#horizontal frame

[aster-aspera]

Penelope's weaving

aka I, an archeologist, am here to review the accuracy Penelope's loom in the 2024 movie 'The Return' because I want to avoid thinking about all my papers due next week. For context, I am currently writing my bachelor paper on Minoan textiles, and while I am definitely not an expert, I do know a thing or two about bronze age textile technology

So first point of pedantry: that is not at all a bronze ago loom.

I can't say exactly say what kind of loom this is, as I've only studied bronze ago looms. Whatever kind of horizontal/draw/treadle loom this is, I can confidently state that this would not have been used in Mycenaean times. I'd say that we only see these kinds of looms in Europe from the medieval period, somewhere around the 11th century.

In the bronze age, there are three types of looms in use (as far as we know). The horizontal ground loom, the two beam loom, and the warp-weighted loom. Most traditionally, we see iconography depict Penelope weaving on a warp-weighted loom, like this beautiful vase does.

We can clearly recognize this as a warp weighted loom, because we can see the weights: they're the little triangles at the ends of the vertical threads (the warp). The warp-weighted loom is also the only loom we can find archeological remains of, as the loom weights were often made of clay (sometimes pebbles), while the other types of looms were purely wooden.

Furthermore, I have genuinely no clue what she is supposed to be doing with her weaving in this short clip. There is no visible shed, which is the separation between the warp yarns, through which you pull the weft, so that you can actually weave something.

Here's a picture of the shed, as you can see, every other thread is pulled up, and the shed can then be switched around to create a woven pattern.

In the short clip we see, she seems to just be drawing some threads through the warp, which is more than a little nonsensical. If one was weaving a smaller fabric or a tapestry, one could perhaps use a pin or sword beater to pick up individual threads of the warp to pass your horizontal thread (the weft) under, and create patterns that way. That is still not what she is doing here. Additionally, she is weaving a solid red fabric, which would not make it a very interesting tapestry.

Perhaps she's undoing her weaving in this scene? It would make a little more sense if that was what she was doing, as no one would ever be actively weaving at night! It required a lot of light to be able to see what you were doing. Candle light just did not suffice. It still looks a little strange to me, as I don't actually see any woven fabric on the loom that she could be undoing. It's all just loose warp threads.

Honestly, it kind of looks like they picked up a loom from the nearest interactive history museum and plunked it into their movie without doing any research. I think it's a little sad that when adapting a work that centers weaving as much as the Odyssey does, the filmmakers did not do any research into bronze age weaving. You really don't need to be writing a paper on this stuff to find sources for this!

I'll just leave you all with this: a beautiful reconstruction of a warp-weighted loom, with the beginnings of a tapestry as Penelope would have woven it. You can see the loom weights at the bottom, and the sticks in the middle called the heddles, which were used to create the shed I discussed earlier. This is part of the Penelope project.

[riboku]

happy tanabemas @birdmenmanga! — prompt roue's eyes + vocaloid producer nulut

Roue, your right eye is so pretty. It's the color of the sky.

[haxxydraws]

dinner conversation

[volivolition]

don't talk to me or my son ever again

[amplexadversary]

Stitch from the elevator scene in episode 48 of G Gundam

The camera did not pan far enough to completely include Bolt Gundam, sadly.

[rustedmoose]

Disco Elysium innovating with verticle text boxes is so funny because yeah it is easier to read like this why'd nobody do this before??

[jacarandaaaas]

hey just wondering what would you call this genre of dancing? me personally I think “spinning tops” fits it pretty well

[cargoshortsenjoyer]

I drew Herbert West from reference and I'm proud of it! I see a lot of flaws but I really think it's so much better than all my other attempts at drawing a face from photo reference.

[sol-flo]

mostly charted out this bird (almost 70x70) and it feels like i'm going crazy and stitches are shifting before my very eyes. the area with the question mark near the wing looks bizarre in software but is entirely accurate (i might smooth it out though). the leg on the other hand is a case of stitches just not adding up, i'll look at it again tomorrow when it's not 1 am.

also through this close reading i'm pretty sure this is a pheasant or something, and not a peacock at all. it does have a very darling face regardless.

[horizon-art-ref]

[zoeythebee]

Me: oh god this feature is gonna be super wonky to impliment. This code is about to look like shit.

Me 5 minutes later:

[abby118]

[duahauuoplanh]

[coolcoelacanth]

my cat scratched my arm upon trying to evade The Crate and it looks perfectly like sh marks and my preceptor was looking down at my arm today 🧍‍♀️🧍‍♀️

[katethevampire]

Is it just me or does this light in my dad's bathroom kind of look like the defense attorneys badge

[eloquentmockupstudio]