Sicilian textile tools from the Bronze Age – a research project to investigate the prehistoric technology of textile production (Islands in Dialogue [ISLANDIA] International Postgraduate Conference in the Prehistory and Protohistory of Mediterranean Islands, Torino, 14-16.11.2018) (program) (original) (raw)

In the last decades archaeological textile tools have been the subject of numerous studies contributing to our knowledge about the prehistoric technology of textile production. However, from the island archaeology perspective, it is true only for the eastern Mediterranean region. The Sicilian Bronze Age (c. 2200-850 BC) repertoire of textile tools, for instance, has never been put under a thorough examination and remains largely unpublished, while in the case of this island it is the unique source of information about textile manufacture, especially important since no end product, i.e. fragments of cloth, was preserved from this area and epoch, and comparative material (iconographic and written documents) is lacking as well. The ongoing research project “Sicilian Textile Tools from the Bronze Age: Examination of Finds and Comparative Studies on Their Functionality” was designed to fulfil this informational gap and deliver new data about the technological advancement of the craft and textile production possibilities through the examination of finds, analysis of their functional parameters, and creation of a framework typology of tools. The project also tackles the issues of tools specialization and/or standardization, potential external influence on textile tools and craft, the organization of production, also in relation to space, labour division, and craft specialization. The aim of this paper is thus to present the preliminary results of almost two years of research conducted on archaeological textile tools, mainly clay spindle whorls, but also spools and loom weights, unearthed on a number of Bronze Age sites across the island, as well as in the neighbouring Aeolian Archipelago.