The Wool Economy of Roman Italy (original) (raw)
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Textile Production in Pre-Roman Italy (2008)
2008
Older than both ceramics and metallurgy, textile production is a technology which reveals much about prehistoric social and economic development. This book examines the archaeological evidence for textile production in Italy from the transition between the Bronze Age and Early Iron Ages until the Roman expansion (1000-400 BCE), and sheds light on both the process of technological development and the emergence of large urban centres with specialised crafts. Margarita Gleba begins with an overview of the prehistoric Appennine peninsula, which featured cultures such as the Villanovans and the Etruscans, and was connected through colonisation and trade with the other parts of the Mediterranean. She then focuses on the textiles themselves: their appearance in written and iconographic sources, the fibres and dyes employed, how they were produced and what they were used for: we learn, for instance, of the linen used in sails and rigging on Etruscan ships, and of the complex looms needed to produce twill. Featuring a comprehensive analysis of textiles remains and textile tools from the period, the book recovers information about funerary ritual, the sexual differentiation of labour (the spinners and weavers were usually women) and the important role the exchange of luxury textiles played in the emergence of an elite. Textile production played a part in ancient Italian society's change from an egalitarian to an aristocratic social structure, and in the emergence of complex urban communities.
Bronze Age Textile & Wool Economy: The Case of the Terramare Site of Montale, Italy
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 84, pp. 359–385, 2018
(2018) At the onset of the 2nd millennium BC, a wool economy emerged across continental Europe. Archaeological, iconographical, and written sources from the Near East and the Aegean show that a Bronze Age wool economy involved considerable specialised labour and large scale animal husbandry. Resting only on archaeological evidence, detailed knowledge of wool economies in Bronze Age Europe has been limited, but recent investigations at the Terramare site of Montale, in northern Italy, document a high density of spindle whorls that strongly supports the existence of village-level specialised manufacture of yarn. Production does not appear to have been attached to an emerging elite nor was it fully independent of social constraints. We propose that, although probably managed by local elites, wool production was a community-based endeavour oriented towards exports aimed at obtaining locally unavailable raw materials and goods. Keywords: Bronze Age, Italy, craft production, spindle whorls, community of practice, contexts of specialisation, political economy, commodity flows The paper is available for download at: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/proceedings-of-the-prehistoric-society/article/bronze-age-textile-wool-economy-the-case-of-the-terramare-site-of-montale-italy/AAA2D75173658BD210AD07F48F140EBC
Textile Production in Proto-Historic Italy: From Specialists to Workshops
Textile production is often overlooked in the studies of ancient Italian economy since few actual textiles have survived in the Italian archaeological context. In this situation, implements associated with textile manufacture and the representational material provide additional evidence for the reconstruction of the economic and social role that the textile craft played in ancient Italian society. This paper examines how textile technology relates to such important concepts as urbanization, craft specialization, gender, trade, and agricultural and cultural development in Italy during the proto-historic period.
TEXTILES IN PRE-ROMAN ITALY: FROM A QUALITATIVE TO A QUANTITATIVE APPROACH
Origini, 2017
Iconographic sources indicate that textiles were used for a variety of purposes by the Etruscans, Paleovenetians, Faliscans and other inhabitants of ancient Italy but until recently little was known about what these textiles actually were like. The latest and ongoing studies of the surviving fabric remains found primarily in burial contexts are for the first time permitting not only qualitative but also quantitative assessment of the data. The paper focuses on the recently analysed textile remains from across Italy, and places them in the wider context of Italian and European pre-Roman textile production.
Purpureae Vestes VI, 2018
This paper summarises the results of the TRAMA (Textiles in Roman Archaeology: Methods and Analysis) project, which aims to analyse Roman textiles from Venetia. As elsewhere in Italy, because of the unfavourable climatic conditions and geological features, fibres, yarns and textiles are rarely preserved in this area, with only one Roman fabric known until recently. This project focuses on a systematic census of organic and mineralised fabrics, in order to better understand textile production and consumption patterns in the region, which was praised for the high quality of its textile products by contemporary writers. To date, 29 artefacts found in the Veneto Region with preserved, mineralised textile traces have been recorded and analysed. These are predominantly bronze or iron objects that were excavated from funerary contexts in urban (including Padua, Verona, Altino, Este) and rural cemeteries. The textile traces include linen and wool fabrics of various qualities. This study provides new data regarding textile production and the funerary rituals, offering for the first time a picture of textiles produced in the area.