Kalyvia

In 2002, ARTEX studied a mineralised linen fabric that has been discovered in a 1999 excavation by archaeologists Aris Tsaravopoulos and Ntina Papathanasiou in a 5th c. BC cemetery in Phoinikia, Kalyvia in Attica. The fabric has been preserved on the external sides and the lid of a ceramic vase called dinos, carrying the cremated bones of two adults and one child. The ceramic vase was placed inside a marble cist.

The fabric was preserved in approximately 20 fragments with dimensions between 2 and 8 cm, today at the Archaeological Museum of Brauron. It is an extremely fine, linen, weft-faced tabby with much finer wefts than warps. Fragments of its starting border have been conserved; it has been created by two thicker threads and its presence indicates that the fabric has been woven on the warp-weighted loom. The first seven weft threads have been dyed with real shellfish purple.

The studied has been carried out by late Youlie Spantidaki and Christophe Moulhérat at the conservation laboratory of the Archaeological Museum of Piraeus.

Publications:

Moulhérat C. and Spantidaki Y. (2007) A Study of Textile Remains from the 5th Century B.C. Discovered in Attica. In C. Gillis and M. - L. Nosch  (eds.) Ancient Textiles: Production, Craft and Society: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Ancient textiles, Lund, Sweden, Copenhagen, 19-23 March 2003. Oxford, Oxbow Books, 163-166.

Spantidaki S. (2016) Textile Production in Classical Athens. Oxford, Oxbow Books, Ancient Textiles Series 27.

Spantidaki Y. (2004) Αρχαία υφάσματα: πρόσφατες ανακαλύψεις υφασμάτων του 5ου αιώνα στην Αττική, CORPUS, 66, 66-73.

Spantidaki Y. (2005) Είναι η κατασκευή των υφασμάτων απλή υπόθεση; Αρχαιολογία και Τέχνες, 95, 74-80.

Spantidaki Y. and Moulhérat C. (2004) Υφάσματα Αττικής, Arachne 2, 5-13.

Spantidaki Y. and Moulhérat C. (2005) Les textiles en Grèce attique, L’Archéologue, 70, 21-22.

Spantidaki Y. and Moulhérat C. (2012) Greece. In M. Gleba και U. Mannering (eds.) Textiles and Textile Production in Europe. From Prehistory to AD 400. Oxbow Books, 198, Πίνακας 7.5.