I.INTRODUCTION
This fourth thematic chapter takes the form of a case study, focused upon one artefact type Ð the basket. Baskets are present in archaeological, textual, and visual sources from Late Antiquity, and can be considered as a common example of material culture from this period. By applying the theoretical considerations explored in the previous chapters to one specific artefact type, this section seeks to reveal the role baskets had as meaningful objects within late antique society. Furthermore, it is hoped that such a process will draw out further themes and trends relating to the personal meaning of objects.
However, before baskets can be discussed in terms of meaningful domestic objects, an overview is required of the available primary evidence and contemporary scholarship to understand why this object type is suitable for a case study of this kind. Firstly, the term basket needs to be briefly defined to outline the scope of this chapter. Baskets are containers that have been woven out of fibres or strips of material without the use of a loom or any kind of frame Ð this is what
distinguishes basketry from other woven materials such as textiles.614 Basketry as a material was used to create a range of objects beyond ÔbasketsÕÑbasketry wrapping was used to cover and protect glass (fig. 59), and woven domestic furnishings such as mats have also been found in the archaeological record (fig. 60). However such items will not be studied here; the focus will remain on baskets as stand-alone vessels or containers to form a discrete object type.
I.1. Evidence
Baskets are most commonly made out of natural plant fibres, which decompose quickly when in the ground meaning that they struggle to survive within the archaeological record. However, there are examples from the late antique period that have survived to the present day. Specific conditions are required for their preservation; both dry, arid conditions and wet, anaerobic environments allow the natural fibres of basketwork objects to survive and avoid the normal process of decay. As a
result, the finds of basketry are normally restricted to specific regions of the late antique world. The dry desert landscapes of North Africa and the Near East provide the majority of extant examples of baskets from the late antique period. For example, basketwork has been amongst the finds from Qasr Ibrim in Upper Egypt (fig. 61), and at Berenike, a Roman trading port on the Red Sea coast.615 Basketwork has also been found in the wetter Northern regions of Europe; for example a late Roman willow twined basket was found in waterlogged conditions at Marcham in Oxfordshire (fig. 62).616 There are also other very specific conditions that provide surviving examples. Cullin
MingaudÕs study of basketry from Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Oplontis, whilst strictly predating the late antique period, demonstrates that carbonisation through burning can allow basketwork to survive in the archaeological record.617 Furthermore, the deposition of volcanic ash during the eruption of Vesuvius has created voids from the destruction of basketry objects, which allow casts to be taken to reveal the form of the original objects.618 The result of these patterns of survival is that there are large absences of evidence for many regions. However, Willeke Wendrich, who has extensively studied Egyptian basketry, states that baskets were likely as ubiquitous as pottery and therefore used in similar numbers, something often overlooked due to their poor survival in comparison to pottery within the archaeological record.619 With this in mind, we can reasonably accept that baskets were found across all regions within the late antique period, much as they are in modern times.
Where there are absences within the archaeological record, other sources of information help to fill in these voids. Visual sources provide a wealth of information on baskets, especially in regions where no basketwork has been found in the archaeological record. These objects are easy to recognise within a wide variety of scenes and media, underlining the ubiquity of their presence within late antique society. They are included in decorative schemes on various kinds of domestic objects; see for example the ivory pyxis decorated with the martyrdom of Saint Menas featuring a basket placed on the floor (fig. 63). They appear in the decoration of domestic furnishings such as
615
Wendrich (1998) 253-264.
616 Excavated during Oxford UniversityÕs Vale & Ridgeway project. See Kamash et al. (2010) for the interim
report.
617 Cullin-Mingaud (2010) 72. 618
Cullin-Mingaud (2010) fig. 86-87.
wall hangings (fig. 64), and in the public sphere are found in depictions such as the designs of church mosaics (fig. 65).
