Ancient Egypt: Rope making, uses of rope, materials, techniques
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Rope making
The invention of cordage was one of the more ingenious ideas ancient mankind had: taking weak, short pieces of fibrous material and turning them into strong extended lengths of rope which had numerous uses.
Until the industrial revolution with its inventions of the steam engine and the steel hull ships were utterly dependent on cordage. Without rope sea-faring would have been impossible and even the use of the Nile would have been restricted to paddling up- and down-river in dug-outs; tying things, animals, but also people, kept them in the place you wanted them to be; and concerted efforts of large numbers of people such as transporting or lifting heavy loads were possible only thanks to ropes. A rope may not be much to look at, but it was at the base of human culture.Uses for cordageBelow is a very incomplete list of the different kinds of use Egyptians made of ropes [13]:
MaterialsPlant fibres were early on discovered to be useful for tying things. Earliest reed ropes found date from the Badarian, the second half of the fifth millennium BCE [7], and cordage was made of fibres from papyrus, wild reeds, rushes, and grasses like esparto and halfa grass. After drying the plant stems were split, any pith removed and turned into rope [5]. Flax, which, when reaped as a young plant, provided fibres for the finest threads imaginable, was only fit to be used for making cordage once it had reached maturity [6]. Flax was thus not often turned into rope, but at times old linen was recycled and made into cordage [8]. Other ancient cultures made extensive use of hemp but no examples of hemp ropes have been found in Egypt.Animal fibres were only very rarely used: A two strand rope made of camel hair dating from the Old Kingdom is known [7]. Leather too was occasionally pleated into cords.
Palm-fibre: ropes ........... 180 TechniquesThe fibres, be they grasses or palm leaves, were first dried for varying lengths of time. Before being turned into rope they were wetted.[14]
Most ropes would be constituted of two or three strands, which are easier to manipulate than greater numbers of strands, but a five strand rope survived in the boat pit of Khufu where most of the ropes were made of halfa grass. At Deir el Bahri a rope with a diameter of 6.8 cm dating from the New Kingdom was found. Graeco-Roman ropes were discovered in caves at Tura which had a diameter of almost 6½ cm and were made of three strands of papyrus fibre. But even thicker ropes were probably in use. According to Arnold's estimate the raising of a major obelisk would have required about forty palm fibre ropes with diameters of 18.4 cm [11]. Rope-makers are rarely mentioned in the sources. A letter contains a list of tradesmen belonging to a temple, among them ...of workers of reeds who are in the papyrus thickets cutting mats, of rope-makers(?) (na.y) ///// |
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Bibliography: Dieter Arnold, Building in Egypt; Pharaonic Stone Masonry, New York and Oxford 1991 Dieter Arnold The Encyclopaedia of Ancient Egyptian Architecture, 2002 I.B.Tauris Katheryn A. Bard, Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, 1999 Routledge J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Four, Chicago 1906 Ann Rosalie David, The Pyramid Builders of Ancient Egypt: A Modern Investigation of Pharaoh's Workforce, 1996 Routledge Raymond Oliver Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, 2004 Kessinger Publishing R.J. Forbes, Studies in Ancient Technology, 1966 Brill Academic Publishers Andrew Hunt Gordon, Calvin W. Schwabe, The Quick And The Dead: Biomedical Theory in Ancient Egypt, 2004 Brill Academic Publishers A. Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, 1962 Mary Fawler Maude, Scripture manners and customs, London 1862 Geraldine Pinch, Magic in Ancient Egypt, 1995 University of Texas Press W. M. Flinders Petrie, Illahun, Kahun and Gurob, London 1891 W. M. Flinders Petrie, Kahun, Gurob and Hawara, London 1890 J. E. Quibell et al. 2nd Memoire of the Egyptian Research Account: The Ramesseum - The Tomb of Ptahhotep, 1896 André Veldmeijer, "Cordage Production" in Willeke Wendrich (ed.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, Los Angeles, March 2009, accessed at http://repositories.cdlib.org/nelc/uee/1059, May 2009 Footnotes: [1] Gordon 2004, p.102 [2] Arnold 2002, p.195 [3] Pinch 1995, p.84 [4] Petrie 1891, p.11 [5] David 1996, p.242 [6] David 1996, p.231 [7] Lucas 1962, p.135 [8] Bard 1999, p.336 [9] Forbes 1966, p.62 [11] Arnold 1991 [12] Petrie was full of praise for the ancient workmen: Rope was made of flax, of rush, and of palm fibre, and the skill with which it was worked in joints is not exceeded by the modern sailor. (Petrie 1890, p.35) [13] Petrie described some of the ropes he encountered and their uses: Of coarser fabrics rope of flax, palm fibre, and rush was made. It is usually of two strands ; but sometimes it was thrice doubled, giving eight strands. Wide network was made of this rope to enclose jars ; a ring passed round the lower end of the jar, the net covered the sides, and joined into a handle of rope at the top. Rings of rush rope are found, probably for carrying jars on the head. Small, flat, square baskets of rope were made, about 6 or 7 inches in height and width. And a band, probably for going round the back of a man in palm climbing, is formed of 14 fine ropes parallel, interwoven with strips of linen cloth, and ending in two thick loops for attaching the rope. Baskets were also made of palm leaf; both of the modern round type with palm rope handles, and of the flat, square form ; the latter is most thoughtfully designed, with a wooden bottom bar, woven rope corners, six fine ropes up the sides to distribute the pressure, retained in place by a cross rope, and ending in a twisted rope handle, the top edge having a fine rope binding,[14] Veldmeijer 2009
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| Ropewalk: A Cordage Engineer's Journey Through History | |
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© April 2007
Three rope-makers working in the marshes making a two strand rope.
Fragment of papyrus rope, Late Period, length: 42 cm, diameter: 9 cm
At times a worker would tie the rope around his waist using the weight of his body to keep the rope taught, freeing his hands for manipulating it.