400 



TREHISTORIC TEXTILE FABRICS. 



appliances used have been extremely simple, the work in a vast ma- 

 jority (if cases having been done by hand. It is probable that in many 

 instances a simple frame has been used, the threads of the web or warp 

 being fixed at one end and those of the woof being carried through them 

 by the fingers or by a simple needle or shuttle. A loom with a device 

 for carrying the alternate threads of the warp back and forth may have 



Fig. 61. — Ancient fabric marked vessel, Pennsylvania. 



been used, but that form of fabric in which the threads are twisted in 

 pairs at each crossing of the woof could only have been made by hand. 

 The probable methods will be dwelt upon more in detail as the groups 

 are presented. In verifying the various methods of fabrication 1 have 

 been greatly assisted by Miss Kate C. Osgood, who has successfully re- 

 produced, in cotton cord, all the varieties discovered, all the mechanism 

 necessary being a number of pins set in a drawing board or frame, in 

 the form of three sides' of a rectangle, the warp being fixed at one end 

 only and the woof passing back and forth between the lateral rows of 

 pins, as shown in Fig. 74. 



