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XVIII.—On a Coptic Grave-shirt in the possession of General Sir Francis Grenfell, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., etc.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2012
Extract
That the Egypt of the Pharaohs was famous from the earliest times for the manufacture of linen is evident not only from the splendid specimens of linen bandages and sheets in which mummies are wrapped, but also from the testimony of ancient writers. Egyptian linen was, for the most part, made of flax, and a good idea of what an important matter the success of the flax crop was in Egypt may be gathered from the fact that the smiting of the flax 
when in. bloom by the hail (mentioned in Exodus ix. 31), was considered to be as great a calamity as the smiting of the barley when in the ear. The finest and best linen was worn by the priests of Egypt in the form of shirts, the κιθῶνας λινέους of Herodotus, ii. 37, 81, a commoner and coarser sort was used for the final bandages and “sheet” of mummies, perhaps also for sleeping upon, compare the 
of Prov. vii. 16, and the coarsest sort of all for sails, awnings, etc. Nearly all the flax woven in Egypt was grown in the Delta, and the best quality appears to have come from Pelusium; according to Strabo, Panopolis was famous in olden times for the manufacture of linen, and working in stones, and it is easy to show that the art of weaving linen and of ornamenting garments with woven or worked designs did not pass away from that town until ten or eleven centuries after the birth of Christ.
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- Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1893
References
page 433 note a Ezekiel xxvii. 7, 
; lxx. Βύσσινον ἔχων ἱστίον; Deipnos. v., p. 206, ed. Casaubon.
page 433 note b Πανῶν πόλις, λινουργῶν καὶ λιθουργῶν κατοικία παλαιά. Lib. xvii. § 41.
page 433 note c Brugsch, Dict. Géog., p. 1022.
page 434 note a De Sacy's translation, p. 198.
page 434 note b An account of this discovery is given by Karabacek in his paper, Dic Theodor Graf schen Funde in Aegypten, Wien, 1883, p. 24 ff.
page 437 note a See Gerspach, Tupisseries Coptes, No. 76, and Forrer, Römische und Byzantinische Seiden-Textilien, Bl. iii., No. 2.
page 437 note b I have made some remarks on the connection of St. George and the Dragon with Rā and Āpepi in the preface to my Martyrdom of Saint George of Cappadocia.
page 438 note a See Hyvernat, Album de Paléographie Copte, pl. III.
page 438 note b Dr. F. Bock and Essenwein quoted in Forrer, op. cit. p. 19.
page 438 note c Die Textilien …‥ der “Römischen Epoche ” …‥ tragen durchaus den Charakter des ersten 3 Jahrhunderte unserer Zeitrechnung. Forrer, op. cit. p. 19. “Les plus anciens et les plus nombreux tombeaux renfermant des tapisseries sont du II ou du IIIe siècle après Jésus-Christ; les plus récents paraissent être du VIIIe on du IXe.” Gerspach, Les Tapisseries Coptes, p. 2.
page 439 note a “Le dessin est sommaire, net, sobre, bien combiné, harmonienx, d'une grande franchise plastique, dans le style qu'adoptera ultérieurement l'art héraldique; naturellement, dans la figure il est plus faible que dans l'ornement, car le tapissier, avec sa broche, ne trace pas aussī facilement que le céramiste avec son pinceau.” Gerspach, p. 4.
page 440 note a Forrer (Textilfunde, p. 24) quotes the instance of Gratian (died 383) who sent to the Consul Ausonius a tunic with the portrait of Constantine the Great worked upon it.
page 442 note a Résumé des principaux Traités Chinois sur la Culture des Mûriers et l'Éducation des Vers à, Soie, traduit par Stanislas Julien, Paris, 1837, pp. 67, 68Google Scholar.
page 442 note b “Et cum ab eo uxor sua peteret, ut unico pallio blatteo scrico uteretur, ille respondit, Absit, ut auro fila pensentur.” Vopiscus, Vit. Aur., cap. 45.
page 443 note a For a valuable discussion on the origin and use of silk in Europe, the original home of the silkworm, etc., etc., see Takes, Textrinum Antiquoram, p. 229. ff., and Hoffmann, , Observationes circa Bombyces, Sericum, et Moros, etc., Tübingen, 1757, 4toGoogle Scholar.
page 443 note b The Coptic text may be understood to mean that the place or chamber was a very large one, and that the place or part of it where the bodies had been laid was much decorated; whether the bodies were in coffins or not interferes in no way with the certainty of the statement that one mummy was dressed in pure silk.
page 444 note a i.e., ὁλοσηρικός.
page 444 note b For the Coptic text and a French translation of it see Amélineau, , Étude sur le Christianisme en Égypte au Septième Siècle, Paris, 1887, pp. 142–146Google Scholar.