Did the Ancient Egyptians use Teasels?

We have not yet found evidence for carders in Ancient or Coptic Egypt and there has been some discussion as to whether teasels where used. Angela has been getting advice from a botanist friend, Ian, who says:

- Teasel, alias Dipsacus fullonum, is found naturally from Western Europe (mostly a line south of the Pennines eastwards), right across to Russia, and across North Africa and right into Turkey. It favours heavy soils, so I imagine would be very much at home on regions of the Nile Delta.
- There is no other plant I can find in the flora of Egypt that has dried flower (seed) heads that would do as good a job.
- My conclusion is that teasel was available and put to good use by the ancient Egyptians

Sock It! Introduction

Text by Charlotte Booth.

This beautiful pair of socks, dated to 400-500 AD, are the centre of this experimental archaeology project at the Petrie Museum. However they are not the only socks that have been discovered, and there is another one in the Museum collection which was discovered inside out.


Examination of the socks has enabled us to identify how they were constructed. All the tools needed are found in the Petrie collection. We will be using the same tools (where possible) to create our socks over the coming months.

(The inside out sock)
In the absence of any pictorial evidence of carding of raw fleece, we have to look at what would do the job from the evidence we have. There is a large intricately decorated comb in the Coptic Museum in Cairo but for the smaller wool producer a comb such as this would be perfect.

Numerous drop spindles have been discovered in Egypt from the Middle Kingdom onwards in varying sizes for the production of different thicknesses of wool, and perhaps for children to become involved.

Hundreds of needles have been discovered and there are many in the Petrie collection, which look like any in our sewing boxes at home. It is with one of these that we will be creating our Coptic socks!

www.charlottesegypt.com www.petrie.ucl.ac.uk

Background Information

The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology is based within the campus of Univerisity College London in Bloomsbury. The museum houses an impressive textile collection, including two-toed socks. The idea behind this project is to make a pair of socks based on those dating from c.400-500 AD in the Petrie Museum from scratch using, as far as possible, methods employed in Ancient Egypt.



It is an experimental archaeology project and, though, it will be planned, the emphasis is on the actual processes of making things and your experience on the way!

There are two groups involved in this process - the University of the Third Age and members of the public (i.e. any one who wants to be involved). The project has been funded by Museums, Libraries and Archives (MLA) and it is free to come along.

We will be recording our progress as we go, so watch this space.