1074 textiles and needlework: Africa AFRICA BY SUSAN COOKSEY Textiles produced on the continent of Africa in the period between 10,000 b.c.e and 400 c.e were made from both plant and animal fibers, including bark, reed, grass, cotton, and wool Among textiles’ many purposes were as clothing, sheets, blankets, bags, carpets, tents, and burial shrouds Moreover, textiles were important items for trade, adornment, and markers of social, political, and economic status Textile production in Africa and elsewhere indicates a sedentary society with skills in agriculture and husbandry; technologies used for dyeing, spinning, and various types of construction, such as weaving; and artistic ability to produce cloth that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing Simply woven cloth probably served for everyday use, while more elaborately woven and patterned cloth was reserved for leaders and elite members of society In North Africa textile production was greatly affected by the influx of technologies and materials developed and distributed throughout the Mediterranean The Phoenicians were some of the greatest purveyors of textiles, materials for textile productions, and textile technologies After settling along the Tunisian coast, the Phoenicians introduced the eastern vertical loom to the urban Berbers, the indigenous people, around the 12th century b.c.e In Carthage and other Phoenician towns local craftsmen wove linen and woolen rugs In the rural areas of Tunisia textiles made of rush, reed, and alfa were produced and used for constructing tentlike dwellings for local inhabitants Important people in rural societies may have owned woven wool textiles The Phoenicians are known to have traded in dyed wool by 1700 b.c.e A purple dye derived from extracts from the murex, a shellfish, became increasingly popular in the Mediterranean world during the fi rst millennium b.c.e As the Phoenicians expanded trade in murex dye and murex-dyed textiles, they sought the shellfish from as far away as Africa’s Atlantic coast Evidence of textiles with murex-dyed fabric has been found in excavations of ancient Meroitic sites in Sudan, dating from 332 to 30 b.c.e The Romans razed Carthage in 146 b.c.e and, in the course of their occupation, taught the urban Berbers how to use a Latin loom to produce various textiles Cotton threads found in Dhuweila, in present-day Jordan, dated to 4450–3000 b.c.e may have been imported across the Red Sea from India or from the area that is now the states of Sudan and Ethiopia, where a different variety of cotton was known at the time Evidence of cotton cultivation and cotton fabrics dates back to the early fift h century b.c.e in Meroë, located in the Nile Valley in the present-day state of Sudan Many Nile Valley textiles have been found in tombs One collection from the areas of Ballana and Qustul includes burial cloths from three Nubian eras, beginning in 332 b.c.e Textiles found in the tombs were made of various fibers, in- cluding wool from sheep, camels, and perhaps goats as well as silk, linen, and cotton The silk samples were imported and from a later era A few burial cloths were made of horsehair or coarse grass or reed However, most of the textiles were made of animal fibers Both animal fibers and cotton were available in the area much earlier than the fourth century b.c.e It is estimated that sheep were in the Nile Valley for thousands of years before that and were among the fi rst domesticated animals in the region The sheep brought to Nubia were probably a breed domesticated in Egypt Goats and camels were imported to Egypt later and eventually brought to Nubia Cotton was introduced into Nubia later than animal fibers, though a type of cotton may have grown locally as early as 3100 b.c.e The earliest samples of cotton cloth date from the fourth century b.c.e., but it is possible that cotton cloth was produced at an earlier time in Nubia Early accounts of cotton—such as that of the Roman historian Pliny the Elder (ca 23–79 c.e.), who referred to the “wool-bearing Ugandan woman wearing a bark cloth dress; bark cloth began to be produced in Africa before 4000 b.c.e (© Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System)