2023-06-26 06:15:48
Switzerland is a hub for commodity trading. Did you know that this activity represents 4% of Swiss GDP, and even 22% of tax revenue for the canton of Geneva. This week, focus on wool. We will examine its etymology. Then, we will discuss the history of wool.
This gives us the opportunity to admire a painting above by Jakob Jordaens (1593-1678) painter, draftsman, printmaker and Flemish engraver: Odysseus and his companions escaping from the cave of Polyphemuspreserved in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. In the Odyssey, Polyphemus’ sheep have such thick fleece that Odysseus’ companions hide beneath.
etymology
The etymology of the word “wool” derives from the Latin word “lana”, itself derived from a root designating the fleece of animals. According to another interpretation, the word wool comes from a Norse word associating it with the action of covering and defending.
Wool in prehistory
The manufacture of wool is as old as man himself. It is probably one of his first activities, because it provides him with comfort.
We can trace the beginnings of herding flocks for wool and milk to Mesopotamia, Palestine, Syria and Assyria around 10,000 BC. J.-C., when the man began to raise the first herds of wild sheep. Their fleece was originally more hairy than woolly and, above all, had a thick surface layer, which was waterproof and difficult to work with, but which protected a fine and softer inner layer, the one used today for the production of yarns.
Classical Antiquity, Homeric Greece
Wool arrived in Europe around 4000 BC, but it was not until 1500 BC that the first garments spun in wool were found. The fine wools of Miletus, Attica, Magarides and Tarentum suggest that special care was taken with the animal’s diet and hair.
Women were mainly employed in wool processing and weaving, but how was this deduced? The warp threads are personalized. Names, symbols, decorative brooches have been observed, which refer to individual people, probably women.
Goddesses, queens, mothers, daughters, slaves, all the women of ancient Greece participated in the work of wool. The Greek woman was entrusted with the organization of the home and the activities that took place there. She could find herself at the head of a weaving and embroidery workshop, if the economic situation was favourable.
In the Spartan civilization, the woman was guaranteed education before marriage, then remained the owner of the dowry and recognized as a citizen. With the invention of democracy, the woman renounced all her possibilities to participate outside the home, to receive an education beyond that given by her mother and to be able to speak her mind. The only occupation and education of Greek women was therefore weaving.
In Homeric literature we find female protagonists engaged in this activity, eager to express their thoughts through embroidery.
In the same series, “Raw materials and art”:
Cereals and Van Gogh Coffee and culture Cotton and Edgar Degas Cocoa and Luis Meléndez Sugar and Sartre Copper and Chardin Steel and Gayle Hermick Maize and Jean Mortel Biogas and Victor Hugo Hydrogen and the globe aerostatic The wind, Da Vinci and Monnet The sun and Firedrich Gold and Klimt Barley and antiquity Soy and Seikei Zusetsu Aluminum and Jule Verne Rice and Morimura Gitō Money and the Elblag museum Tin and Jean Treck Oats and Géricault Milk and Vermeer Water and Renoir Potatoes and Millet Lapis lazuli and the Scrovegni chapel in Padua Honey and Pierre de Cosimo Sorbet and the Ottoman sorbet seller Spices and the Moluccas The marble and the Venus de Milo The olive tree and the painter of Antimenes The paper and a woodcut of the Tiangong Kaiwu
Sources :
of the word wool, of covering and defending.
Brief history of wool – Welcome to Elena Pin’s carpet workshop!
Photo credit : Jacob JordansPublic domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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