Hi. There is a Roman poncho (unfortunately dated about the date of the
Hogom find) in the University of Pennsylvania Museum. When last I was
there it was out of it's case for conservation, but I would suggest that
someone there at the Museum could help you out, as they have a large
collection of Middle Eastern and Roman era artifacts. Good luck, Mike T.
Catherine Olanich Raymond wrote:
On Monday 22 May 2006 5:32 pm, Kathy Bone wrote:
Does anyone here have information on the type of material and weave that
was used during the ministry of Christ? I am particularly interested in
finding out more about the robe of Jesus that is mentioned in John 19:23.
I know one type article of clothing worn then was a khiton. However, this
was Roman garb and I don't know if a Jewish peasant would have wore the
same thing.
However, I read recently in a book on the Hogom find that late in antiquity
(like the 4th c CE, say) cloaks in general were woven to size (usually, a
specifically sized rectangle) throughout what had been the Empire, and were
not cut to shape. It seems likely that that was the practice in Roman areas
in early times as well, since Roman and Greek clothing was not shaped to the
body and thus did not have to be cut if it was woven properly to size. When
Jesus lived, Palestine was a Roman subject state, and probably used a similar
weaving technology. Even if the Jewish subjects used different weaving
techniques, Roman-style cloaks were probably easy to find in all price
ranges.
I also know that throughout what we now often call the Middle East (such as
Egypt) horizontal looms fastened to the ground were typically used for
weaving, and they could make cloth of practically any width since all you
needed was a few more inches of ground.
I'd suggest that you look for a good book on the history of looms and weaving
to start with. Good luck.
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