Cleveland Museum of Art

Lower Section of a Tunic

Date

400s CE

Medium

Undyed linen and dyed wool: tapestry weave with supplementary weft wrapping

Culture

Egypt, Byzantine period

Department

Textiles

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This is the bottom section of a well-woven wool unisex tunic. Various stylized roundels with animals and baskets decorate the hem that extends into round finials with birds. The interior two square panels complete the design. Extra wefts, or horizontal threads, enrich the animals and the deep blue ground, probably a failed purple dye. While the robe itself is created from linen, the fringes at the bottom are made from wool. Long wide tunics were the most common garments of this time period.

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