Ancient Textile Technology

On book: "Minoan ladies, Scythian warriors, Roman and Sarmatian merchants, prehistoric weavers, gold sheet figures, Vikings, Medieval saints and sinners, Renaissance noblemen, Danish peasants, dressmakers and Hollywood stars appear in the pages of this anthology. This is not necessarily how they dressed in the past, but how the authors of this book think they dressed in the past, and why they think so. No reader of this book will ever look at a reconstructed costume in a museum or at a historical festival, or watch a film with a historic theme again without a heightened awareness of how, why, and from what sources, the costumes were reconstructed. The seventeen contributors come from a variety of disciplines: archaeologists, historians, curators with ethnological and anthropological backgrounds, designers, a weaver, a conservator and a scholar of fashion in cinema, are all specialists interested in ancient or historical dress who wish to share their knowledge and expertise with students, hobby enthusiasts and the general reader. The anthology is also recommended for use in teaching students at design schools."

Τον Οκτώβριο του 2010, 65 εγγεγραμμένοι σύνεδροι παρουσίασαν 50 πρωτότυπες εργασίες στη διάρκεια του 2 ου Συμποσίου ARCH_RNT -Αρχαιολογική Έρευνα και Νέες Τεχνολογίες που διοργανώθηκε και φιλοξενήθηκε από το Εργαστήριο Αρχαιομετρίας του Τμήματος Ιστορίας, Αρχαιολογίας και Διαχείρισης Πολιτισμικών Αγαθών του Πανεπιστήμιο Πελοποννήσου, στη Σχολή Ανθρωπιστικών Επιστημών και Πολιτισμικών Σπουδών της Καλαμάτας.. Ο τόμος περιέχει 26 εργασίες οι οποίες υποβλήθηκαν για κρίση και έκδοση στα Πρακτικά του Συμποσίου. Οι εργασίες αναφέρονται στο σύνολο των θεματικών της σύγχρονης αρχαιολογικής έρευνας και συγκεκριμένα στις γεωφυσικές διασκοπήσεις, τις εφαρμογές των ΓΠΣ και υπολογιστικών συστημάτων, τις απόλυτες χρονολογήσεις, τον χαρακτηρισμό και τις αναλύσεις αντικειμένων και υλικών της πολιτιστικής κληρονομιάς, στις σύγχρονες προσεγγίσεις της επιστήμης της συντήρησης, ανάδειξης και προστασίας. Με αυτή την σειρά εμφανίζονται στα περιεχόμενα του τόμου.

Dated back to 8000 years ago, the felting techniques were originated from the fiber processing skills used by nomadic tribes in ancient Central Asia. Xinjiang, located in Northwest China, is one of the earliest regions in China using the felts. Since the Bronze Age, the residents of ancient Xinjiang had mastered the primitive felting techniques, which had been constantly improved during the latter course of history, leading to the felts with era characteristics. This paper puts archaeological evidences and historical documents together as its research materials, reviews the history development of the felting techniques in the ancient Xinjiang, and represents the main features of the felting techniques in different eras.

Excavations conducted by the Society for Libyan Studies since 1999 at the Greek city of Euesperides (Benghazi, Libya), directed by Paul Bennett, Ahmed Buzaian and Andrew Wilson, have been investigating evidence for purple dye production from Murex trunculus shellfish. Numerous spreads of crushed shell waste have been recorded, and one of these has been excavated. Two phases of dye production activity were revealed, both dating to the first half of the third century B.C. Dye preparation had taken place over large mud brick hearth surfaces in the courtyard of a former house. There was little trace of permanent infrastructure apart from the hearth surfaces, and the archaeologically diagnostic features of this production are large deposits of crushed Murex shell and ash. It is likely that the dyestuff was heated in portable vessels (probably metal) mounted on stands or tripods over the hearths; the crushed shell was dumped among the embers of the fires afterwards. No built vats or tanks were found.
Studies on the shell species and breakage patterns by Estíbaliz Tébar Megías provide insights into the methods used for collecting and preparing the Murex shells, and forms the basis for a preliminary quantification of production. It is likely that the manufacture of purple dye at Euesperides was linked also to wool production; and that wool or textiles were among the goods exported in return for the large amount of imported trade goods found at the site.

