Prehistoric Textile Fabrics Of The United States, Derived From Impressions On Pottery - Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1881-82, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1884, pages 393-425 by William Henry Holmes
page 10 of 34 (29%)
page 10 of 34 (29%)
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angles to each other, alternate threads of one series passing over and
under each of the opposing series as shown in the section, Fig. 63. [Illustration: Fig. 62.--Type of Group one--portion of a coffee sack.] [Illustration: Fig. 63.--Section.] It is a remarkable fact that loosely woven examples of this kind of cloth are rarely, if ever, found among the impressions upon clay or in the fabrics themselves where preserved by the salts of copper or by charring. The reason of this probably is that the combination is such that when loosely woven the threads would not remain in place under tension, and the twisted and knotted varieties were consequently preferred. It is possible that many of the very irregular impressions observed, in which it is so difficult to trace the combinations of the threads, are of distorted fabrics of this class. This stuff may be woven by hand in a simple frame, or by any of the primitive forms of the loom. In most cases, so far as the impressions upon pottery show, when this particular combination is employed, the warp is generally very heavy and the woof comparatively light. This gives a cloth differing greatly from the type in appearance; and when, as is usually the case, the woof threads are beaten down tightly, obscuring those of the web, the resemblance to the type is quite lost. |
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