Figures are enlargeable.
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Above.
Three views of a Sumerian libation vase dedicated to the Mesopotamian diety Ningishzida, c. 2120 BC, Louvre.
A millennium later in ancient Greece, the symbol of snakes entwined (perhaps mating) around an axial rod was used for the Caduceus of Hermes, shown on the right.
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Two Hittite seals with twist motifs.
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Left.
A Hittite stamp seal, 17th - 16th centuries BC, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Right.
Syro-Hittite hammer-handled stamp seal, c. 1500 BC, Harvard Art Museums.
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The twist motif was still in use a millennium later.
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Left.
Archaic Cycladic pottery jug with a spout in the form of a griffin's head, 675-650 BC, British Museum.
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Right.
Trifoil-mounth oinochoe from Rhodes, c. 670 B.C., National Archeological Museum of Athens.
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Left.
A Minoan seal with an interlace design, before c. 1700, Herakleion Museum, Crete.
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Right.
A silver Hittite seal decorated with Solomon's knots, 14th - 13th centuries BC, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Interlaced animals.
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Left.
Greek two-handled bowl, late 1st century BC to early 1st century AD, National Archeological Museum of Athens.
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Right.
Laocoön and his sons, 1st century AD, Vatican.
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Left.
Mycenaean terracotta goblet with octopus, 13th century BC, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond.
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Center.
Late Minoan jug with papyrus.
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Right.
A Greek wine cup found in Etruria (northern Italy), c. 520-500 BC, British Museum.
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Text.
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Top.
A Medusa mosaic at Bignor Roman Villa, Sussex, 3rd century.
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Bottom.
A design detail at Bignor Roman Villa.
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The designs of these mosaics include twists, Solomon's knots, basket-weave plaits and swastikas.
The mosaic on the right has a 3-cord plait as well.
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Left.
A Roman floor mosaic at North Leigh, Oxfordshire.
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Right.
A Roman floor mosaic at Olga Road, Dorchester, Dorset.
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Above.
A Roman floor mosaic at St. Albans, Hertfordshire, with a 5-cord plait border.
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Above.
Peltas on a 4th-century floor mosaic at the Chedworth Roman Villa, Chedworth, Gloucestershire.
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Text.
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Left.
A stone capital from the monastery of Saint Jeremias at Saqqara, Coptic Museum, Cairo.
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Right.
A capital from Bawit Monastery, founded between 385 and 390.
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Left.
Coptic textile fragment, 400 - 600, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
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Right.
Coptic textile fragment, late third to fifth century, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Left.
Detail of a Coptic textile fragment, late third to fifth century, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Right.
Coptic textile, 4th century, Coptic Museum, Cairo.
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Above.
Coptic tapestry with knot pattern, 250 - 400, Röhsska Museum, Gothenburg, Sweden.
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Fifth century churches are decorated only with geometric carpets, without figurative objects.
The figurative decorations, such as floral, animal and village/hunting scenes, started only in the 6th century.
BibleWalks.com
http://www.biblewalks.com/Sites/shavey_zion.html
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There are similar floor mosaics at Ephesus in Turkey.
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Above.
Site map.
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Above.
Kursi.
Kursi is the ruins of a Byzantine monastery in the Golan Heights.
It was established in the middle of the 5th century and expanded in the 6th century.
During the Persian invasion (614) the site was severely damaged, but later restored.
During the 9th century it was used by local Arabs, and the mosaics may have been damaged at that time (erasing the figures on the magnificent floor).
http://www.biblewalks.com/Sites/Kursi.html#Mosaic
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Above.
Shavei Zion.
The church was built in two stages, the first in 485-6 (according to an inscription found in the mosaic floor) and the second in the 6th century.
It was excavated in 1955 by M.W. Prausnitz, who reconstructed the beautiful mosaic floors.
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Above.
Euthemius Monastery, Mishor Adummim.
The monastery was founded by the hermit Euthymius in 428.
It is in the Judean Desert, on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho and the Jordan valley.
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Above.
Masada.
Southeast of the synagogue in Masada are a large complex of buildings and a church built by early Christian monks probably in the fifth century.
http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2011/01/byzantine-monastic-church-on-masada.html
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Above.
Tel Shiloh, Good Samaritan Museum.
Located in Samaria, Tel Shiloh was the religious capital of Israel during the times of the Judges, and spans 4,000 years of continuous settlement.