Textile decorations spread all over Egypt during the New Kingdom not only due to the prosperity of the country's economy but also the expansion of the Egyptian Empire and the influence on textile decorations by foreign weavers. mainly Syrian, on Egyptian clothes is powerful. The present study aims to investigate the fabric's decoration and the Egyptological analysis of three textile pieces preserved in the 'Egyptian Textile Museum' in Cairo that carry religious Neither surveying nor comparing the decoration techniques of the New Kingdom has been done by author. This paper aims to compare the textile decoration techniques occurred in ancient Egyptian New Kingdom depending on the decorated pieces in the newly inaugurated "Azhar Textile Museum Significance. The paper studies the morphological appearance of the pieces through visual examination of fibers by light microscopic to reveal what decoration techniques were used. Then it analyzes the religious significance of the decorations through analyzing scenes and texts they form. Eventually, technical setting about the techniques of the fabric decoration is delivered, bringing into argumentation the religious role of these pieces revealed from their decorations. The paper concluded that three different decoration techniques occurred in New Kingdom clothes encompassing Weft looping, Tapestry Weave, and coloring. It investigated reasons behind the spread of these specific techniques. Coloring techniques of the three studied pieces are also analyzed. Moreover, major similarities and differences among decoration and coloring techniques have been resulted.

SUMMARY: Lecture-3 continues examining the Neolithic period in Anatolia, including trends, with a major focus on Chatal Huyuk, including trade, shrines, burials, clothing, and other aspects of this site (in PART-2), plus a brief summary of the Neolithic in Syria-Palestine, a summary of the parts 1-2 lectures, and selected sources.  This lecture is designed mainly as an educational resource for college students (i.e., normally posted only on my institution's course website), the public (e.g., people auditing my course), and interested colleagues from other disciplines (to whom I provide copies privately).  I am posting it here, both as a broader access, educational tool, and especially to promote the study of this region and its past societies.  For further knowledge about this region and period, I refer interested parties to the textbooks and other sources from which the materials were extracted (see syllabus), and/or the bibliographies in these works and my online resource guides (see other files in my academia folders).  The lecture summarizes the pertinent materials in the course textbook(s), adding in other data, and furnishing numerous images to clarify information encountered within the textbook(s).  Some generic imagery (usually indicated as such) is posted to aid in transmitting various concepts visually, and/or when a specific image remains not located (temporarily).  I update and revise such lectures each time, with such elective courses normally being taught once every two years.  I try to cover the most current, mainstream views, and usually place summary notes at the end of each lecture alongside some of the key sources used for compiling the ppt.  Over time, each lecture is improved, errors rectified, and additional data placed within the lecture.  These ppt. lectures take many hours to compile, but they have proved useful to many of my more serious students and I hope they can be of benefit to others as well.  My apologies for any errors I may have made, and my liberal usage of educational imagery from professional sources and vetted internet sources (new slides, sources, and formatting, Sept., 2020).

This report has been prepared with the help of many people to whom we must express our heartfelt regard. We show our gratitude to Mr. Mohammad Hanif, Proprietor, Hanif Silk Industries for his patronization and cordiality for the study. We would like to thank- Mr. Md Jaidul Haque, Principal, ITECT.  Mr. M. A. Sayeem, Advisor, ITECT.  Mr. Sekander Ali Khandaker, Professor, ITECT.

In the modern world currently, there is an interest in and desire to understand ancient craft technologies, along with learning the practical side of these skills. Nålbinding is a craft which has been taught and demonstrated for the last 50 years, mainly within heritage and re-enactment communities. The cultural and social history of this craft has survived as a narrative better in some countries than others. In some places it has completely disappeared, leaving only fragmented archaeological remains behind. With a limited collection of archaeological examples surviving, each nålbinder or scholar comes up with their own way of assessing, learning and teaching this craft. In many cases it is this practical knowledge that is passed-down from archaeologists or fibre historians to a student; this then starts to create its own social application of the craft. Once that tutor has gone or the student moves on, nålbinding then can either evolve into an artistic craft form for the nålbinder, or frequently it slips back into the mists of time, until someone finds it again. It’s teaching, understanding and research needs to be constantly investigated so that it can be understood for others. Nålbinding is also not just a fixed historical craft, it has the ability to evolve and adapt into the modern world too.

