Sea silk is an extremely fine, rare, and valuable

fabric Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not ...

that is made from the long silky filaments or

byssus A byssus () is a bundle of filaments secreted by many species of bivalve mollusc that function to attach the mollusc to a solid surface. Species from several families of clams have a byssus, including pen shells ( Pinnidae), true mussels (Mytili ...

secreted by a gland in the foot of pen shells (in particular '' Pinna nobilis''). The byssus is used by the clam to attach itself to the sea bed. Sea silk was produced in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...

region from the large marine

bivalve Bivalvia (), in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class (biology), class of marine and freshwater Mollusca, molluscs that have laterally compressed bodies enclosed by a shell consisting of two hing ...

mollusc Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is est ...

''Pinna nobilis'' until early in the 20th century. The animal, whose shell is sometimes almost a metre long, adheres itself pointed end down to rocks in the

intertidal zone The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of habitats with various species ...

using a tuft of very strong thin fibres. These byssi or filaments (which can be six centimetres long) are spun and, when treated with

lemon The lemon (''Citrus limon'') is a species of small evergreen trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar or China. The tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culin ...

juice, turn a golden colour, which never fades. The cloth produced from these filaments can be woven even more finely than silk, and is extremely light and warm; it was said that a pair of women's gloves made from the fabric could fit into half a

walnut A walnut is the edible seed of a drupe of any tree of the genus ''Juglans'' (family Juglandaceae), particularly the Persian or English walnut, '' Juglans regia''. Although culinarily considered a "nut" and used as such, it is not a true ...

shell and a pair of stockings in a snuffbox.In ''Spirals in Time,'' Scales puts forward the idea that "a pair of women's gloves made from the fabric could fit into half a walnut shell" actually refers to Limerick gloves made from a fine kid leather that were sold inside walnut shells as a marketing stunt. Over time, the walnut packaging and beliefs about byssus cloth were conflated. (151–152.) The cloth attracts

clothes moth Clothes moth or clothing moth is the common name for several species of moth considered to be pests, whose larvae eat animal fibres (hairs), including clothing and other fabrics. These include: * ''Tineola bisselliella'', the common clothes mot ...

s, the larvae of which will eat it. ''Pinna nobilis'' is also sometimes gathered for its edible flesh and occasional

pearl A pearl is a hard, glistening object produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk or another animal, such as fossil conulariids. Just like the shell of a mollusk, a pearl is composed of calcium carb ...

s of fair quality.

History

Egypt

The Greek text of the (196 BC)

Rosetta Stone The Rosetta Stone is a stele composed of granodiorite inscribed with three versions of a decree issued in Memphis, Egypt, in 196 BC during the Ptolemaic dynasty on behalf of King Ptolemy V Epiphanes. The top and middle texts are in Anci ...

records that Ptolemy V reduced taxes on priests, including one paid in ''byssus'' cloth. This is thought to be fine

linen Linen () is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant. Linen is very strong, absorbent, and dries faster than cotton. Because of these properties, linen is comfortable to wear in hot weather and is valued for use in garments. It also ...

cloth, not sea silk. In Ancient Egyptian burial customs, ''byssus'' was used to wrap

mummies A mummy is a dead human or an animal whose soft tissues and organs have been preserved by either intentional or accidental exposure to chemicals, extreme cold, very low humidity, or lack of air, so that the recovered body does not decay furt ...

; this was also linen and not sea silk.

Greece

The

sophist A sophist ( el, σοφιστής, sophistes) was a teacher in ancient Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Sophists specialized in one or more subject areas, such as philosophy, rhetoric, music, athletics, and mathematics. They taught ' ...

author

Alciphron Alciphron ( grc-gre, Ἀλκίφρων) was an ancient Greek sophist, and the most eminent among the Greek epistolographers. Regarding his life or the age in which he lived we possess no direct information whatsoever. Works We possess under th ...

first records "sea wool" in his (c. 2nd century AD) "Galenus to Cryton" letter. Sea silk has been suggested as an interpretation of the nature of the

golden fleece In Greek mythology, the Golden Fleece ( el, Χρυσόμαλλον δέρας, ''Chrysómallon déras'') is the fleece of the golden-woolled,, ''Khrusómallos''. winged ram, Chrysomallos, that rescued Phrixus and brought him to Colchis, where ...

that was sought by Jason and the Argonauts but scholars reject this hypothesis.