Textual sources also reveal the role these objects had in daily life. Baskets are included in AusoniusÕ description of the marriage feast in his epithalamium poem: ÒServants bring water for their hands, load in baskets the gifts of hard-won CeresÓ.620 Papyrological sources are also valuable, especially documentary texts. In letters, inventories, and accounts, baskets of various kinds are regularly mentioned as stand alone examples of material culture, or as containers for other objects of note. For example, a fourth-century private letter from Egypt records the dispatch of Òa basket of parsley roots, a basket of wheat sacks and a basket of some small raisinsÓ to a member of a monastic settlement.621 Another letter of the same date describes the objects a husband sends to his wife as, Òtwo bed spreads, two pounds of purple dye, six baskets, and two towelsÓ.622
I.2. Scholarship
The evidence suggests that these objects should be considered as an important part of the everyday material culture of late antique life. However, traditional scholarship published on domestic objects Ð for example catalogues of artefacts or archaeological reports Ð tend to show baskets as essentially utilitarian in nature. Winlock and CrumÕs 1926 report of the excavations of the sixth-century Monastery of Epiphanius in Thebes, Egypt includes objects of basketwork and describes it thus:
They were usually large Ð 50-55 cm. in diameter at the top and 30-40 cm. deep Ð and very well woven. The body of the basket was of palm leaf plaited on palm-fiber cord, with rope handles of the latter material woven through from the edges to the bottom. An old, well- worn basket from Room 10 had its bottom broken out and was then crudely patched with palm rope and leather, just as they are patched today. These baskets differ in no wise from modern ones, and since the materials are all local there is no reason to suppose that they are other than a very old native product.623
This statement is to a certain extent true; in terms of physical form baskets have not changed a great deal. Wendrich says herself that in Egypt there is great continuity in terms of basketry traditions, with similarities in style existing between baskets of the past and modern day from the
620 Ausonius, Cent. Nupt. 17.2; trans. Evelyn White (1919). 621 P.Ben.Mus.4.
622
SB 14.12080; trans. Youtie (1976).
same region.624 However Winlock and CrumÕs description is also representative of the way in which these objects are discussed within the majority of scholarship. Focus remains on their construction techniques and physical descriptions. Within this sphere are however some useful texts: WhiteÕs study of Roman farm equipment has a section on baskets based on iconographic and literary sources, and Gaitzsch collates archaeological examples from the Roman world.625 Happily, several studies have also been published in recent years devoted entirely to basketry from the Roman period Ð French scholars have been leading this field with work on the basketry of the Roman West and North Africa by Magali Cullin-Mingaud, Nicole Blanc, Fran•oise Gury, and Guy Barbier.626 There is also the work of Willeke Wendrich, mentioned above, who has produced two texts that cover the practical complexities of investigating the archaeological remains of basketry, with a focus on Egypt.627 However there is nonetheless a general absence when it comes to further analysis of the role these objects held in everyday life. As such, these are objects represented as vessels in which only their contents carry significance; they are otherwise neutral, created only for utility, and unchanging over time.
This chapter seeks to remedy the previous focus on the utilitarian aspects of baskets by applying the same theoretical arguments and approaches in the earlier three chapters to this rather neglected field of evidence. It seems unlikely given their prominent position within everyday life that there is not the potential for a greater meaning in certain contexts, both domestic and beyond.
II.BASKETS AS MEANINGFUL OBJECTS
The discussions in this study so far have demonstrated that any object has the potential for sentimental meaning and value, because of the nature of material culture and its ability to accumulate memories. This capacity is not specific to a certain class of object Ð all examples of material culture have this potential. Therefore, baskets could of course be objects of sentimental value in Late Antiquity. Private letters from late antique Egypt extensively refer to the sending and receiving of goods as gifts and favours between friends and family. This often includes items of
624 Wendrich (1999) 3.
625 White (1975); Gaitzsch (1986). 626
Mingaud (1992); Blanc & Gury (1990); Barbier, et al (1999).
basketry, as seen in the fourth-century letters quoted above.628 The biography of these objects Ð their origin with a close friend or family member Ð can lead to the creation of sentimental value. Certainly, as discussions in the previous chapters have explored, baskets given by another can become material evocations of their donor and the context of the act of giving.629 Similarly baskets might well be included in the objects bequeathed and inherited by the lower classes of late antique society, as occurred with the other more ordinary objects recorded in the documentary papyri, and explored in chapter 3. However, much of this is speculation, and does not apply specifically to evidence from this period. Therefore, this section will now look at specific indications of baskets as meaningful objects. Certainly the evidence suggests that baskets had definite cultural meanings beyond their functional use.
