Abstract
MR. LING ROTH has now completed his important technological monograph, of which four parts have recently appeared in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. In the introduction to the series he remarks that “weaving is generally considered to be the outcome of basketry and mat-making, and in most cases probably it is so.” The arrangement of the monograph is geographical, and Mr. Ling Roth discusses the interesting problem of the origin of these varied types. Some, he thinks, were invented on the spot, and do not owe their origin to copying or to contact with other races. But this is not always the case. The African varieties—fixed heddle, pit treadle, and horizontal narrow-band—are all probably of Asiatic origin, the last having undergone so many modifications that, compared with its prototype, it is almost unrecognisable. The warp-weighted loom was used in ancient Greece, in the Swiss lake dwellings, and at the beginning of the Bronze age. It appears in Scandinavian saga in the eleventh century, and was probably in use by the Northern peoples many hundred years before that time. Mr. Ling Roth has illustrated his monograph with excellent sketches, drawn from all available sources, and his technical knowledge has helped him in discussing the various types. It may be hoped that he will extend his collection of papers, and republish them in a more accessible form.
Studies in Primitive Looms.
H. Ling
Roth
By. Part iv. (Bankfield Museum.) (Halifax: F. King and Sons.) Four parts, price 3s. each.
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Studies in Primitive Looms . Nature 102, 346 (1919). https://doi.org/10.1038/102346a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/102346a0