medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
I passed this discussion along to a fellow textile researcher who knows a lot more about Roman clothing than I do, and she commented:
>I think they're over-analyzing on the whole "gamma" angle. The
>L-shaped motifs are simply part of the Roman ornamental "vocabulary",
>along with the square and round segmentae. There are also H-shaped
>motifs used similarly, and sometimes the L shapes get notched ends so
>that each arm terminates in a half-H. When you look at the Ls in the
>context of whole garments, their distribution and orientation
>suggests that they evolved from the breaking up of a continuous
>rectangle (e.g., on a tunic, from full-length clavii with a
>connecting horizontal bar at or near the hem).
>
>Now, if you were getting ornaments that resembled a theta or a beta,
>then it would probably be reasonable to assume they were designed to
>represent the letter. But with a gamma, there's a lot more scope for
>pure coincidence. (Consider, for example, that the T-shirt was not
>designed to represent a T -- it's simply called that for the chance
>resemblance.)
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0 Chris Laning
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+ Davis, California
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