Weaving  

Photo courtesy Bukhara-carpets.com

                                             What made ancient man resort to or even discover weaving? Most likely the needs of shelter and warmth were the most common factors. Crude shelters could be covered by inter lacing branches or reeds,simple cloth material could be produced which would make clothing for the protection against harsh winters and started weaving on it's gradual evolution into the process we know today.

Unfortunately not much of the earliest examples of weaving exist due to the ravages of time. Weather,fire,moths etc all contributed to the early destruction of weaving examples.Some do survive however and can be found frozen in ice; in ancient,cold,dark tombs and in bogs.I can imagine early man perhaps first discovering weaving while observing a beaver's dam or a spider's web.

Weaving can be described as the inter lacing of two sets of threads, most often at right angles to each other.In our modern world this process has become automated and also taken for granted. The process makes rugs,clothing and fabric more affordable but at the same time of a lower quality and lower artistic merit.

Early weavers made blankets, baskets, fishing nets and kilim rugs. The uses for weaving are many and still used today.As time went on early man could not resist the urge to use his creative mind to place in his rug or clothing motifs or symbols from nature representing his daily life or the Gods he worshipped.(paganism reigned in these early days) 

How simple it would be to make all clothing, rugs and baskets the same color! Man is not built that way, he can and must express himself. Weaving is particularly suited to the occasion.

 This process lead to the the invention of dyeing fabric to be used in weaving. Today we have synthetic dyes and consistent color lots, but in ancient times the dye was based on the sheeps wool at hand and the roots or plants available for dye.This made for inconsistent colors but this type of weaving is all the more appreciated for it's result.

True hand made textiles are always woven from natural materials.  A persian rug would not even be considered to be one were it not made from all natural materials.Wool, cotton or silk are the mainstays of weaving and always will be.

Just like 5000 years ago, weaving survives.