Laoguanshan multi-shaft pattern loom
Telar de lizos para brocados de Laoguanshan
- Date
- c. 150 BCE · confidence high
- Place
- Laoguanshan, Chengdu, Sichuan, China
- Credited to
- Weavers of Shu (Western Han)
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Four loom models found in a Han tomb show pedal looms with numerous heddles and a mechanism that stores the pattern for weaving complex silk brocades. They are the oldest material evidence of a pattern loom.
Found in 2012. Its influence on European pattern looms came via Persia and Byzantium, without a demonstrated direct line.
What it led to
- Shu brocades exported along the Silk Road
- drawlooms (tihua ji) of Tang and Song China