NOW: Linen child’s sock with blue-green and yellow wool stripes III 15476

Generally, we think of the Egyptian nalbound socks as being wool. Today’s Nalbound Object of the Week, however, is a linen sock. It does have a bit of wool incorporated. Tiny amounts of dark blue/green and yellow wool are both incorporated in the nalbinding and used in apparent remnants of some decorative stitching. The image provided by the museum shows the sole of the sock, giving a clear view of the wedge heel.

Object: Linen child’s sock with blue/green and yellow wool stripes -III 15476

Description: Only the toe, mid-foot, and heel are remaining on this child’s sock. However, there are several very interesting aspects to this sock. The body is worked in linen. There is a row near the toe tip in a blue/green wool and there are remnants of the ankle being worked in yellow wool. Additionally, there is a full row of each color being used as an embroidery element around the mid-foot. L 15.5 cm, W 8 cm¹

Dated to: none provided

Culture: Coptic²

Find location: Egypt³

Material: Linen.⁴ Museum’s online record does not note, but the blue/green and yellow stripes are wool⁵ (as confirmed by examination by Anne Marie Decker)

Stitch(es) used: F2 UOO/UUOO,⁶ Mammen

Gauge: 12 stitches to the inch and 3.5 rows to the inch (as determine by examination by Anne Marie Decker)

Inventory number: III 15476⁷

Current location: Museum der Kulturen Basel, Switzerland

Link to museum catalog or other data: The Museum der Kulturen database does not have permalinks. Search for the Inventory number in https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/#/query/f901c9da-5de6-4bea-819e-39e4464051be

Some sources in which more information can be found:

Böttcher, Gudrun. “Koptische Nadelbindungstextilien im Museum der Kulturen Basel” in Experimentelle Archäologie in Europa: Bilanz 2004 Heft 3. edited by Corinna Endlich. Oldenburg: Isensee Verlag, 2004: 211-214. ISBN 3-89995-204-9.

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1. Museum der Kulturen Basel dataset published under the license CC BY 4.0 https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/#/query/f901c9da-5de6-4bea-819e-39e4464051be Accessed 3 November 2026 ↩︎
2. Museum der Kulturen Basel dataset published under the license CC BY 4.0 https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/#/query/f901c9da-5de6-4bea-819e-39e4464051be Accessed 3 November 2026 ↩︎
3. Museum der Kulturen Basel dataset published under the license CC BY 4.0 https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/#/query/f901c9da-5de6-4bea-819e-39e4464051be Accessed 3 November 2026 ↩︎
4. Museum der Kulturen Basel dataset published under the license CC BY 4.0 https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/#/query/f901c9da-5de6-4bea-819e-39e4464051be Accessed 3 November 2026. Böttcher mentions that it is plant based. ↩︎
5. The remnants of dark green and beige wool are noted on the catalog card at the museum. ↩︎
6. Böttcher writes it as Stitch Type: III and Stitch Variant: F(L) 2 UOO/UUOO. Böttcher, Gudrun. “Koptische Nadelbindungstextilien im Museum der Kulturen Basel” in Experimentelle Archäologie in Europa: Bilanz 2004 Heft 3. edited by Corinna Endlich. Oldenburg: Isensee Verlag, 2004: 211-214. ISBN 3-89995-204-9. pg 213. ↩︎
7. Museum der Kulturen Basel dataset published under the license CC BY 4.0 https://onlinecollection.mkb.ch/#/query/f901c9da-5de6-4bea-819e-39e4464051be Accessed 3 November 2026 ↩︎