compared with each other, and with emerging evidence of textiles and textile tools from oases in the Sahara and from Sub-Saharan Africa. Finds from these parts are as yet exceedingly rare, but similarities and differences in designs and techniques can be gleaned to throw light on preferences in fibres, yarn twist, weaves, decoration and textile technologies across North Africa during the 1st Millennium AD