II.1. Baskets and late antique femininity
An overview of available evidence suggests a link between baskets and the late antique notion of femininity. We know that a certain type of basket, the kalathos, was associated with women through its traditional use as a wool basket, in which women would keep the wool they worked when spinning. It has already been mentioned in chapter 4Õs discussion of handmade gifts that there was a strong cultural link between the ÔvirtuousÕ women and the activities of spinning and weaving. During the late antique period, the basket would have been considered a part of the material culture associated with this pursuit. Historically, baskets and weaving are linked in the work of Virgil, in which he describes ÒMinervaÕs basketÓ when contrasting the dutiful woman working wool with the warrior Camilla.630 Furthermore, wool baskets also traditionally had a role within the Roman marriage ceremony. Festus states the ceremony featured a cry of talassio in reference to the original Roman wedding when Romulus and his men abducted the Sabine women;
talassio in this context also referred to a wool working basket like the kalathos mentioned above.631
Returning to the late antique period, John Chrysostom further underlines the association between women and wool-working equipment, by stating its presence to be the sure sign of a womanÕs
628 SB 14.12080; P.Ben.Mus.4.
629 Mauss (1966) 10; Gregory (1982) 45. See also discussion in chapter 2, section III.3.i, and chapter 4,
section III.2.
630
Virgil, Aeneid 7.805-7; trans. Fairclough (1918).
occupation of a house.632 Visual sources also emphasise this link between women and wool baskets Ð as seen in the second-century grave stela in fig. 66, which features a basket and other wool working equipment alongside their female owner. The consequence is that in the context of spinning and wool working, the basket is designated as a culturally female object. This is nowhere clearer than in images of the story of the Annunciation, the moment at which the Virgin Mary is told whilst spinning that she is to give birth to the Son of God, which are common in the late antique period. Fig. 67 is an early Christian resist dye cloth decorated with this scene and recovered from a Christian burial. The Virgin, identifiable through the inscription ΜΑΡΙΑ, is seen seated next to a large basket, into which the spun wool is deposited. Mary is presented as the ideal of
womanhood, a concept reinforced by the activity of spinning, which is itself communicated through the inclusion of the basket in the scene. Other depictions of this story also feature the wool-working basket. Fig. 68 depicts a large gold pendant necklace from around AD 600, decorated with the Annunciation scene. The basket is again used as an iconographic device to represent the full material culture of the most suitable of feminine pursuits, spinning. That this is a stock image, used time and again to represent the story of the Annunciation, encourages the view that the basket symbolises the virtuous woman of Late Antiquity. Even in the simplest
representations, the basket is always included Ð fig. 69 shows a sixth- to seventh-century pilgrim token from QalÕat SemÕan in Syria; it is a relatively small and crude object, but still the basket is depicted. It testifies to the important cultural values it embodied as a domestic object.
II.2. Baskets as a pagan ritual object
Baskets can also be found in the religious sphere, and evidence suggests that they had roles as ritual objects within late antique pagan cults Ð specifically those described as ÔMysteryÕ religions. One of these was the Eleusinian Mysteries; its origins are sixth-century BC Eleusis in mainland Greece, but the cult flourished and spread throughout the Mediterranean, surviving into the late antique period.633 The followers of this cult venerated the goddess Demeter and her daughter Persephone (also known as Kore), and took part in initiation rituals that were shrouded in secrecy. In documentary sources, the presence of baskets in pagan rituals associated with Demeter can be
632 John Chrysostom, Instruction and Refutation Against those men cohabiting with virgins; trans. Cox Miller
(2005).
