Nahal Omer

Archaeological textiles can suggest diverse geographical origins, possible places of textile manufacture and follow the main routes to their final destination. We will show a few examples from sites in the Holy Land: The textiles excavated at Nahal Omer, a farming village on the Spice Routes joining Petra and Gaza from the Early Islamic period (7th century CE) display a remarkable variety of materials, techniques and dyes. Preserved by the arid climate, most of the textile material, much of which had been cut into small pieces, was discovered in waste dumps. Most significant are a number of cotton fragments decorated in the warp-ikat technique coloured in blue, brown, cream, reddish-brown and/or red, which constitute the earliest documented occurrence of this type of textile anywhere in the world, originated probably from India. The second story is about Qasr el-Yahud, situated on the west bank of the Jordan River, nearby Jericho features the Monastery of Saint John the Baptist, believed to be the traditional site of the Baptism of Jesus. 34 skeletons from the ninth century CE were retrieved, probably representing a hospital population of tuberculosis, leprosy and facial disfigurement cases. Such individuals traveled enormous distances, attracted to the site in the hope of washing away their illness. Anthropological evidence indicates that the individuals were probably Egyptian in origin, while structural analysis of the skulls proved that some were Nubian. This is also indicated via the textiles, mainly tunics – their shape, material and decoration.  The third story is about small remains of textiles discovered in a Christian grave under the pavement of the Crusader’s Cathedral in Caesarea on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The burial was in a wooden coffin with iron nails. The textile fragments were of several layers, in very poor condition – partly carbonated and very fragile. It is assumed that they are fragments of the coffin lining and of the shrouds and/or vestments of the deceased. There are two fragments of a silk tablet woven band, brocaded with a gilded membrane lamella wound on a silk core. Using splendid silks in burials of high ranking church and secular dignitaries was customary in medieval Europe. The tablet woven bands brocaded with gilded lamella, are a sign of high social status either of a Church dignitary or of a secular aristocrat. In both cases they would have been buried in the Cathedral. As the Caesarea band resembles so closely the above mentioned European bands it can be assumed that they were made there.