Textile technology is older than any other ancient craft and is an instance of cognitive archaeology that provides vital information about society. In ancient Greece, textiles were considered among the principal and most fundamental cultural expressions. Athena, the goddess of the city, of intelligence and of skill was also the patron goddess of weaving. She taught the craft of textile production to women thus making them conduits of civilisation. During Classical times, textile production was a fundamental part of the economy and was practised also by men in both the domestic and artisanal spheres. The resulting technological sophistication is reflected in depictions of discrete or elaborate patterns, in the rich diversity of textile implements and in the variety in the quality of the extant textiles. In Textile Production in Classical Athens Stella Spantidaki provides the first synthesis of the available evidence from textual, iconographic and archaeological sources on textile production in 5th and 4th century BC Athens, employing an interdisciplinary perspective that sets the frame for future research in the field. As such this study is of special importance for textile specialists, ancient history scholars, historians of technology and students and will lead to a better understanding of ancient Greek textile production and Classical Athenian society.

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Työssä tarkastellaan Ravattulan Ristimäen ruumiskalmistosta vuosien 2010–2016 aikana löydettyjä pronssispiraalilöytöjä osana ristiretkiaikaista vaatetusta. Pronssispiraalit olivat rautakaudella tyypillinen itämerensuomalainen koristetyyppi mm. viitoissa, naisen esiliinassa ja päähineissä. Tavoitteena on rekonstruoida Ristimäen spiraalikoristeita vertaillen haudoista otettuja röntgenkuvia ja Suomen muita spiraalilöytöjä keskenään. Työssä kerrotaan spiraalikoristeiden valmistustavasta ja levinneisyydestä, sekä pohditaan tyylieroja ja käyttötapoja naisten viitoissa ja ohimoriipuksissa Ristimäen spiraalilöytöjen perusteella.

A recurring theme in Greek thought is the reflection on the way the production and consumption of wealth structures the relationship between humanity and nature. There is an ongoing dialogue in the poetry and philosophy of archaic and classical Greece that explores the ethical connotations of agricultural labour, manufacturing, technology, warfare, commerce and other types of economic activity in relation to how they affect the balance between humans and environment. 1 Different forms of human economic activity thus become invested with profound -if constantly re-negotiatedsymbolic values that relate not just to the community, but to the natural environment more widely.

The textiles produced in Viking Age Scandinavia were not only a twofold system of spun fibres. They were a result of complex interactions among resources, technology and society and moreover the Viking societies’ needs, desires and choices. Naturally, the accessibility of resources and the state of technology conditioned the choices of this society (Andersson Strand et al., 2010). In this article, textile production and its
organisation in Birka and Hedeby will be compared and discussed. This will be done via studies of textiles and textile tools, and a model of various organisational modes presented. The results of tool analyses demonstrate that, the majority of the textiles from the two places could also have been produced there. The general assumption that most of the textiles were imported to Birka is questioned.

Bone needles are often recovered from archeological sites dating to Roman times. They are found in both settlements and in burials. Most bone needles have a single eye, but some have been identified with two or three holes. Were bone needles exclusively used for sewing, or does the occurrence of multi-eyed needles indicate their use in other crafts? This paper proposes that the bone needles, especially those with three holes, could have been used to make fabrics using the nålbinding technique. With this technique, many items could have been made without sewing, as it creates a very stretchy fabric, which would have been particularly useful for socks and other garments. To test our hypothesis, we conducted an experiment to create fabric using copies of Roman bone needles. Bone needles were very common, and their occurrence could be explained by use of the nalbinding technique to produce fabrics both in the familia and in textile workshops. The nålbinding technique would make it possible to diversify textile production, with important economic consequences.

Zu den Textiltechniken gehören nicht nur Spinnen und Weben, es zählen alle Arbeitsschritte dazu, von der Aufbereitung des Rohmateriales, der Fadenherstellung, über verschiedene flächenbildende Techniken wie Weben, Flechten, Zwirnbindung, bis hin zum Nähen und Verzieren fertiger Stoffe1. Zu den Endprodukten textilen Handwerks sind neben Kleiderstoffen, Gürteln und Mützen auch Matten, Körbe, Siebe und Taschen etc. zu zählen. Im Artikel werden die einzelnen Textiltechniken nacheinander auf ihre archäologischen Hinterlassenschaften hin untersucht, um eine überblicksmäßige Zusammenschau der neolithischen Textiltechnologie anhand ihres Niederschlages an österreichischen Fundplätzen geben zu können.

