Alistair F Dickey | University of Liverpool (original) (raw)
Uploads
Article by Alistair F Dickey
Reviews by Alistair F Dickey
Brief Communication by Alistair F Dickey
Tell el-Borg II: Excavations in North Sinai, 2019
Conference Presentations by Alistair F Dickey
We are pleased to invite submissions to regular Session #305 (hybrid), part of Theme 1: Artefacts... more We are pleased to invite submissions to regular Session #305 (hybrid), part of Theme 1: Artefacts, Buildings & Ecofacts at the 29th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) that will be held in Belfast, Northern Ireland from 30 th August to 2 nd September 2023.
Modern boundaries often distort and separate ancient cultural entities. This is certainly true of... more Modern boundaries often distort and separate ancient cultural entities. This is certainly true of the Nile Valley, where modern interventions such as the Aswan High Dam have further broken apart the ancient Nubian cultures into disjointed groups and regions. Beyond these artificial boundaries however, material culture displays a rich Nubian cultural vista spread across ancient Egypt and Sudan, from the junction of the Blue and White Nile in the South, to Middle Egypt in the North.
These different societies have left us a plethora of archaeological artifacts that came to define the early Nubian and Kushite traditions, among which were very distinctive ceramic and leather objects. Rooted in pastoralism, Nubian cultures are especially renowned for their many uses of animal skin. Nevertheless, in both Egypt and Sudan, excavations have shown the concomitant use of woven textiles, which remain to this day little-studied.
This paper offers a comparative study of Middle Nubian woven textiles transcending modern boundaries, sourcing data from the two cemeteries of Hierakonpolis, a multi-period site located in Upper Egypt, and Kerma, the capital of the Kerma kingdom in Sudan. Following the textile chaîne opératoire from fibres to cloth, we will examine the two corpora in parallel and document fibres, yarn, and weave production. By highlighting similarities and differences, we will attempt to answer the following questions: What defines textile production in Hierakonpolis and Kerma? How does it relate to Egyptian textiles? Can we identify a distinctive Nubian textile tradition?
The Early Dynastic period (c. 3060–2613) in Egypt marks the beginnings of early statehood in the ... more The Early Dynastic period (c. 3060–2613) in Egypt marks the beginnings of early statehood in the Nile valley. Recent re-examination of woven cloth fragments excavated from the mid-1st Dynasty mastaba tombs at the site of Tarkhan in Lower Egypt, has revealed new empirical evidence pertaining to early Egyptian thread technology.
Located approximately 60 km south of Cairo, Tarkhan was originally excavated by Flinders Petrie in the early 20th century and represents one of the largest cemeteries of the Proto (c. 3300–3060 BC) to Early Dynastic periods (c. 3060¬–2613) in Egypt, indeed second only in size to Helwan. Textile material from the site was distributed in sets to several museums around the world. This study re-examined the material that now resides in the Bolton Museum, UK, which has not been studied since the research conducted by William Midgley at Bolton Museum in 1915.
Using standard textile analysis and SEM, a systematic exploration of the thread technology of the woven cloth was conducted. Results have revealed that all the indicators of spliced thread technology, recently streamlined by Gleba and Harris (2019), are present. This empirical evidence will be presented in the paper, along with some thoughts on its potential implications for our understanding of the textile chaîne opératoire in Early Dynastic Egypt.
Climatic conditions in Egypt offer archaeologists the privilege of studying buried organic materi... more Climatic conditions in Egypt offer archaeologists the privilege of studying buried organic material that has often long disappeared in other geographical locations. Textiles can be particularly well preserved, and the past twenty years have seen a renewed investigation of such material from Egypt’s Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods. In comparison to later times, surviving textiles from early periods are limited to a small number of sites predominantly funerary in nature. This material offers valuable insights on the development of early textile technology, as well as on the function of items manufactured from textile that were utilised in the mortuary assemblage. This paper will present current research into Predynastic and Early Dynastic material, focussing much of its attention on an important but still little-understood stage of the chaîne opératoire: the splicing of flax fibres into threads.
Scholars have long accepted the use of splicing as part of Egyptian thread production technology, especially when adapted to bast fibre such as flax. Threads are produced by splicing (joining) together the ends of fibre bundles in an overlapping technique, often with fibres taken directly from the plant stalk with little or no retting (whereby stems are partially rotted to separate fibres). The technique is often briefly mentioned, rarely explored in depth, and in some cases completely ignored. Recently, a small number of researchers have started to remedy this lack of knowledge, studying the splicing process in great detail. Their research has revealed that splicing was used in bast fibre thread technology as early as the Neolithic in Europe. The evidence now points to a very long tradition in splicing technology, in both the Mediterranean and Europe, going back several millennia BCE.
