Fragment with Crosses

This square fragment features a series of crosses woven in tapestry weave in beige, crimson with some purple threads, light orange, yellow, and dark blue. At center, a large cross is surrounded on all sides by small crosses filled with geometric patterning. Though garments with explicit representations of crosses are relatively uncommon, it is possible that this fragment did indeed serve as a tunic decoration. A textile sharing similar structural qualities, coloration, and decorative technique, and also featuring Christian symbolism, is housed in Basel.Basel, Museum der Kulturen, MKB III 17196; M. Müller, “The Cock, the Face and the Bell: Amuletic Jewellery of the Byzantine Period,” in Dress Accessories of the 1st Millennium AD from Egypt: Proceedings of the 6th Conference of the Research Group “Textiles from the Nile Valley,” Antwerp, 2–3 October 2009, ed. A. De Moor and C. Fluck (Tielt, 2011), 201, fig. 5. BZ.1970.44 represents a nearly identical match to this piece, and may have come from the same cloth.

—Elizabeth Dospěl Williams, May 2019

Washington, DC, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Ornament: Fragments of Byzantine Fashion, September 10, 2019—January 5, 2020.