Ancient Socks??

[corvideye]

To be honest, I don't care that much whether this mosaic depicts Alexander the Great or not. What gets me is that these guys are wearing stripey socks!

Comments

[young_raven]

And it looks less like "using up scraps of wool" and more fashion statement! :D

[kareina]

I can't zoom in on the phone app to see the socks, but reading this reminds me of an article in the Archeological Textile Newsletter about a woman's hypothesis that the Greek pottery that shows men with patterned legs could be a deptiction of hose made from sprang. She showed examples in the article of stripes, diamonds and spots all made by sprang. Of course, striped socks made from sprang would not be a good way to use up ends of yarn.

[corvideye]

Yes, that was a very cool article, and I think she's onto something. These could easily be socks, though. There is coptic knitting at that point.