Roman Empire

The early Christian

Tertullian Tertullian (; la, Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus; 155 AD – 220 AD) was a prolific early Christian author from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. He was the first Christian author to produce an extensive corpus of L ...

(c. 160–220 AD) mentions it when justifying his wearing a

pallium The pallium (derived from the Roman ''pallium'' or ''palla'', a woolen cloak; : ''pallia'') is an ecclesiastical vestment in the Catholic Church, originally peculiar to the pope, but for many centuries bestowed by the Holy See upon metropol ...

instead of a

toga The toga (, ), a distinctive garment of ancient Rome, was a roughly semicircular cloth, between in length, draped over the shoulders and around the body. It was usually woven from white wool, and was worn over a tunic. In Roman historical tra ...

Nor was it enough to comb and to sew the materials for a tunic. It was necessary also to fish for one's dress; for fleeces are obtained from the sea where shells of extraordinary size are furnished with tufts of mossy hair.

Several sources mention ''lana pinna'' ("pinna wool"). Emperor

Diocletian Diocletian (; la, Gaius Aurelius Valerius Diocletianus, grc, Διοκλητιανός, Diokletianós; c. 242/245 – 311/312), nicknamed ''Iovius'', was Roman emperor from 284 until his abdication in 305. He was born Gaius Valerius Diocles ...

's (301 AD) ''

Edict on Maximum Prices The Edict on Maximum Prices (Latin: ''Edictum de Pretiis Rerum Venalium'', "Edict Concerning the Sale Price of Goods"; also known as the Edict on Prices or the Edict of Diocletian) was issued in 301 AD by Diocletian. The document denounces mon ...

'' lists it as a valuable textile. The Byzantine historian

Procopius Procopius of Caesarea ( grc-gre, Προκόπιος ὁ Καισαρεύς ''Prokópios ho Kaisareús''; la, Procopius Caesariensis; – after 565) was a prominent late antique Greek scholar from Caesarea Maritima. Accompanying the Roman gen ...

's c. 550 AD ''Persian War'', "stated that the five hereditary

satrap A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires. The satrap served as viceroy to the king, though with cons ...

s (governors) of Armenia who received their insignia from the Roman Emperor were given

chlamys The chlamys ( Ancient Greek: χλαμύς : chlamýs, genitive: χλαμύδος : chlamydos) was a type of an ancient Greek cloak.

Arabia

The

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

name for "sea silk" is ''ṣūf al-baḥr'' ("sea wool"). The 9th-century Persian geographer

Estakhri Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Muhammad al-Farisi al-Istakhri () (also ''Estakhri'', fa, استخری, i.e. from the Iranian city of Istakhr, b. - d. 346 AH/AD 957) was a 10th-century travel-author and geographer who wrote valuable accounts in Ara ...

notes that a sea-wool robe cost more than 1000 gold pieces and records its mythic source.

At a certain period of the year an animal is seen running out of the sea and rubbing itself against certain stones of the littoral, whereupon it deposes a kind of wool of silken hue and golden colour. This wool is very rare and highly esteemed, and nothing of it is allowed to waste.

Two 13th-century authors,

Ibn al-Baitar Diyāʾ al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad al-Mālaqī, commonly known as Ibn al-Bayṭār () (1197–1248 AD) was an Andalusian Arab physician, botanist, pharmacist and scientist. His main contribution was to systematically record ...

and

Zakariya al-Qazwini Zakariyya' al-Qazwini ( , ar, أبو يحيى زكرياء بن محمد بن محمود القزويني), also known as Qazvini ( fa, قزوینی), born in Qazvin (Iran) and died 1283, was a Persian cosmographer and geographer of Arab anc ...

, repeat this inaccurate "sea wool" story.

China

Beginning in the

Eastern Han The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...

dynasty (25–220 AD), Chinese histories document importing sea silk.

Chinese language Chinese (, especially when referring to written Chinese) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in Greater China. About 1.3 billion people (or approximately 16% of the ...

names include "cloth from the west of the sea" and "mermaid silk". The 3rd century AD ''

Weilüe The ''Weilüe'' () was a Chinese historical text written by Yu Huan between 239 and 265. Yu Huan was an official in the state of Cao Wei (220–265) during the Three Kingdoms period (220–280). Although not a formal historian, Yu Huan has been h ...