Four Churches were built there, the earliest in the 4th century and the latest in the 6th or 7th century.
http://www.biblewalks.com/Sites/Shiloh.html
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Above.
Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem.
The first basilica on this site was begun by Saint Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine I.
The construction started in 327 and was completed in 333.
The structure was burnt down and destroyed in a revolt between the Jews and the Samaritans in 529 or 556.
The current basilica was rebuilt in its present form in 565 by Emperor Justinian I.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Nativity
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Above.
Hirbet Midras.
In 2011, Israeli archaeologists presented a newly uncovered 1,500-year-old church in the Judean hills.
The small basilica, which was active between the 5th and 7th centuries, has an unusually well-preserved and exquisitely decorated mosaic floor.
(Vandals severely damaged the mosaic shortly after its discovery was announced.)
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Above.
Bet Qama.
In 2013, a spectacular colorful mosaic dating to the Byzantine period (4th - 6th centuries) was exposed in the fields of Kibbutz Bet Qama.
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Tripartite knots on a Byzantine floor mosaic in Israel and a Coptic tunic.
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Left.
Moshav Aluma.
In 2013, archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority uncovered a Byzantine-era Christian church near Moshav Aluma, a settlement about 70 km to the south-west of Jerusalem.
Haaretz, by Nir Hasson, Jan. 22, 2014
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Right.
A detail of a Coptic tunic, 4th - 5th century, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
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Ravenna is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy.
It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 402 until that empire collapsed in 476.
It then served as the capital of the Kingdom of the Ostrogoths until it was re-conquered in 540 by the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire.
Afterwards, the city formed the center of the Byzantine Exarchate of Ravenna until the invasion of the Franks in 751, after which it became the seat of the Kingdom of the Lombards.
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The Domus dei Tappeti di Pietra is a complex of underground structures dating from the Roman Republic.
Among the many buildings is a 5th or 6th century Byzantine palace paved with marble and mosaics.
The Domus is accessed through the small church of St. Euphemia built on a former place of worship that is considered to be the oldest in Ravenna.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g187806-d1458446/Ravenna:Italy:Domus.Dei.Tappeti.Di.Pietra.html
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Above.
A floor mosaic at Domus dei Tappeti di Pietra, Ravenna.
http://www.liceoartistico.ra.it/2008/10/11/tappeti-svelati-immagini-dei-documenti-esposti/
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Above.
Other mosaic patterns at Domus dei Tappeti di Pietra.
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Interlace traditions in Northern Europe.
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Bog bodies
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Above.
Tollund Man with the braided cord around his neck.
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Left.
Elling Woman's braided hairstyle.
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Right.
Bog shoes.
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Wire jewelry
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Above.
Four Iron Age torcs from Ken Hill, c. 150 - 50 BC, British Museum.
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Sprang
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This weaving technique is known to have been practised in Denmark from the Bronze Age, which explains the Scandinavian roots of the term "sprang."
The technique consisted of intertwining the warp threads, which were stretched and attached at both ends to a loom or frame, to create a rectangular piece of fabric.
The two long sides were then sewn together to form a tube, and one of the ends was knotted with a drawstring that formed a knot at the top. The piece of fabric might also be folded in half to form a bag, which explains the confusion concerning their use.
Small lyre-shaped looms or rectangular frames were used for this type of weaving.
Images of gynaeceum scenes on Greek vases depict women holding these looms, confirming that sprang weaving was women's work.
http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/sprang-cap
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Left.
Danish sprang hairnet, c. 1400 BC, National Museum, Copenhagen.
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Right.
Sprang cap detail, National Museum, Copenhagen. Enlarge to see the knotwork.
http://natmus.dk/historisk-viden/danmark/oldtid-indtil-aar-1050/livet-i-oldtiden/hvordan-gik-de-klaedt/teknologi-og-produktion/sprang/
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Left.
Reconstruction of a Saxon sprang hairnet.
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Right.
Coptic sprang cap, 4th - 12th centuries, Louvre.
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Top left.
Stages in braiding three threads fixed at both ends.
Peter Collingwood, The Techniques of Sprang: Plaiting on Stretched Threads. New York: Design Books, 1999, p. 32.
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Top right.
Sprang chaining.
http://www.stringpage.com/sprang/sprang1.html
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Top.
A sprang loom.
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