Dear Slingers

This single article is one huge leap of faith. I hereby present a new approach to reconstruct a "Kahun" or "Lahun" sling. I propose that the technique used to make this sling was not a sort of weaving but a technique, which in german is called "Zwirnbinden der Kette" (english names: Warp twine tie / bands with twisted warp yarns / warp twining; french name: Galons à fils de chaîne enroulés). A general overview including classification of this technique can be found in: Annemarie Seiler-Baldinger, Systematik der Textilen Techniken, Ethnologisches Seminar der Universität Basel/Museum für Völkerkunde und Schweizerisches Museum für Volkskunde Basel/Geographisch-Ethnologische Gesellschaft Basel, Basel 1991. This book is written in German.

Let's have a look at the sling I refer to:

http://slinging.org/forum/yabbfiles/Attachments/103_sling_and_sling_shots.jpg

This photo was posted by David Morningstar: http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1172017416/270#270


Quote:

This is a photo emailed to me from Manchester Museum:   From the Egypt and Sudan Collection - a sling and sling shots dating to the Middle Kingdom (c. 1900 BC), from Kahun, on display in the Daily Life gallery.   Description:  A sling and three sling stones, for use either as a toy or for hunting and fighting. Made of woven plant fibre with long cords at either end, one of which has a loop to fit around a finger. Period/Dynasty:  Middle Kingdom (Dyn. 12) Site:  Africa, Egypt, Faiyum, Kahun (el-Lahun)

In the following posts I will append several pictures of a small model of 10 cm length and 3 cm maximal width. It is made out of rather thick (ca. 2 mm diameter) hemp string. In the photo we see that thinner materials were used in the original sling. Unfortunately I had no thinner cord available, so I made a model with what I had.

I made this little but fully functional model of the pouch within one hour. The only tool used was a knife. I did not use a loom or a similar device.

Why do I think that this could be the "right" technique:
This is my very first try to recreate this pouch but I already have achieved all principal attributes of the sling displayed in the photo.
This attributes are:
- A constant increase of width of the pouch.
- A "weaving pattern" with "V shape" (please regard the center line!).
- A straight outer border.
- If the sling is closed a slight curve of the bottom.
- The above point lets us suppose that the pouch is slightly cupped. This slight cupping was also achieved.

Further judging by the V shape visible at the center line I supposed that the additional material to enlarge the pouch was added along the center line. This was also achieved.

General remarks:

I have not made a retention or release cord but to add one would be no problem at all as they could just be whipped onto the remaining strings. If one would plan to make a whole sling one could also take the strings from the retention/release cords as warps.

The slight diversions of the weaving pattern results from the fact that I have used only weft thread and not two weft threads. The use of only one weft thread results in a slightly asymmetric applied force when the weft strand is tightened. One could remedy this by using two counterpropagating weft threads. As I had no picture of the sides of the pouch I could not determine if one or two weft threads were used. For the sake of simplicity I therefore worked with only one weft thread.

Further this design can be freely scaled to nearly any diameter and executed with any diameter of string. The rate of width increase and therefore also the cupping can be controlled by the amount of material added in each step. A further nice side effect is that different patterns can be achieved by using coloured warps.

There is an article of a reconstruction by Mr. Burgess in Journal of the Arms and Armour Society. I have not read nor access to this article. However, from the description of a reconstruction made by Jörn Michaelsen, in which he followed Mr. Burgess, I know that the above approach is different in that one does not need to use any tools like looms and needles. I personally think that the above approach is more probable, especially if one considers that it is "inefficient" to make one special loom for one special item.

To conclude this article I want to list the next steps and requirements to consolidate if this could be the technique used in this sling:
- Photos with high resolution, especially of the sides of the pouch, the transition from pouch to retention and release cords and the bottom of the sling.
- To make a model with thinner cord to allow for direct comparison.
- To know the exact dimensions of the pouch.

The best solution would be direct access to the sling, but this would require quite a lot of organisation and I don't think that a museum would allow me to probe the sling directly with my fingers.

