Image Details

Courtesy of James Fleming and the Explorations in Antiquity Center

This goat-hair tent (covered with a black protective tarp) and camel-hair rugs illustrate the transient life of shepherds. Goat hair is a very practical material for these tents because the woven fibers swell shut when wet to keep out rain, but in hot dry weather they loosen to let the warm air escape from within. This tent came from a nomadic tribe on the Jordan-Iraq border.