FASCICULI ARCHAEOLOGIAE HISTORICAE journal, volume XXXI: 'DYNAMICS AND ORGANISATION OF TEXTILE PRODUCTION IN PAST SOCIETIES IN EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN' , edited by A. Ulanowska, M. Siennicka and M. Grupa (original) (raw)
Related papers
Siennicka M., Rahmstorf L., Ulanowska A. First Textiles. The Beginnings of Textile Manufacture in Europe and the Mediterranean. Proceedings of the EAA Session Held in Istanbul (2014) and the ‘First Textiles’ Conference in Copenhagen (2015). Ancient Textiles Series 32. Oxford, Philadelphia 2018, 2018
Textile production and the manufacture of clothing was one of the most essential daily activities in prehistory. Textiles were significant objects of practical use, and at the same time had cultural, social and symbolic meaning, crucial for displaying the identity, gender, social rank and status, or wealth of their users. However, evidence of ancient clothing is scarce due to unfavourable preservation of organic materials. Only occasionally are prehistoric textiles and associated implements preserved, mainly as a result of exceptional environmental conditions, such as waterlogged contexts like bogs, or in very dry or cold climates. In other cases textiles are sporadically mineralised, carbonised or preserved by metal corrosion. Textiles and leather can also be visible as imprints on clay. The beginning of textile manufacture is still vague, but can be traced back to the upper Palaeolithic. Important developments in textile technology, e.g. weaving, spinning with a spindle, introduction of wool, appeared in Europe and the Mediterranean throughout the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age. This book is devoted to the early textile production in Europe and the Mediterranean and aims to collect and investigate the combined evidence of textile and leather remains, tools, workplaces and textile iconography. The chapters discuss the recent achievements in the research of ancient textiles and textile production, textile techniques such as spinning, fabric and skin manufacture, use of textile tools and experimental textile archaeology. The volume explores important cultural and social aspects of textile production, and its development.
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.
First Textiles. The Beginnings of Textile Manufacture in Europe and the Mediterranean
2016
The aim of the conference (7th-8th May 2015) is to present and discuss recent achievements in the research field of the most ancient textiles and textile techniques in primarily Europe and Asia in the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age (ca. 8th-3rd millennia BC); the application of varied interdisciplinary methods of systematic analysis of textiles, such as studies on the most ancient textile remains, basketry, mat and textile imprints in clay; textile tools (e.g. spindle whorls, loom weights, spinning bowls); experiments with copies of ancient textile implements; and recently developed scientific methods of analysing textiles and recognising the provenience of fibres. These all offer important insights into the oldest textile techniques, their beginnings and development throughout prehistory.
Siennicka M., Rahmstorf L., Ulanowska A. 2018. First Textiles. The Beginnings of Textile Manufacture in Europe and the Mediterranean. Proceedings of the EAA Session Held in Istanbul (2014) and the ‘First Textiles’ Conference in Copenhagen (2015). Ancient Textiles Series 32. Oxford, Philadelphia, 2018
From Introduction: <<This book is one of the results of the collaborative research project ‘First Textiles. The Beginnings of Textile Manufacture in Europe and the Mediterranean’, implemented in 2013– 2017 at the University of Copenhagen. The project was designed to elucidate the beginnings of textile manufacture, tools and techniques in the Epipalaeolithic, Neolithic and Early Bronze Age in Europe and the Mediterranean. Its aim was to bring together scholars who work on actual remains of prehistoric fabrics, undertake scientific analyses, deal with textile technologies and implements, study archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological material, and focus on ethnographic evidence and experimental approach to textile studies. We sought to discuss latest advances in the methodologies, technologies, material and scientific studies, as well as recent archaeological finds associated with the earliest textiles. The main activities of the project consisted of the organisation of two international scientific meetings and the subsequent publication of their proceedings, incorporated in the present volume.>>
2022
Following the growth in textile studies over the past decade, we aim to present a comprehensive update of the state-of-the-art summarised in the seminal 2010 paper “Old Textiles – New Possibilities” by E. Andersson Strand, K. M. Frei, M. Gleba, U. Mannering, M.-L. Nosch and I. Skals. The diverse developments of the last decade, along with the increased recognition of the importance of textile studies in adjacent fields, now merit a dedicated, full-length publication entitled “Ancient Textile Production from an Interdisciplinary Perspective: Humanities and Natural Sciences Interwoven for our Understanding of Textiles”. With this volume, we also wish to illustrate the current impact of textile archaeology on the scholarly perception of the past (not limited to archaeology alone). The volume presents new insights into the consumption, meaning, use and re-use of textiles and dyes, all of which are topics of growing importance in textile research. As indicated by the title, we demonstrate the continued importance of interdisciplinarity by showcasing several ‘interwoven’ approaches to environmental and archaeological remains, textual and iconographic sources, archaeological experiments and ethnographic data, from a large area covering Europe and the Mediterranean, Near East, Africa and Asia. The chronological span is deliberately wide, including materials dating from c. 6th millennium BCE to c. mid-14th century CE.