Teg / Thomas Gartmann

Top view of the prototype.

---

Front view

---

Bottom view

---

That looks very nice, Teg :)

I don't understand entirely what you are doing, but it looks convincing.

Is this the twisted warps that we see at the surface? The thing that always puzzled me is that the number of warps would have to reduce towards the ends of the pouch, but... this looks like perhaps you are converting warps into wefts as you go towards the ends? Is that what is happening?

I wonder if this also explains the Cortailloid sling construction, given the sole illustration of that which I know?

Great idea!

So, this was a very short night, but I caught the "weaver fever". I found a leftover coil of white hemp string in my stock and made a second more elaborate attempt. This time I worked with two counterpropagating weft threads which resulted in a more symmetric work.

I'm quite convinced that I use the correct, or at least a very close, technique. Again, this prototype has all principal attributes of the original one.
I'm not yet sure on some details like how exactly the additional material was added. But I think that the overall technique is correct.
I made this pouch in ca. 5 hours, again without using any tools save: A knife and a pen as anchorage point.

Details that do not yet match the original:
- Used material and diameter of string (original: unknown, maybe flax or linen vs. treated hemp in this reconstruction)
- Length-width ratio (7:5 in the original vs. 8:3)
- Overall dimensions (unknown vs. 8 cm folded length, 3 cm maximal width).
- Tightness of the "twining". I get the impression that the original is slightly tighter "twisted" and that the used cord is slightly less twisted than the one I used.
- Way of adding additional material (unknown)

I can easily adjust all the above points as soon as I have gathered more information or had a close look at the original.

In this sling I made some small mistakes while working, which I think are very peculiar for this technique. If the same mistakes can be found in the original sling, it would be quite a strong indication that the technique "Zwirnbinden der Kette" was used.

---

wanderer wrote on Feb 8^th, 2013 at 3:28am:

That looks very nice, Teg :) I don't understand entirely what you are doing, but it looks convincing. Is this the twisted warps that we see at the surface? The thing that always puzzled me is that the number of warps would have to reduce towards the ends of the pouch, but... this looks like perhaps you are converting warps into wefts as you go towards the ends? Is that what is happening? I wonder if this also explains the Cortailloid sling construction, given the sole illustration of that which I know? Great idea!

Thanks!
I was actually looking for a technique to make nice patterns for a peruvian split pouch. Then I stumbled over this technique in a book, made an example piece (have a look at the thread: pictures of slings and slinging) and it hit me like a brick on the head: I have seen exactly this pattern before! I feel that I may have solved a more than 2000 years old puzzle!

Yes, this are the twisted warps you see at the surface. I took away the warps in exactly the same way as I added them. I took them along the weft threads to the border of the pouch. The border would be a place which I would closely inspect in the original sling. Maybe you can detect there signs or traces on how the material was added or removed.

I have not closely studied the cortaillod sling. From my point of view the border could be similar to the one I made. However I don't know if I could achieve also this pattern with "Zwirnbinden der Kette". I would need to see the original piece. Link the the thread about it: http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1238447472/0

And I just read that the original cortaillod sling is lost...  >:(

I could try, but I have no idea how it will turn out...

I'm sure David Morningstar will chip in on this, I seem to remember he's actually got as close as anyone to the original in Manchester Museum.

(I'm a bit vague since I've not been keeping track of this forum for a year or so).

The original material would surely be linen. Given the period I'm not sure the Egyptians used much else than that. I suppose my only reservation about the warps to wefts is how the loose ends are terminated sufficiently well (having been cut) to avoid them pulling out, not that I think that is an insuperable problem.

Yes, strange and sad about the disappearance of the Cortailloid sling. It just seems to vanish with no-one knowing what happened to it. Perhaps it lurks still in someone's private collection. In that case the short warps (if that is what they are) are on the outside of the pouch and it may not fit with the detail of the edges shown in the illustration, which I've just looked at again.

And what about your exams?  ;D
Very nice tutorial as always Teg, rightly added to the PG's Index.
Greetings,
Mauro.