These new results need to be further compared to the early Egyptian material and many technological aspects remain to be clarified. This presentation will bring forward new evidence from the sites of Hierakonpolis, Badari, Gerza, Mostagedda, Matmar, and Tarkhan, showing the ubiquity of splicing in textile technology during the years of state formation in Egypt. It will explore the methodology of textile research, present the limitations of the material, show the need for establishing appropriate terminology (‘twisting’ rather than ‘spinning’ of spliced fibres), while highlighting their potential for our understanding of early thread production. In doing so, this paper will contribute to the redefinition of the textile chaîne opératoire and shed a new light on this all-important craft in ancient Egypt.
With the completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1970, much evidence of a vibrant culture that once e... more With the completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1970, much evidence of a vibrant culture that once existed in ancient Lower Nubia disappeared beneath the waters of Lake Nasser. Prior to the opening of the dam, archaeological operations in the 1960s attempted to salvage the maximum amount of culture and information concerning the C-Group culture (c. 2400-1550 B.C.), but inevitably gaps remained.
Initially discovered in 2001 and excavated over the course of 4 seasons, the C-Group cemetery at Hierakonpolis is only the second such cemetery to be found in Egypt, the most northerly C-Group cemetery anywhere and possibly the only one extant. The scarcity of such evidence makes this cemetery highly valuable in adding to our understanding of this Lower Nubian culture.
For a culture traditionally associated with leather usage for garments rather than textiles, surprisingly 20 out of the 64 tombs contained textile remains, thus providing a unique opportunity to undertake –for the first time – an in-depth examination of textiles used by the C-Group. This paper will discuss in-field methodology and analysis of the textile remains carried out in 2018, shedding light on textile technology (e.g. splicing, weave construction) and evidence of how the textiles were being used by the C-Group in the burial context. The unique Hierakonpolis collection also affords the opportunity to offer insights into how these textiles compare or contrast with contemporary evidence found elsewhere in Egypt and Nubia.
Thesis by Alistair F Dickey
Edited Books by Alistair F Dickey
Papers by Alistair F Dickey
Exploring Ancient Textiles: Pushing the Boundaries of Established Methodologies. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2022
Exploring Ancient Textiles: Pushing the Boundaries of Established Methodologies, 2022
Egypt as a textile hub: Textile interrelationships in the 1st millennium AD. Proceedings of the 10th conference of the research group 'Textiles from the Nile Valley', Antwerp, 27-29 October 2017. De Moor, A., Fluck, C. and Linscheid, P. (eds), Tielt: Lannoo., 2019
This book has been edited by Logistic General Contracting and Engineering a daughter company of K... more This book has been edited by Logistic General Contracting and Engineering a daughter company of Katoen Natie Cover 'Coptic' tapestry with Persian or Central Asian motifs, inv. KTN - warp: wool S-spun weft: wool and linen S-spun Date: circa th-th century
Tell el-Borg II: Excavations in North Sinai, 2019
We are pleased to invite submissions to regular Session #305 (hybrid), part of Theme 1: Artefacts... more We are pleased to invite submissions to regular Session #305 (hybrid), part of Theme 1: Artefacts, Buildings & Ecofacts at the 29th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) that will be held in Belfast, Northern Ireland from 30 th August to 2 nd September 2023.
Modern boundaries often distort and separate ancient cultural entities. This is certainly true of... more Modern boundaries often distort and separate ancient cultural entities. This is certainly true of the Nile Valley, where modern interventions such as the Aswan High Dam have further broken apart the ancient Nubian cultures into disjointed groups and regions. Beyond these artificial boundaries however, material culture displays a rich Nubian cultural vista spread across ancient Egypt and Sudan, from the junction of the Blue and White Nile in the South, to Middle Egypt in the North.
These different societies have left us a plethora of archaeological artifacts that came to define the early Nubian and Kushite traditions, among which were very distinctive ceramic and leather objects. Rooted in pastoralism, Nubian cultures are especially renowned for their many uses of animal skin. Nevertheless, in both Egypt and Sudan, excavations have shown the concomitant use of woven textiles, which remain to this day little-studied.
This paper offers a comparative study of Middle Nubian woven textiles transcending modern boundaries, sourcing data from the two cemeteries of Hierakonpolis, a multi-period site located in Upper Egypt, and Kerma, the capital of the Kerma kingdom in Sudan. Following the textile chaîne opératoire from fibres to cloth, we will examine the two corpora in parallel and document fibres, yarn, and weave production. By highlighting similarities and differences, we will attempt to answer the following questions: What defines textile production in Hierakonpolis and Kerma? How does it relate to Egyptian textiles? Can we identify a distinctive Nubian textile tradition?
The Early Dynastic period (c. 3060–2613) in Egypt marks the beginnings of early statehood in the ... more The Early Dynastic period (c. 3060–2613) in Egypt marks the beginnings of early statehood in the Nile valley. Recent re-examination of woven cloth fragments excavated from the mid-1st Dynasty mastaba tombs at the site of Tarkhan in Lower Egypt, has revealed new empirical evidence pertaining to early Egyptian thread technology.