Coimbatore is well known for its textile industries, engineering firms, automobile parts manufacturers, health care facilities, educational institutions and pleasant weather. It is the second largest city in Tamil Nadu and one of the fastest growing cities in India situated near foot hills of Nilgiris. Coimbatore is known as Manchester of South India. Now, most of the Indian Software companies have started their development centers in Coimbatore. 76% of India's total textile market is from Erode (Tex-City or Loom-City of India) and 56% of knitwear exports come from Tirupur. Coimbatore has a lot of opportunities in the future with the availability of chief labour, land, water and other raw material facilities etc. Coimbatore industry has become strong and is experiencing strong cyclicality, persistent pressure across the country overall lessening in price due to overcapacity and huge competition. It is getting good reputation in the global markets, rising SME’s, attracting more FDI, exports etc. This research concentrates on the growth and development of Indian Textile Industry particularly in Coimbatore region. Further it discussed about the south Indian textile industry opportunities and challenges.

A World of Looms: Weaving Technology and Textile Arts

Edited by Zhao Feng, Sandra Sardjono and Christopher Buckley
Published by Zhejiang University Press, 2019.

English language, large format, illustrated in color throughout, includes glossary. 300 pages.

In 2018 a ground-breaking exhibition and conference took place at the National Silk Museum in Hangzhou, China. This event brought together scholars, looms and weavers from all over the world. More than a conference proceedings and more than just an exhibition catalog, the book includes 24 original essays by international scholars, as well as the perspectives of practising weavers, and images and diagrams of looms and their products. The material includes important new archaeological material and reconstructions from China, which reveal an early stage in patterned loom technology.

The chemical and physical properties of the Shroud of Turin, both of the non-image background, the image areas, the pinkish red bloodstains and the separate serum, especially their absorbance, fluorescence and FTIR spectra, are described and shown to be evidence for the presence of a pinkish red heme-madder complex, formed by the chemical interaction of authentic acid postmortem blood with yellow madder dye on the cloth before image formation. Besides the many normal blood characteristics, the lack of potassium of the red bloodstains indicates that the blood was hyperkalemic: that potassium had moved out of the red blood cells into the plasma, which inevitably occurs in acidemic blood. The absorbance spectra of the bloodstains

The salt mine at Hallstatt in Austria is known for its rich organic finds from the middle Bronze (1600-1200 BC) and early Iron Age (Hallstatt Period, c. 800-400 BC), including wood, fur, leather, tree bast and textiles.  Hallstatt presents a unique situation, and the textiles found there allow us to study in detail the development of textile technology in the period from 1500 to 400 BC.
Among the narrow fabrics there are two fragments which were made using braiding techniques. In the present article, we will discuss different braiding techniques and explore the possibility of tracing the fragments back to an early version of loop braiding.

The Linear B records at Pylos point to large, multifaceted industries in both textile and perfumed oil production, with a large degree of specialization and a complex administrative system. It seems as though both value-added goods - textiles and perfumed oils - would be traded by the Mycenaean palace centers within the Greek mainland and abroad to consumers in the Aegean, Italy, Cyprus, Egypt, Syria and Levant. Perfumed oils and textiles were likely traded for foreign goods such as metal ores and luxury goods such as ostrich eggs and faience materials preferred for conspicuous consumption by the elite at the palace centers. This paper explores the processes, industries, distribution and possible trade of Mycenaean textiles and perfumed oils at the palatial center at Pylos.

Relatively little attention has been paid to the archaeology of textile productionin North Africa. The purpose of this paper is to review the evidence for the production and dyeing of textiles, to assess how we may distinguish between the remains of fulling establishments and dyeworks, and between different kinds of dyeing; and to see what can be deduced about the scale and organisation of production. It must be stressed that such a picture will necessarily remain very sketchy until more sites have been excavated with a view to answering these sorts of questions. Because minor finds such as spindlewhorls, loomweights and needles from North African sites are rarely and poorly published, I shall focus on the evidence for physical plant and infrastructure, which is necessarily related primarily to the stages of fulling and dyeing. This is essentially an archaeology of soaking and trampling; both fulling and dyeing require vats and tubs. Fulling involves trampling cloth in tubs in a detergent solution to remove the lanolin from the fibres, followed by rinsing in vats, and then drying, carding, bleaching and pressing. The vats and tubs have no need to be heated. Dyeing, however, may well involve heating the solution, and may not have involved treading or trampling. Sites discussed in this paper include Timgad, Thuburbo Maius, Tiddis, Cuicul (Djemila) Hippo Regius, Meninx, and Berenice (Benghazi).

