What Materials Did Ancient Egyptians Use for Clothing?
The first beginnings of the clothing industry in the whole world and in the land of Egypt were always based on the use of the data found in the surrounding environment, and from prehistoric times, man had begun to recognize life around him and began to form the first societies of life.
What Do Rock Inscriptions Reveal About Prehistoric Clothing?
We do not have clear evidence of the form and nature of the clothes worn by humans at that time, but the rock paintings that appeared on the rocks in the western desert in Egypt showed that most people who lived in that distant time more than 30,000 years ago did not have an urgent need for clothes, and when the need for clothes began, the main material that was used or made as clothing was fur, this fur was obtained from animals.
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| How Were Clothes Made in Ancient Egypt |
How Did the Nile River Influence Clothing Production?
When man began to settle around the banks of the Nile Valley more than 20,000 years ago, the first stages of agriculture began, and man began to gradually recognize agricultural crops through which he could replace the manufacture of clothing from animal skins. He began to discover new types of data in nature, from plants and trees that help him to make some form of clothing that he can use in his life.
How Did Fashion Develop in Ancient Egypt?
The ancient Egyptian civilization reached a great and wide extent in the manufacture and manufacture of clothing since very long periods of ancient Egyptian history, and this is evidenced by the monuments and scenes that were found, which showed how creative the ancient Egyptians were in their work, and they were able to give a distinctive form to the ancient Egyptian fashion that distinguished the ancient Egyptians in their civilization from other peoples, which also passed from the ancient Egyptian civilization to the civilizations of the ancient world.
What Was the Role of Papyrus in Ritual Clothing?
With the first beginnings of human settlement on the Egyptian land from pre-dynastic times, archaeological data showed that in the very early stages of settlement on the banks of the Nile Valley more than 15,000 years ago, Egyptians at that time were using the papyrus plant, considering that it is an easy, cheap and available material in the manufacture of cloth form that was used as clothing, which is evidenced by the presence of ritual clothing that was used in temples and in religious rituals, these clothes were made of papyrus, the main parts of which were made of papyrus.
At that distant time, people used fur and leather for clothing, especially in jobs that required hard labor, such as working in the fields, sailors in boats, quarry workers' clothes, and others.
When Was Flax Discovered and Used in Egypt?
In the end, the ancient Egyptians, with the first beginnings of the ancient Egyptian civilization more than 10,000 years ago BC. They discovered the flax plant.
Why Was Linen So Important in Ancient Egypt?
The linen plant in ancient Egypt was considered the beginning of a new phase of fashion in ancient Egypt. Linen was the primary and main material for clothing in ancient Egypt from pre-dynastic times until the early modern era.
Linen was very abundant in the delta, and it is an easy-to-manufacture cheap material, and the ancient Egyptians greatly preferred it as a material used in the fashion industry, and one of the oldest monuments found in ancient Egypt from the second Naqadah civilization around 6000 BC for a piece of linen cloth depicting the journey of one of the boats on the Nile River, which is considered one of the oldest fabrics in the world.
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| a piece of linen cloththe second Naqadah civilization around 6000 BC |
What Is the Oldest Known Garment in the World?
As for the oldest garment that can be almost in the whole world found from the pre-dynastic era in the Tarkhan region, this garment is a shirt made of linen for a woman estimated to be 5000 years BC, and it shows that the ancient Egyptians were very skilled in that distant time in weaving linen to the point that the Egyptian manufacturer reaches a state of delicacy with linen that is close in its delicacy and transparency to silk.
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| a shirt made of linen for a woman estimated to be 5000 years BC |
Did Ancient Egyptians Use Sewing Needles?
The ancient Egyptians were very familiar with needlework, and they used to make a sewing needle from bone and ivory, and this began a long time ago, more than about 9000 years BC, and they used it in the process of sewing clothes.
How Was Linen Manufactured in Ancient Egypt?
The flax plant grew at a low elevation of about 50 centimeters above the ground. This plant consists of a number of leaflets and contains flax seeds at the top. When the plant reaches maturity, the ancient Egyptians harvest this plant completely from the ground, and when the plant is plucked from the ground, the plant is taken in bundles that are transported on the backs of animals to the factories where linen will be made.
Most of the textile factories were concentrated in the delta because this plant needs a low temperature and high humidity. In the factory, the plant is inserted into a long net like a fork with this fork into which the plant is inserted and the green leaflets are removed from the plant's body, and the plant becomes only green sticks.
Then the plant is taken to another area or place and they start hitting the plant sticks with hammers in order to separate the seed from the plant sticks themselves, and the seeds of the flax plant are taken and part of it is kept as a crop for the next year to be planted and another part of the plant is squeezed and flax oil is extracted from inside this plant.
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| Harvesting flax |
What Was the Role of Linseed Oil in Ancient Egypt?
Linseed oil was very important in ancient Egypt, as it was the primary material for lighting. This oil was used in torches that were used to light houses, roads and temples.
How Was Flax Turned Into Fabric?
The green stalks of the plant are then taken and beaten with hammers to make them soft, and then the stalks are combed with a tool that has sharp nail teeth. When the flax stalks are combed, the flax turns into a bunch of separate fibers. They become like threads.
These threads are dipped in water to make them softer, then they are hammered more than once, and then these threads are connected to each other, then spun or twisted on looms so that they form a large spool. This spool is sent to textile factories, and there these threads are spun to turn from separate threads into a piece of cloth.
What Was the Ancient Egyptian Name for the Linen cloth?
Linen cloth was called (mnḥt), which means excellent or special in the ancient Egyptian language, and this word indicates that this type of cloth is special, and because it is white in color, it is very luxurious for clothing, in addition to this, this cloth was considered the clothing of the gods. The ancient Egyptians believed that mnḥt was the cloth worn by the god Ra in the sky.
How Did Loom Technology Evolve in Ancient Egypt?
The ancient Egyptians knew two types of textile factories, the first type of textile factories that began in the pre-dynastic era and continued until the end of the Middle Kingdom, and this type of factory in which linen cloth was made on horizontal looms, and these looms were fixed in the ground.
The looms were pegs that were fixed in the ground on this ground or horizontal loom, and threads were stretched on the horizontal and vertical looms so that a cloth was made as a single linen garment.
The garment is attached to another garment until a large quantity is made in one piece. It was noticeable that the textile factories relied on women in the linen industry, as this craft was limited to women only in the manufacture of linen fabrics.
With the era of the New Kingdom, the loom in ancient Egypt became vertical, and the linen was spun in it, and this gives an advantage and makes the work easier and the implementation of decorations easier, and also helps the worker in his ability to make longer dresses, and this method was used from the era of the New Kingdom. It is still used today in the textile spindles of handmade textiles made in Upper Egypt.
Why Did Ancient Egyptians Prefer White Linen?
Linen clothes were considered expensive and distinctive clothes in ancient Egypt, this type of fabric was not limited to a certain class, the poor and the rich wore it alike, and it was the custom of the ancient Egyptians to always prefer white linen.
One of the main and distinctive things that we find in marriage contracts, for example, is that the husband writes a certain amount of linen for the wife as part of the dowry, and it was an essential part of marriage in ancient Egypt.
Written by H. Moses
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