Mauro Fiorentini wrote on Feb 8^th, 2013 at 12:15pm:

And what about your exams?  ;D Very nice tutorial as always Teg, rightly added to the PG's Index. Greetings, Mauro.

Eh? What are exams?  ;D
The last one was yesterday, dealing with half metals and other funny things  ;). Afterwards I had some B&B (Burger & Beer) with friends and then I started knotting and writing down the ideas which were floating around in my head for already more than one week  ;).

Well then, back to topic:


wanderer wrote on Feb 8^th, 2013 at 10:01am:

... The original material would surely be linen. Given the period I'm not sure the Egyptians used much else than that. I suppose my only reservation about the warps to wefts is how the loose ends are terminated sufficiently well (having been cut) to avoid them pulling out, not that I think that is an insuperable problem. ...

The fastening and insertion of this warps is one point which could be done in several ways:
- simply running them along the weft to the border of the pouch (the chosen way).
- looping them around the weft and/or "weaving" them backwards into the braid. One may has to use a needle.
- making a small knot and then "tucking" it into the already made "cloth"
- seewing or whipping with single fibers / connecting the inserted warps to the weft thread.

I have only tried the first possiblity as it is the easiest one. During the work I left the inserted warps long enough so that I had enough room to compensate an accidental pull. See the appended picture. One could also imagine several ways to guide or weave the freshly inserted warps right after insertion. Example: crossing the inserted warps: Warps inserted from the left go to the right side and vice versa.

Once the sling is finished and the ends are cut off, it is not easily possible to get a warp out of the pouch. At least not by rubbing, stretching, twisting, pulling and bending the pouch which I was doing with the second attempt now for the whole day. However, if you would pick on one single warp in the center, you could pull it out, but is still not easy. If you would twist the warps even tighter and use rougher material you would certainly need a needle or a stick to dislocate them.

---

I would love to comment but I dont understand what you are doing  :(

Quote:

Once the sling is finished and the ends are cut off, it is not easily possible to get a warp out of the pouch. At least not by rubbing, stretching, twisting, pulling and bending the pouch which I was doing with the second attempt now for the whole day. However, if you would pick on one single warp in the center, you could pull it out, but is still not easy. If you would twist the warps even tighter and use rougher material you would certainly need a needle or a stick to dislocate them.

Yes, I can see that.

I was looking for the detailed pictures David Morningstar took (I see he's just posted) which are here
   http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1140984986/86
but I thought there were others somewhere? - as I wrote before I've not been keeping up with the forum recently.

I suppose the other question is whether you twine only pairs of weft strands or more. There look like an awful lot of loose strands there, are they twined just in pairs? With your Peruvian hat on they ought perhaps to be in fours ;).

Very interesting work; thanks for posting it.

When I was working on my first Tutankhamun sling, I tried to do a similar method to what you have tried, but I did not understand enough of what I was doing to make it a success. Are you familiar with tablet or card weaving? It can be used to produce essentially the same type of twined warp weaving you are doing, and using cards might make the process easier.

Here's a link to some more pictures of the Lahun sling that David Morningstar took:

http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1331821760/0

You can see some measurements there, and maybe some more details, and here's another good picture of the sling:

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=8947DC47E1BCD800&id=8947DC47E1BCD800!313

In that picture you can clearly see that two warps were used. I would have to study the pictures some more, but I can't tell yet whether or not any twining was used for the sling because of how dense the weaving is. Maybe you can look at the pictures and see what you think.


Teg wrote on Feb 7^th, 2013 at 9:37pm:

There is an article of a reconstruction by Mr. Burgess in Journal of the Arms and Armour Society. I have not read nor access to this article. However, from the description of a reconstruction made by Jörn Michaelsen, in which he followed Mr. Burgess, I know that the above approach is different in that one does not need to use any tools like looms and needles. I personally think that the above approach is more probable, especially if one considers that it is "inefficient" to make one special loom for one special item.