The Natural History Museum Vienna undertakes extensive research at the site Hallstatt, comprising not only interdisciplinary analysis of the finds and the contexts but also Experimental Archaeology.
Here we focus on a tablet woven band (HallTex 152), which seems to be a very simple design at the first glimpse. The pattern of the band – lozenges with cross-filling -  is also present at other Hallstatt period artefacts such as pottery or bronze sheet objects. We present seven different ways to recreate the pattern. Detailed experiments were carried out with different threading concepts for the weaving tablets and different weaving mechanisms and turning sequences. The different solutions to create that design were discussed in comparison with the the original textile.

VI PURPUREAE VESTES. INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM TEXTILES AND DYES IN THE MEDITERRANEAN ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
Padova - Este - Altino, Italy. 17 – 20 October 2016
The high quality of Etruscan textiles is well known and attested by the Tarquinian paintings and sculptures as well as the decorative pottery created throughout Etruria (in modern Central Italy). They show the wide variety of fabrics and occasionally the richness and attention to detail that went into creating the clothes that were once worn. Less well known are the spinning and weaving tools that were necessary to create these fabrics. This is the starting point and background of the European project called TexSEt (Textiles in Southern Etruria) 2014-2016. The TexSEt project has had the main aim to study the spinning and weaving tools of the Etruscan-Italic world, connecting to the analyses of preserved archaeological textiles. The research further has integrated use wear analyses, experimental archaeology combined with an ethnographic approach to explore what constituted pre-Etruscan and Etruscan textile tool kits and the range of qualities that could be produced by these tools, as well as looking for changes in the chronological and/or geographical record. In this paper I present the results obtained in the project. Observations on the Etruscan spinning and weaving tools and activities will be shown. I will start from an
analysis based on CTR (Centre for Textile Research, University of Copenhagen) principles: the morphological-technological study combined with recent advances in textile experimental archaeology
now make it possible to ascertain the function of textile tools, and the types of textiles that could have been produced at specific sites with specific tools. This provides valuable information on the nature of
cloth manufacture, even in areas where the textiles themselves have rarely survived. This paper will consider the insights that can be gained by applying this approach.

Archaeological  textile  research  is  a  constantly  evolving  field  of  research,  and  in  this  book  and  present  article  we  honour  Lise  Bender  Jørgensen,  one  of  the  key  researchers  in  North  European  textile  research.  Th  e  impact  of  her  impressive  scholarly  contributions  during  a  lifetime  spent  in  Danish,  Swedish  and  Norwegian  universities  cannot  be  underestimated.  Lise  Bender  Jørgensen  is  a  true  pioneer.  She  has  introduced  new  standards  and  parameters  for  textile  research,  and  in  both  her  academic  research  and  career  has  crossed  the  modern  geographical  borders  that  too  often  restrict  true  interdisciplinary  and  cross-cultural  studies.  Th  rough  the  numerous  excellent  examples  of  textile  analyses  and  methodologies  published  by  Lise  Bender  Jørgensen  an  entire  generation  has  been  taught  how  to  conduct  archaeological  textile  research.  The  present  authors  have  collaborated  with  Lise  Bender Jørgensen  in  a  variety  of  ways,  most  importantly  in  2006  when  Lise  Bender Jørgensen  was  guest  professor  at  the  Danish  National  Research  Foundation’s  Centre  for  Textile  Research  (CTR)  in  its  first  year.One  of  the  highly  crucial  results  that  has  emerged  from  the  research  conducted  at  CTR  since  2005  is  the  increased  focus  on  how  scientific  analysis  can  widen  our  perspectives  of  past  technologies.  Textile  research  is  not  merely  the  study  of  actual  textile  remains  but  covers  all  aspects  of  manufacture  from  producing  the  raw  material  of  both  skin  and  fibres  to  the  final  products,  as  well  as  examining  iconography  and  literary  sources  with  the  help  of  theoretical  and  methodological  perspectives.  In  this  article  we  explore  textiles  from  Viking  Age  Birka,  an  important  trading  and  craft  production  centre  that  is  considered  to  be  one  of  Scandinavia’s  earliest  towns,  in  order  to  demonstrate  the  potential  of  textile  research  when  applied  to  a  material  utilizing  different  approaches.