identified.A third-century letter from Oxyrhynchus addresses a village priestess as Òbasket-carrierÓ (described as kalatephoros in the text) and requests her attendance at the local shrine to conduct fertility rituals:
Please go to (the village of) Sinkepha, to the temple of Demeter, to perform the customary sacrifices for our lords the emperors and their victory, for the rise of the Nile and increase of crops, and for favourable conditions of climate.634
Helen Saradi describes how popularity of the Eleusinian Mysteries continued in late antique Greece, with high profile adherents still being attracted in fourth-century Athens.635 Even the Emperor Julian Ð known as the Apostate for instigating a brief imperial return to paganism Ð visited the holy site of Eleusis in the mid-fourth century to participate in the sacred rites.636
It seems that the rituals of this cult involved the procession and use of baskets. Clement of Alexandria describes the verse recited by devotees in first- to second-century Egypt:
I have fasted;
I have drunk the cup;
I have taken from the box [kiste]; having done,
I put it into the basket [kalathos], and out of the basket into the chest.637
The kalathos refers to the wool-basket discussed earlier; the kiste (or cista in Latin) refers to a round-lidded woven basket.638 The classic iconographic form of the kiste is seen in a first- to third- century AD engraved glass paste gem (fig. 70), which shows Triptolemus with a wicker basket and serpent at his feet. Triptolemus was the fabled originator of the mystery cult to Demeter and Kore at Eleusis, and was himself the subject of veneration by followers.639 Other depictions of the Eleusinian Mysteries and their rites also show the kiste in this form Ð the second-century AD sarcophagus of Torre Nova (fig. 71) and the late first-century AD Lovatelli Urn both depict the
kiste in initiation rituals.
634
P.Oxy. 36.2782; trans. Rowlandson (1998) 62.
635 Saradi (2011) 266. 636 Saradi (2011) 281.
637 Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks, 2.21; trans. Butterworth (1960). 638
White (1975) 63-65.
Furthermore the kiste can also be identified in association with the Cult of Isis; this religion originated in Egypt but spread along with the syncretic deity Serapis (a combination of the Greek Apis and the Egyptian Osiris) to elsewhere in the Roman Empire. The cult travelled across the Western parts of the Roman Empire, following trade routes from Alexandria to parts of Italy, Dalmatia, Hungary, Spain, France, Germany, Britain and North Africa.640 Imagery and objects associated with the goddess and her rites are found to these same geographical extents and also depict the kiste basket chest in a similar way to that seen in the Eleusinian Mysteries. Fig. 72 is a second- to third-century AD terracotta statuette of Isis nursing Harpocrates, the goddessÕ son conceived with Osiris; the object depicts the goddess sat cross-legged on a wicker basket. The figurine was probably a votive offering or placed in a wall niche for household worship and protection.641 The seat on which she rests seems to be the symbolic kiste, being recognisably of basketwork and circular in shape. Such iconography is seen in similar perfume bottles now in the Petrie Museum, also showing Isis but dating from the earlier Roman period.642 It seems that baskets were associated in visual terms with the goddess Isis. The cult of Isis continued into the late
antique period; in Egypt, Dijkstra gives an end date for her veneration in the mid-fifth century, based upon epigraphic evidence from Philae.643
The traditional association between certain pagan cults and baskets as ritual objects is likely to have been a well-known one considering the survival of these religious activities into the late antique period, especially in regions such as Egypt. The emphasis on a specific form of basket Ð namely the kiste Ð and its dominant presence within representations of cult figures and rituals means it was identified as an object with cultural and religious meaning.
II.3. Baskets as a symbol of plenty
Looking beyond religious iconography, we see that elsewhere baskets are associated with ideas of agricultural plenty, fertility, and worldly abundance. The image of baskets of fruit and flowers, alongside various creatures and vegetal motifs, is found on a wide variety of domestic furnishings
640 Turcan (1997) 95-104. 641 Friedman (1989) 182.
642 UC47606 &UC47605 are two mould made clay perfume bottles in the form of a nursing Isis seated on a
large round woven kiste; early Roman Period, Petrie Museum, London.
and objects. For example, the tapestry fragment from Egypt, seen in fig. 64, was no doubt intended to adorn a domestic interior and shows a basket of flowers as a central motif. A similar design is represented in the fragment of hanging or curtain in fig. 73; also found in Egypt, it depicts a bird next to a basket of grapes, however Stauffer states it was made in a textile centre elsewhere in the Mediterranean.644 Baskets within scenes of plenty also appear in mosaic designs. For example, the