The sling in the Burgess's article is a actually a different sling from the same location, and dates to a more recent time period. I think it is currently in the Petrie Museum.

-Timothy Potter

Wanderer, David Morningstar and Timothy Potter: Thank you very much for the photos, informations and comments!
I think I have now enough informations to keep me busy for some time.

@ David Morningstar: I can't really explain what I'm doing, as I'm working at the really limits of my skills. I twist the warps, then pass the weft thread, then I twist them again. I will post a really detailed tutorial when I think that I have worked out all the details.

@ wanderer: Peruvian braids in honor but until now I twined them always in pairs ;). I will play around with this.

@ Timothy Potter: I know what tablet weaving is, but I have no experience with it. I was actually looking for tablet weaving when I stumbled over warp twining. This could be a good method for later on but for the moment I will continue "by hand" as I have no tablets.

Teg wrote on Feb 10^th, 2013 at 2:42pm:

@ Timothy Potter: I know what tablet weaving is, but I have no experience with it. I was actually looking for tablet weaving when I stumbled over warp twining. This could be a good method for later on but for the moment I will continue "by hand" as I have no tablets.

Not having tablets is not a valid excuse : you can make some from playing card... or even your box of cereals. If you doubt your tablet strengh, you can always try adding some tape but it may grip your fibers.

Look here for more info on the basics.

I don't think it would be very practical for making a full pouch with increases. My tablet woven sling has a split pouch, waaaay simpler to do that adding 2 cards of 4 strands in the middle of some tight weaving (you don't want to mess your nice borders, do you ? )

I think one of the newer members posted a sling recently in which they had used tablet weaving, I think with a little 'post-processing'.

Years ago Willeke suggested using it, and a German (I think!) member made one - and hated it.

I used to do a lot of card-weaving, but I don't think it brings anything that is not already there in the warp twining techniques except speed. If you want to write your name into the fabric, that's a different matter. The cards tend to impose constraints that I would want to break in order to make a sling.

Just another closely related technique(!) - ply-split braiding ;D

Teg I have an idea. knot the weft to each other to finish the sides of the pouch. I will try tonight, and post pics if everything goes well.
Maybe this is how they made the king-tut, not woven.
-Squirrel

Wanderer :
I made this one ;)

Thats not truely a Kahun sling :)
There is not seperate warp and weft!
-Squirrel

Caldou wrote on Feb 10^th, 2013 at 8:45pm:

Wanderer : I made this one ;)

Thank you Caldou. That is the one :)

Caldou wrote on Feb 10^th, 2013 at 8:45pm:

Wanderer : I made this one ;)

Caldou, please do not take me seriously, I was just screwing around... I have been alternating between studying and slinging.org for the past 8 hours, since I finished my Squirrel-mail tutorial
-Squirrel

So, it's time to give you an update on my work on recreating the "el-Lahun sling" from Manchester museum with warp twining.
I have recreated a sling which looks very similar to the original one. A photo of it is appended to this post.
There are still some details which I could not work out, but I reached a point where I either need to have additional high resolution photos of certain areas or to get a personal impression to make any progress without too much speculation.

What I have done since my last post:

- I developed a technique to add and remove strings in a more controlled manner. The added and removed strings are knotted inside of the work for stability.
- I developed a simple frame for easier handling of the strings during the manufacture.

Unclear points/speculation:
- The exact way in which the strings are added and knotted is pure speculation. It is also speculation that strings are added, as until now I have not yet seen the end of a string in the pouch. To get a better idea of this process I need five high resolution photos of the center part of the pouch (inside & outer side while increase of the width, inside and outside while decrease of the width, center of the pouch). Additional information could be gained from a side view of the pouch (Where are the ends of the strings?).
- How many strings are added in each step (thread counts in every row). I have not yet achieved the thread count of the original sling.
- Thickness of the used material. Do the weft and the warps have the same thickness?
- Thickness of the finished piece.
- Transition area. How is the pouch started and how is it finished? Therefore photos of this areas would also be a nice to have (4 pieces: each end front and back side).