'' or "Brief Account of the Wei", which was an unofficial history of the

Cao Wei Wei ( Hanzi: 魏; pinyin: ''Wèi'' <

Middle Chinese

: *''ŋjwei^C'' < haixi'' ("West of the Sea") cloth made from ''shuiyang'' ("water sheep").

They have fine brocaded cloth that is said to be made from the down of "water-sheep". It is called ''Haixi'' ("Egyptian") cloth. This country produces the six domestic animals raditionally: horses, cattle, sheep, chickens, dogs and pigs which are all said to come from the water. It is said that they not only use sheep's wool, but also bark from trees, or the silk from wild silkworms, to make brocade, mats, pile rugs, woven cloth and curtains, all of them of good quality, and with brighter colours than those made in the countries of Haidong (''East of the Sea'').

The c. 5th century AD ''

Hou Hanshu The ''Book of the Later Han'', also known as the ''History of the Later Han'' and by its Chinese name ''Hou Hanshu'' (), is one of the Twenty-Four Histories and covers the history of the Han dynasty from 6 to 189 CE, a period known as the Late ...

'' ("Book of the Eastern Han") expresses doubt about "water sheep" in the "Products of Daqin" section. "They also have a fine cloth which some people say is made from the down of 'water sheep,' but which is made, in fact, from the cocoons of wild silkworms". The historian Fan Ye (398–445 AD), author of the ''Hou Hanshu'', notes this section's information comes from the report that General Ban Yong (son of General

Ban Chao Ban Chao (; 32–102 CE), courtesy name Zhongsheng, was a Chinese diplomat, explorer, and military general of the Eastern Han Dynasty. He was born in Fufeng, now Xianyang, Shaanxi. Three of his family members—father Ban Biao, elder brother B ...

, 32–102 AD) presented to the Emperor in 125. Both Bans administered the

Western Regions The Western Regions or Xiyu (Hsi-yü; ) was a historical name specified in the Chinese chronicles between the 3rd century BC to the 8th century AD that referred to the regions west of Yumen Pass, most often Central Asia or sometimes more sp ...

on the

Silk Road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and rel ...

. The (945 AD) '' Tang shu'' "Book of Tang" mentioned ''Haixi'' cloth from Folin ( Byzantine Syria), which

Emil Bretschneider Emil Bretschneider ( in Bankaushof (now Benkavas muiža, Saldus novads, Latvia) – in Saint Petersburg) was a sinologist of Baltic German ethnicity and a correspondent member of the Académie française. He operated in the Russian Empire. H ...

first identified as sea silk from Greece. "There is also a stuff woven from the hair of sea-sheep, and called ''hai si pu'' (stuff from the western sea)". He notes, "This is, perhaps, the ''Byssus'', a clothstuff woven up to the present time by the Mediterranean coast, especially in Southern Italy, from the thread-like excrescences of several sea-shells, (especially '' Pinna nobilis'')." The early 6th century AD ''Shuyiji'' ("Records of Strange Things") mentions silk woven by ''Jiaoren'', " ''jiao''-dragon people", which

Edward H. Schafer Edward Hetsel Schafer (23 August 1913 – 9 February 1991) was an American historian, sinologist, and writer noted for his expertise on the Tang Dynasty, and was a professor of Chinese at University of California, Berkeley for 35 years. Sc ...

identifies as sea silk.

In the midst of the South Sea are the houses of the ''kău'' people who dwell in the water like fish, but have not given up weaving at the loom. Their eyes have the power to weep, but what they bring forth is pearls.

This aquatic type of raw silk was called ''jiaoxiao'', "mermaid silk", or ''jiaonujuan '', "mermaid women's silk".

Modern Europe

The earliest usage of the English name ''sea silk'' remains uncertain, but the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a c ...

'' defines ''sea-silkworm'' as "a bivalve mollusc of the genus ''Pinna''." Alexander Serov's 1863 opera '' Judith'' includes an aria "I shall don my robe of byssus" (Я оденусь в виссон). In

Jules Verne Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the '' Voyages extra ...