Located approximately 60 km south of Cairo, Tarkhan was originally excavated by Flinders Petrie in the early 20th century and represents one of the largest cemeteries of the Proto (c. 3300–3060 BC) to Early Dynastic periods (c. 3060¬–2613) in Egypt, indeed second only in size to Helwan. Textile material from the site was distributed in sets to several museums around the world. This study re-examined the material that now resides in the Bolton Museum, UK, which has not been studied since the research conducted by William Midgley at Bolton Museum in 1915.
Using standard textile analysis and SEM, a systematic exploration of the thread technology of the woven cloth was conducted. Results have revealed that all the indicators of spliced thread technology, recently streamlined by Gleba and Harris (2019), are present. This empirical evidence will be presented in the paper, along with some thoughts on its potential implications for our understanding of the textile chaîne opératoire in Early Dynastic Egypt.
Climatic conditions in Egypt offer archaeologists the privilege of studying buried organic materi... more Climatic conditions in Egypt offer archaeologists the privilege of studying buried organic material that has often long disappeared in other geographical locations. Textiles can be particularly well preserved, and the past twenty years have seen a renewed investigation of such material from Egypt’s Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods. In comparison to later times, surviving textiles from early periods are limited to a small number of sites predominantly funerary in nature. This material offers valuable insights on the development of early textile technology, as well as on the function of items manufactured from textile that were utilised in the mortuary assemblage. This paper will present current research into Predynastic and Early Dynastic material, focussing much of its attention on an important but still little-understood stage of the chaîne opératoire: the splicing of flax fibres into threads.
Scholars have long accepted the use of splicing as part of Egyptian thread production technology, especially when adapted to bast fibre such as flax. Threads are produced by splicing (joining) together the ends of fibre bundles in an overlapping technique, often with fibres taken directly from the plant stalk with little or no retting (whereby stems are partially rotted to separate fibres). The technique is often briefly mentioned, rarely explored in depth, and in some cases completely ignored. Recently, a small number of researchers have started to remedy this lack of knowledge, studying the splicing process in great detail. Their research has revealed that splicing was used in bast fibre thread technology as early as the Neolithic in Europe. The evidence now points to a very long tradition in splicing technology, in both the Mediterranean and Europe, going back several millennia BCE.
These new results need to be further compared to the early Egyptian material and many technological aspects remain to be clarified. This presentation will bring forward new evidence from the sites of Hierakonpolis, Badari, Gerza, Mostagedda, Matmar, and Tarkhan, showing the ubiquity of splicing in textile technology during the years of state formation in Egypt. It will explore the methodology of textile research, present the limitations of the material, show the need for establishing appropriate terminology (‘twisting’ rather than ‘spinning’ of spliced fibres), while highlighting their potential for our understanding of early thread production. In doing so, this paper will contribute to the redefinition of the textile chaîne opératoire and shed a new light on this all-important craft in ancient Egypt.
With the completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1970, much evidence of a vibrant culture that once e... more With the completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1970, much evidence of a vibrant culture that once existed in ancient Lower Nubia disappeared beneath the waters of Lake Nasser. Prior to the opening of the dam, archaeological operations in the 1960s attempted to salvage the maximum amount of culture and information concerning the C-Group culture (c. 2400-1550 B.C.), but inevitably gaps remained.
Initially discovered in 2001 and excavated over the course of 4 seasons, the C-Group cemetery at Hierakonpolis is only the second such cemetery to be found in Egypt, the most northerly C-Group cemetery anywhere and possibly the only one extant. The scarcity of such evidence makes this cemetery highly valuable in adding to our understanding of this Lower Nubian culture.
For a culture traditionally associated with leather usage for garments rather than textiles, surprisingly 20 out of the 64 tombs contained textile remains, thus providing a unique opportunity to undertake –for the first time – an in-depth examination of textiles used by the C-Group. This paper will discuss in-field methodology and analysis of the textile remains carried out in 2018, shedding light on textile technology (e.g. splicing, weave construction) and evidence of how the textiles were being used by the C-Group in the burial context. The unique Hierakonpolis collection also affords the opportunity to offer insights into how these textiles compare or contrast with contemporary evidence found elsewhere in Egypt and Nubia.
Exploring Ancient Textiles: Pushing the Boundaries of Established Methodologies. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2022
Exploring Ancient Textiles: Pushing the Boundaries of Established Methodologies, 2022
Egypt as a textile hub: Textile interrelationships in the 1st millennium AD. Proceedings of the 10th conference of the research group 'Textiles from the Nile Valley', Antwerp, 27-29 October 2017. De Moor, A., Fluck, C. and Linscheid, P. (eds), Tielt: Lannoo., 2019
This book has been edited by Logistic General Contracting and Engineering a daughter company of K... more This book has been edited by Logistic General Contracting and Engineering a daughter company of Katoen Natie Cover 'Coptic' tapestry with Persian or Central Asian motifs, inv. KTN - warp: wool S-spun weft: wool and linen S-spun Date: circa th-th century