I may be able to hop over to England this summer to make a direct comparison of my sling with the original one and to gather the needed informations. But until then I can't really continue my work.

If someone is so kind and wants to visit the Manchester museum for me to make some photos please contact me first by PM.
I may have some special and more detailed instructions for you ;).

Please feel free to give your inputs / critics. They are most welcome.

Teg / Thomas Gartmann


[edit]Picture of the original sling for comparison:  
http://egyptmanchester.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/sling_shot_103.jpg [/edit]

---

Photo of the frame and the used material before starting the twining.

---

The center of the pouch. The twining is halfway done.

---

Teg, you are definitely on the right track there. I am pretty sure I can get you the pictures you need if you send me the instructions.

Teg...absolute spitzenklasse  8-) :o :o :)

Excellent work! I really like the frame you made; it looks like it would save a lot of time. Based on the photo of your sling, I'd say that yours is at least a viable theory, and if it happens not to be what was used on the original, it certainly makes a nice sling anyway. I think it would be interesting to see if your method could be used to make a copy of Tutankhamun's slings, and I'd like to see how it compares to the methods I've tried for those slings.

One interesting feature of the original that I think I can see is that  two thicknesses of material were used to weave the pouch. Using your method, the twined warps would be thin material and the counter-acting wefts would be thicker. If you tried it that way, perhaps you could get a more accurate comparison, especially if you are able to see the sling personally or get some specific pictures beforehand.

Keep up the good work, and please keep us posted on any developments.

-Timothy Potter

Thank you all for the replies!

@ David Morningstar: Thank you very much! It's due to your uploads that I even got the idea to start with this work. I will write down the instructions send it to you together with a sketch of which parts I'm interested in. It may take a week or two, as I really don't want to forget anything. I will contact you when I have it.

@ Timothy Potter: The frame is really handy. It reduces the mess while working considerably. I also put numbers onto the bobbins. This way it's easier to avoid mistakes. Theoretically it is also possible to make it by hand without a frame like I did it in the beginning. But with so many strings that would require a skill level which I have not yet achieved.

For the Tutankhamun slings I would have to try it. Until now I have seen only one bad black & white picture of it and some blurred ones, so I can't really make a judgement. From the b&w picture I got the impression that the rows even at the beginnig form a very pronounced V. To copy this I would have to add way more strings in each step, which I have not yet tried.

About the thickness of warp and weft: That was also my impression, but I really wasn't sure. I'm glad that you "see" the same as I do.

I am trying to draw in paint what I think this looks like... but weaving doesn't translate into 2D easily.
So sort of the weft becomes the warp, by crossing into the center?
Thats my understanding of this.

squirrelslinger wrote on May 29^th, 2013 at 10:07pm:

I am trying to draw in paint what I think this looks like... but weaving doesn't translate into 2D easily. So sort of the weft becomes the warp, by crossing into the center? Thats my understanding of this.

There are several ways to introduce additional warps. You can knot it to other warps or the weft, loop it in, sew it, ... From the pictures I have available at the moment I can not distinguish what was done in the original sling. I have the impression that the additional warps were added in the center.

At first I´d like to congratulate you, Teg, for the great work. Your reproduction is really a masterpiece!
Taking the occasion that there is an actual discussion here, I´d like to verify something about Egyptian slings: if I understand it correctly, there are at least 4 ancient Egyptian slings in museums
- a Lahun-sling in the Petrie Museum with a flat woven pouch and braided cords
http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1305757185/0
- a Lahun-sling in the Manchester Museum with a slightly cupped pouch (the original for your reconstruction here) and twisted cords
-two slings found in the tomb of Tutankhamen, probably in the Egyptian Museum of Cairo
http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/carter/gallery/p1324.html
-another two artifacts found in the tomb of Tutankhamen that were described as belts, but seem to be slings, probably also in Cairo
http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/carter/gallery/p0086.html
http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/carter/gallery/p0087.html
http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/carter/021kk.html
Am I right with this?
And do some better pictures than the Burton photographs of the Tut-slings exist?
Unfortunately I missed a great occasion to see Egyptian slings. In 2009 there was a big Tutankhamen exhibition in Germany, not showing the originals, but exact reproductions of everything that was found in Tut´s tomb. In fact some objects were repeated, cause there were the complete chambers of the tomb filled with the objects and then all the artifacts in glass displays. But in 2009 I wasn´t yet infected with the sling-fever, otherwise I´d have taken 100 pictures of the slings and “belts”. Maybe when I´ll find some time I can find out who made the reconstructions and contact them to send me pictures.