's 1870 novel '' 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea'', the crew of the Nautilus wear clothes made of byssus (alternately translated as "seashell tissue" or "fan-mussel fabric"). ''Pinna nobilis'' has become threatened with extinction, partly due to overfishing, the decline in

seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four families ( Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae), all in the ...

fields, and pollution. As it has declined so dramatically, the once small but vibrant sea silk industry has almost disappeared, and the art is now preserved only by a few women on the island of

Sant'Antioco Sant'Antioco (; sc, Santu Antiogu) is the name of both an island and a municipality ('' comune'') in southwestern Sardinia, in the Province of South Sardinia, in Sulcis zone. With a population of 11,730, the municipality of Sant'Antioco it is t ...

near

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label= Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, aft ...

. Chiara Vigo claimed on various media to be the sole person living today to master the art of working with byssus and the local people helped her to open the Sea Silk Museum in Sant'Antioco. "Project Sea-Silk" from the

Natural History Museum of Basel Natural History Museum Basel (german: Naturhistorisches Museum Basel) is a natural history museum in Basel, Switzerland that houses wide-ranging collections focused on the fields of zoology, entomology, mineralogy, anthropology, osteology and pal ...

is collecting extensive data and studies on the subject, and informs the public that a couple of other women still produce and work today with byssus in Sant'Antioco in Sardinia, such as the sisters Assuntina e Giuseppina Pes which contradicts the claims of Chiara Vigo who is credited as having "invented with an extraordinary imagination her own story of sea-silk and pinningit tirelessly and to the delight of all media on and on". In 2013, Efisia Murroni, a 100-year-old sea silk master weaver nicknamed "la signora del bisso" (born in 1913) died and her work is now shown in the Museo Etnografico di Sant'Antioco, with other artefacts being already on display in various museums throughout Europe.

Footnotes

Citations

References

* Bretschneider, Emil. 1871
''On the Knowledge Possessed by the Ancient Chinese of the Arabs and Arabian Colonies and Other Western Countries''
Trubner. * Hill, John E. (2009) ''Through the Jade Gate to Rome: A Study of the Silk Routes during the Later Han Dynasty, 1st to 2nd Centuries CE''. John E. Hill. BookSurge, Charleston, South Carolina. . See Section 12 plus "Appendix B – Sea Silk". * Hill, John E. 2004

A draft annotated translation of the 3rd century ''

'' – see Section 12 of the text and Appendix D. * Laufer, Berthold. 1915
"The Story of the Pinna and the Syrian Lamb"
''The Journal of American Folk-lore'' 28.108:103–128. * McKinley, Daniel L. 1988. "Pinna and Her Silken Beard: A Foray into Historical Misappropriations". ''Ars Textrina: A Journal of Textiles and Costumes'', Vol. Twenty-nine, June, 1998, Winnipeg, Canada, pp. 9–223. * Maeder, Felicitas 2002. "The project Sea-silk – Rediscovering an Ancient Textile Material." ''Archaeological Textiles Newsletter'', Number 35, Autumn 2002, pp. 8–11. * Maeder, Felicitas, Hänggi, Ambros and Wunderlin, Dominik, Eds. 2004. ''Bisso marino: Fili d’oro dal fondo del mare – Muschelseide: Goldene Fäden vom Meeresgrund''. Naturhistoriches Museum and Museum der Kulturen, Basel, Switzerland. (In Italian and German). * Maeder, Felicitas. (2014). "Irritating Byssus – Etymological problems, material facts and the impact of mass media." Paper presented at: Textile Terminologies from the Orient to the Mediterranean and Europe 1000 BC – AD 1000. Copenhagen, 18–22 June 2014, pp. 1–17. * Scales, Helen. 2015. ''Spirals in Time: The Secret Life and Curious Afterlife of Seashells''. Bloomsbury Sigma. * Schafer, Edward H. 1967. ''The Vermillion Bird: T'ang Images of the South''. University of California Press. * Turner, Ruth D. and Rosewater, Joseph 1958. "The Family Pinnidae in the Western Atlantic". ''Johnsonia'', Vol. 3 No. 38, June 28, 1958, pp. 285–326. {{Bivalve anatomy Animal hair products Fibers Mollusc anatomy Silk Woven fabrics de:Byssus eo:Bisino it:Bisso lb:Byssus