Weaving

The material for the nowadays Bedouin tents is no more produced locally but imported from outside of Jordan, till recently from Syria, but rather now from Turkey or from Saudi Arabia. Moreover, a goat hair tent is very expensive and many Bedouin families can not afford such expenses  anymore. In this case, they live under tents made of jute and plastic sheeting. 

The row material of a traditional Bedouin tent is the goat hair, that has the particularity to swell under water. After the first rains, the tent become waterproofed. Goat hair is rough. Sheep and camel wool is rather used for home smaller items, as it is softer than goat hair. Before the importation of chemical dying colors, only natural dyes were used. Jordan even used to export natural dyes to neighbouring country in the past. Indigo, that was cultivated in South Dead Sea region at least since the Mameluke period, was very commonly used to produce bluish to dark shades. Sumaq berries was producing the red, a yellow soil called mugha was treated to produce yellow dye and from the kermes insect were extracted the purple or crimson colours. Other home products could complete the colors range, as the pomegranate and onion peel, flowers and tree bark, spices like curcuma. Natural products additives as vinegar, salt, alum has the particularity to intensify the dying and make it resistant.

In the archaeological records of the Iron Age II, we also find a vertical loom. At Tell Deir Alla', in the Jordan Valley, archaeologist found, among other wool working tools, a group of clay loom weights. The wrap-weighted loom technique traveled from Switzerland and Central Europe to the Levant at the Early Bronze Age.

In the excavations of Tell Deir Alla' was found a iron awl fixed to a handle made of deer antler, dating back to the Persian period. 

exp. Jordan Museum

In 2013, we organized in cooperation with a Bedouin woman in Azraq a weaving experiment for two students, consisting in the weaving of a small rug, with all the steps from the building of the ground loom till the finishing. We simplified the process by buying the coloured wool balls. We also brought some carded wool for the maghzal training... we decided to waive reproducing traditional patterns and just targeted a piece with colorful strips. The experiment showed how the traditional weaving work is demanding in time, technical abilities and physical strength. The position of the weaver is particularly strenuous. Moreover, pulling up the threads causes tension in the arms and the back. It is exceptional to meet a Bedouin woman who still practices this activity for her own needs. Beside the modifications in the Bedouin society and in their lifestyle, the arduousness of the work is another cause of its disappearance.