Production

In "Textiles from Medieval Egypt, A.D. 300-1300", Thelma K. Thomas concludes: "The surviving examples and written remains indicate that the textiles from medieval Egypt were the products of international manufacture and trade and that the textile industry was one of the most important industries of the medieval period in the Mediterranean regions”.

During the Byzantine Period, which encompasses the century or so to which these fragments have been dated, textiles were “manufactured by professionals in businesses, on private estates, and domestically.” Professional weavers were of low status, plagued by strict regulations on wages, marriage, the status of their children, and unable to change professions.

Studies on the structure of the textile industry in Roman Egypt are being carried out currently, but generally most major industry was centered along with Nile, with its access to trade and movement of goods. The clothing in Karanis would have been at least woven by professionals, but it's unlikely that Karanis participated in a larger economy of industry outside of the village, and most families would have been spinning their own wool.