John Becker was a Danish damask weaver with a lifetime's practical experience in his craft and an intimate knowledge of weaving techniques that allowed him to decipher, experiment and interpret original techniques from small remnants of surviving material. With his death in 1986, a fine, old Danish weaving tradition, with its roots in the 1800s, died out and the historical study of material culture lost a great practitioner.

• Preface ix Introduction 1 Part I: Patterned weaves of Han China, 206 BC - AD 220 7 1. The monochrome patterned weaves 16 2. Gauze weaves 35 3. The polychrome silks, jin 55 Part II: Patterned Weaves of Early Western Asia 81 4. Western Asia 83 5. Weft-faced compound twill or samitum 111 Part III: Patterned weaves of the Mediterranean region 145 6. Lampas 147 7. Double-faced weft weaves 196 8. Patterned double cloth 221 9. Damask 248 Part IV: The eclectic pattern weaves of Tang China 287 10. The eclectic pattern weaves of Tang China 289 Part V: Weaving implements 309 11. The development of mechanical patterning: 'The' drawloom 311 12. Our drawloom - some weaving implements 346 Bibliography 363 Index 376

'To the modern weaver looking for a source of inspiration in the past John Becker has written an eye-opening indispensable handbook.' - John Peter Wild, Antiquity, 1988, no. 62 'The greatest virtue of this book is that it shows the archaeologist how much can be learned from practical experimentation in the re-creation of ancient crafts and artefacts.' - E.J.W. Barber, Archeomaterials, 1990, vol. 4.2 'In no work known to the reviewer are the technical analyses so firmly situated at the very heart of the work as the indispensable starting point for all other forms of investigation. They are an example of what is often preached but seldom practised in material culture studies: the primacy of evidence extracted from meticulous observation of objects in the fullest historical and technological context. - [A] noble memorial to an extraordinary technician and scholar.' - Verity Wilson, Oriental Art, 1989, vol. 35.2