Purple textiles were highly valued in the ancient Mediterranean as a symbol of prestige, social status and power. Despite the numerous publications focused on the production and spread of purple dye technologies, the discussion regarding this particular dye has often been compartmentalised regionally (eastern or western Mediterranean) and chronologically (second or first millennium bc). The aim of this paper is threefold: (1) to propose a full chaîne opératoire for the production of shellfish-purple-dyed textiles; (2) to synthesise the archaeological evidence on production and consumption of such textiles in the entire Mediterranean before the Romans; and (3) to discuss the social implications of the production and consumption of these textiles, to gain a better understanding of their economic and social significance.

EL libro que presentamos forma parte de las publicaciones Purpureae Vestes, de las que es el quinto volumen. Tanto este como los anteriores volúmenes recogen, con una frecuencia bianual, los Simposia Inter- nacionales sobre Textiles y Tintes del Mediterráneo antiguo y su entorno cultural. Se trata, como probable- mente conoce el lector, de una serie de publicaciones que nacieron a partir de los primeros trabajos de inves- tigación sobre la producción de púrpura en la Isla de Ibiza,

My examination of the textual evidence for purple dyeing in late Bronze Age Syria and Mesopotamia highlights a disconnect between the written sources and the physical remains of colored textiles recently unearthed at Qaṭna. By charting the relationship between developments in the dyeing industry against wider economic forces in this period, this paper addresses the impact of Bronze Age technologies on the evolution of Akkadian color language.

In this introduction the main research
approaches applied to textile tools will be
outlined. The ways in which the different
groups of artefacts have been studied in the
past will be investigated, as well as how more
innovative approaches came into being in
recent decades and, finally, which research
potentials have not yet been fully explored.
This chapter aims to present the research
produced by scholars of textile tools and why
and how, if at all, this pool of knowledge
has influenced Aegean and Near Eastern
archaeological research in general.
First, the chapter will provide an overview of
the research approaches and key issues related
to textile tools in the Bronze Age Eastern
Mediterranean, also in comparison to central
and northern Europe. Second, it will discuss
the research on various textile tools. Finally,
the chapter will conclude by proposing a shared
framework to ameliorate the scholarly work on
textile tools in the future. Published in in E. Andersson Strand and M.-L.  Nosch (eds.), Tools, Textiles and Contexts. Investigating textile production in the Aegean and  Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age. Ancient Textiles Ser. Vol. 21. Oxford: Oxbow, 1–23.

The  most  common  archaeological  evidence  for  textile  production  in  the  Aegean  and  Eastern  Mediterranean  is  the  presence  of  spindle  whorls  and  loom  weights.  The  spindle  whorls  demonstrate  a  production  of  spun  thread  while  the  loom  weights  indicate  the  use  of  the  warp-weighted  loom.  A  wide  variety  of  both  spindle  whorl  and  loom  weight  shapes  have  been  recorded.  In  the  past,  this  diversity  has  generally  been  explained  in  terms  of  cultural,  geographical  and  chronological  factors.  In  contrast,  recent  research  has  considered  some  aspects  of  shape  as  an  expression  of  textile  tool  function.  This  approach,  which  draws  on  experimental  archaeology,  has  made  it  possible  to  render  textile  craft  visible,  even  if  the  textiles  themselves  are  not  preserved.

Knowledge of textile history including fibre, technology, tools etc, is essential and absolutely necessary for our understanding of the past. Textile research has become an important field of archaeology and has an enormous potential, being able to tell us about economic, social, chronological, and cultural aspects of past societies. Due to poor preservation conditions, few textiles have survived in the Near East. However, the few existing fragments, in combination with other sources, provide evidence of a well-developed knowledge of how to use fibres for producing textiles. Furthermore, the analyses demonstrate that several types of plant and animal fibres were used in textile production. Flax fibres and sheep wool are considered to be the two most important textile fibres from Neolithic to modern times. Information gathered from the analysis of textiles suggests that it is highly plausible that the different stages of processing fibres were similar across ancient Eurasia even if it is, of course, important to consider that different climate zones will affect both the need for and access to fibres. Archaeobotanical and zoo ostelogical material also provide information on the use of textile fibres. Additionally, different types of installations (e.g. retting pits, workshops) and textile tools (e.g. mallets, spindles, looms) would have been used and even if many tools were made of perishable materials textile tools such as spindle whorls and loom weights are well known from archaeological contexts. Therefore, this paper will give a basic framework for textile production that will provide important insights into the procurement and processing of plant and animal fibres and briefly on spinning and weaving. This will be accomplished with information from archaeological and written sources used in combination with ethnography and experimental archaeology.