Outstanding work, Teg, as always. Vielen Dank fürs Teilen!  :)

lakeslinger, those are some great images. I have never seen the last three pictures before. Not sure if they show the "known" Tut slings in the in situ context, or if they are other objects, but slings they are, imo, without any doubt.

The context is very interesting. They seem to have been deposited together with common garment stuff like belts and sandals. I'm tempted to derive that they were regarded as normal parts of everyday wear, almost like the clothing itself, at least for the pharao.  :)

The last 3 links are from Timothy Potter, he posted them in an older thread about Egyptian slings.

I wanted to add this picture to show my loom that I use for flat as well as cupped Egyptian slings.
It`s very simple and for me it is more practical than the nail+wood looms or the one shown in the Tut-sling tutorial, cause it is easier to transport (I make most of my slings outdoors).

---

What's it made from?
Looks like a plastic to me.

squirrelslinger wrote on Jun 5^th, 2013 at 2:21pm:

What's it made from? Looks like a plastic to me.

Yes, it is a flat piece of plastic, 15x23 cm, where I made cuts with a thin file. The space between two cuts is used for the "U-turn" of the warp-cord, similar to the wooden loom with nails. I use it since I made my first woven sling, that was a Tut with a cupped pouch. For the shaped pouch only the weaving pattern is different ( increasing number of rows from center to outwards vs. decreasing number of rows from center to outwards for a flat pouch ). The loom can also be used for other pouches, like for the shepherd sling in my tutorial #1 and (coming soon) #3.

lakeslinger wrote on Jun 6^th, 2013 at 5:10am:

squirrelslinger wrote on Jun 5th, 2013 at 2:21pm: What's it made from? Looks like a plastic to me. Yes, it is a flat piece of plastic, 15x23 cm, where I made cuts with a thin file. The space between two cuts is used for the "U-turn" of the warp-cord, similar to the wooden loom with nails. I use it since I made my first woven sling, that was a Tut with a cupped pouch. For the shaped pouch only the weaving pattern is different ( increasing number of rows from center to outwards vs. decreasing number of rows from center to outwards for a flat pouch ). The loom can also be used for other pouches, like for the shepherd sling in my tutorial #1 and (coming soon) #3.

Thanks. So how much easier is it to weave with a loom?

Great Work, Teg!

Thank you very much, funda_iucunda!

I take this possibility to give a little update:
From the technical point there is at the moment not much development in this project. I'm waiting for an occasion to go to Manchester and see the original piece. At the moment I think I have extracted all the informations available from the photos I have, so a personal impression would be nice. I'm still thinking about alternative ways to add threads as this is a point were it can be easily seen if my approach is correct.
Regarding making new slings with this method I just say: "Full colour control". There is something promising upcoming but it may take some weeks until it is finished.
My most time I spend at the moment into processing flax by hand without complex tools and getting experiences with the fibers. So also in this topic there is something upcoming. The vision is to make an exact reproduction of the Lahun sling starting with the flax seed and using as few tools as possible. Currently I think I could achieve this within a year or two if my visit to Manchester confirms my approach. If not, then it maybe could take a life long  ;).

I am in the pub talking to my museum mate, I am trying to get pics for you.... Watch this space....

David Morningstar wrote on Nov 28^th, 2013 at 2:24pm:

I am in the pub talking to my museum mate, I am trying to get pics for you.... Watch this space....

I'm watching with pleasant anticipation :). Thank you very much!