A new kind of loom in early Roman Egypt? How iconography could explain (or not) papyrological evidence

Abstract

The question of the different kinds of loom used in ancient Egypt is one of the most crucial issues to understanding the evolution of textile production and its technological development in the Nile Valley. However, sources concerning looms (archaeological, iconographic and written) from the Pharaonic era until the Arab medieval period are meagre, and many research questions remain open. This article is an attempt at a new interpretation of some evidence, particularly iconographic and papyrological, which could add new data to the study of weaving looms used in Egypt of the early Roman period (1st–2nd century AD).