Profound cultural changes occurred in the later 3rd millennium BC in many parts of the Aegean during the transition from the Early Bronze Age II to III (EBA II to III). These are for example observable in the drastic changes in architectural and pottery styles. This contribution deals with some examples of archaeological indicators for long-distance contacts between the Aegean and the east (Asia Minor and even beyond) during the Early Bronze Age. Relevant archaeological material for textile manufacture, adornment, seal and weight use, and silver production will be discussed. It is argued that trade and the potential physical presence of foreign merchants had a decisive impact on the “emergence of civilisation” during the EBA II. The long distance exchange was most likely driven by the eastern demand for silver and an Aegean desire for rare commodities, like specific “semi-precious“ beads and woolen textiles. A considerable disruption of this exchange pattern is witnessed by the beginning of the EBA III in the Aegean. It brought the development towards a more complex socio-economic organisation in many parts of the Aegean to a temporary end, with the notable exception of Crete. In the light of the recent suggestions of an earlier beginning of the EBA III in the Aegean, it seems difficult to reconcile this disruption with a potential climatic change around 2200 BC

Dans cette étude, les auteurs présentent treize quenouilles de verre de la collection du Musée d’histoire nationale et d’archéologie de Constanta, découvertes dans des sépultures romaines du Ier et du IIe siècle ap. J.-C. Conventionnellement appelées « baguettes de verre », elles ont été interprétées au fil du temps comme des instruments utilisés à des fins médicales, dans l’utilisation des produits cosmétiques, pour mélanger des liquides ou même comme des épingles à cheveux. Selon les dernières études, les quenouilles de verre ont été associées au monde féminin funéraire, symbolisant le travail de la laine. Dans le monde romain, le filage, notamment celui de la laine, était une vertu, qui a pris au fil du temps une dimension symbolique positive. Dans la vie d’une femme, le filage était considéré comme un signe de l’activité domestique et aussi un gage moral de celle-ci. Il a donc acquis un caractère idéologique fort dans les cérémonies nuptiales et funéraires. Les quenouilles en verre sont répertoriées dans toutes les provinces de l’Empire Romain à partir du Ier siècle ap. J.-C. Elles sont datées par l’association directe avec les monnaies du Ier et du IIe siècle ap. J.-C. trouvées dans les tombes. Une caractéristique particulière est leur fréquence élevée dans les sépultures féminines, faisant dûment partie de l’inventaire funéraire tout au long du IIe siècle ap. J.-C., comme on peut le voir dans les nécropoles du nord de la péninsule italienne, de la Pannonie et de la Moésie Supérieure, etc.

The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (NCG) possesses a small collection consisting of 13 fragments of Late Antique textiles from Egypt, possibly from the site of Akhmim. The collection primarily consists of cut-outs of decorative elements. The collection has until now not received much attention nor been thoroughly analysed. The present study seeks to remedy this neglect by performing fibre and dye analyses as well as including archival material from the museum collections.

There is evidence that ever since early prehistory, textiles have always had more than simply a utilitarian function. Textiles express who we are - our gender, age, family affiliation, occupation, religion, ethnicity and social, political, economic and legal status. Besides expressing our identity, textiles protect us from the harsh conditions of the environment, whether as clothes or shelter. We use them at birth for swaddling, in illness as bandages and at death as shrouds. We use them to carry and contain people and things. We use them for subsistence to catch fish and animals and for transport as sails. In fact, textiles represent one of the earliest human craft technologies and they have always been a fundamental part of subsistence, economy and exchange. Textiles have an enormous potential in archaeological research to inform us of social, chronological and cultural aspects of ancient societies.
In archaeology, the study of textiles is often relegated to the marginalised zone of specialist and specialised subject and lack of dialogue between textile researchers and scholars in other fields means that as a resource, textiles are not used to their full potential or integrated into the overall interpretation of a particular site or broader aspects of human activity.

Textiles and Textile Production in Europe is a major new survey that aims to redress this. Twenty-three chapters collect and systematise essential information on textiles and textile production from sixteen European countries, resulting in an up-to-date and detailed sourcebook and an easily accessible overview of the development of European textile technology and economy from prehistory to AD 400.
All chapters have an introduction, give the chronological and cultural background and an overview of the material in question organised chronologically and thematically. The sources of information used by the authors are primarily textiles and textile tools recovered from archaeological contexts. In addition, other evidence for the study of ancient textile production, ranging from iconography to written sources to palaeobotanical and archaeozoological remains are included. The introduction gives a summary on textile preservation, analytical techniques and production sequence that provides a background for the terminology and issues discussed in the various chapters. Extensively illustrated, with over 200 colour illustrations, maps, chronologies and index, this will be an essential sourcebook not just for textile researchers but also the wider archaeological community.

