A quill is the main shaft in a bird’s feather and it is also the name for the hollow spine of a porcupine. They are composed of keratin. Porcupine quills and to a lesser extent, bird quills, have been used for centuries by indigenous communities in Africa and North America to decorate garments and other objects.
The archaeological site of Qasr Ibrim lies on a bluff overlooking the Nile, Upper Egypt, where it almost never rains, and so high above the river that it was never flooded. This allowed the organic remains to be almost totally preserved. The site was occupied for nearly 3000 years, until the ruling authorities officially ordered its abandonment in 1812.
The Qadisha Valley embroideries were discovered in 1991 by a team of speleologists working in the Qadisha Valley in northern Lebanon. While exploring the Asi-i-Hadath cave complex, they found a series of burials, which included four infants and three adults, skeletal remains of a foetus and one male skull.
Princess lace is a form of Renaissance lace or tape lace, made in Belgium in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It originally developed as an imitation of Duchess lace. Some authors describe it as a form of lace assembling, rather than lace making.
Powhatan's mantle is a native North American garment from the early seventeenth century. It is made of white-tailed deer skin (Odocoileus virginianus, also called Dama virginiana) decorated with applied shells. The mantle is made of four tanned buckskin pieces sewn together with sinew thread (slightly s-spun). It measures 2.33 x 1.5 m.
A porcupine is a rodent with a coat of sharp spines or quills, which are used to protect the animal against predators. Porcupines belong to the family of the Erethizontidae (genera: Chaetomys, Coendou, Echinoprocta, Erethizon and Sphiggurus) or of the Hystricidae (genera: Atherurus, Hystrix and Trichys). Porcupines are indigenous to Africa, the Americas, Europe and Southern Asia.
An orphrey is an applied decorative band, usually richly embroidered, on a Christian ecclesiastical vestment, such as a cope, chasuble or dalmatic. According to the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, the term orphrey derives from the Old French orfreis (mod. orfroi), from the medieval Latin auriphrygium, which comes from Latin aurum (gold) and Phrygius (Phrygian). Compare Dutch: aurifries.
North American quillwork is a form of decorative needlework that makes use of porcupine or bird quills. Quillwork from North America has been a focus of much study, although it is incorrect to believe that quillwork is exclusive to this region, as it is also carried out in Africa.
A wide variety of materials was used to decorate indigenous clothing in North America before contact with the Europeans. These decorative materials included bone, feathers, fur, leather fringes, quills (North American quillwork) and shells.
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Knitting is a method by which yarn is used to create a looped fabric. The earliest recorded English usage of the word ‘knitting’ dates from 1598. Technically, knitting is not a form of decorative needlework, as a sewing needle is not used in its production. Nevertheless, it often features in publications about needlework.
The kiswa al-kabira is an elaborate outfit worn until the mid-twentieth century by wealthier (Sephardic) Jewish women in the Maghreb (Northwest Africa). The term kiswa al-kabira means ‘great dress.’ The outfit was decorated with gold braids and gold thread embroidery. The outfit appears to have originated in Andalusia, where it was called the traje de berberisca.
The kiswa is the embroidered cloth covering of the Ka`aba, a cubical building in the al-Masjid al-Haram mosque, Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The Ka`aba is about 15 m high, with a circumference of 47 m. It has one door, which is set about 2 m above the ground. During the annual hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca, Muslims walk around the Ka`aba seven times.
The Kharqa oasis is the most southern and largest of Egypt’s western oases. It is located about 200 km to the west of the Nile in the Libyan, or Western Desert. The oasis is about 160 km long and up to 80 km wide. The historic Darb el-Arbain trade route, running north-south between Middle Egypt (notably Assyut) and Sudan, passes through Kharqa. The oasis has been home to various ethnic groups since the early Dynastic period.