Karanis; Textiles; Linen; Wool

Fragment of woven wool fabric with plied warp which is a mixture of brown and yellow yarns, sometimes one ply of each. There are weft bands in several shades of brown (shaded stripes?) and a small amount of yellow. There is a ribbed selvedge along one edge and there are a few warp loops along an adjacent edge but the border is very deteriorated. There are remnants of tapestry near the border edge and at one edge of a very damaged section in the center. Eccentric weft (wool) and small slit tapestry elements (linen) are present. At the selvedge side of the tapestry band near the border there are wefts in green/blue and orange. There are three edges that have wefts encircling the edge warp. Two of these edges divide the fragment. To one side there is linen weft-wrapping and a narrow weft band of 7 picks of purple wool; on the other side the weft-wrapping is mostly wool, with a small amount of linen, and there is no evidence of a purple weft band. There are a few wool slit tapestry elements along the weft edge of both of these sections. The weft-wrapping occurs through most of the brown bands, but not in the tapestry. Both wool and linen weft-wrapping are very deteriorated but the patterns appear to be geometric motifs (rectangles, triangles and, perhaps, meanders). The weft is unevenly spun; some thick, some thin and varies from high to low twist