This study investigates the similarities between ancient polychrome painting and textile dyes with regard to the organic colourants used for the depiction of garments on Egyptian mummy portraits from the collections of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen. The mummy portraits were analysed with two non-invasive photographic methods: UV-induced fluorescence photography (UVF) and visible-induced luminescence (VIL). The analysis demonstrates that shellfish purple was often imitated in textile dying as well as in painting by using madder and madder lake respectively. In textile dying, madder red was tinted bluish using indigo or woad. Madder lake is sometimes mixed with Egyptian blue in order to obtain the purple hue on the mummy portraits. However, in some cases it is unknown which blue pigment was used to create the purple colour. Yet, other studies have confirmed that indigo, derived from the indigo plant (Indigofera tinctoria), was often employed in such portraits. Therefore, in instances where there is no or only little evidence of Egyptian blue in the purple colour, indigo may have been used instead in the mixtures of textile dyes. The present examination has identified an overlap in the raw materials used for colouring textiles and for paint in antiquity. In some instances, the corresponding pigment was used for depicting garments, in this case madder lake for rendering madder-dyed textiles. These results contribute important knowledge concerning how colours were depicted and the significance of whether pigments derived from the same source as dyes, and towards a deeper understanding of the craftsmen’s traditions.

The Turin Shroud was extensively scientifically investigated in 1978. In its pinkish red bloodstains, normal features of human blood were found, but also seemingly anomalous ones. In the present study, hitherto unnoticed details of the data are presented, Shroud data and more modern reference data are compared, and the results of a few experiments with linen, madder dye and blood are shown. It turns out that the Shroud’s ‘anomalous’ data are strong consistent evidence that its bloodstains contain acid heme-madder lake, of which the heme derived from cold acid postmortem blood and the madder had been applied to the Shroud at manufacture. It implies that the bloodstains were formed on the Shroud before the still not reproduced body-image was. Several other ‘red-color’ hypotheses for the Shroud’s bloodstains are discussed and dismissed.

RIASSUNTO – Lo scavo della capanna 16 nel villaggio del Bronzo Finale di Brunku ’e s’Omu -Villa Verde (Sardegna centro occidentale) – Nel territorio di Villa Verde (Sardegna centro-occidentale– Italia), sono ubicati numerosi siti di età preistorica e protostorica. Tra questi, si distingue l’insediamentonuragico di Brunku ’e S’Omu. Il sito, che comprende un nuraghe ed un vasto villaggio di capanne costruite con murature a secco, è stato indagato per la prima volta durante il periodo 1982-2004. Nel 2013 e 2014 sono stati effettuati nuovi scavi nella capanna di pianta circolare n° 16. Le datazioni radiocarboniche e l’analisi dei reperti, riferibili alla civiltà nuragica, permettono di datare l’uso della struttura al periodo del Bronzo Finale, in accordo con la datazione dell’intero villaggio. I risultati dell’indagine mostrano che la capanna n. 16 era una struttura di particolare importanza, con una pavimentazione ben rifinita ed una copertura probabilmente costruita “a falsa volta”. La capanna era utilizzata sia per la preparazione di cibi sia per attività di tessitura.

SUMMARY – The excavation of hut n. 16 in the Final Bronze Age village of Brunku ’e s’Omu –Villa Verde (central-western Sardinia) – In the territory of Villa Verde (central western Sardinia - Italy), there are numerous prehistoric and proto-historic sites. Among these, the nuragic settlement of Brunku ’e
S’Omu is particularly noteworthy. The site, which includes a nuraghe and a large village of dry-stone huts, was
investigated for the first time during the period 1982 – 2004. In 2013 and 2014, new excavations were carried out on structure n. 16, a circular hut. The radiocarbon dating and analysis of the finds, pertaining to the nuragic civilization, date the use of this structure to the Final Bronze Age, in accordance with the general dating of the settlement. The results of the investigation show that hut n. 16 was a structure of particular importance, with a well-made floor and a covering probably built as a false vault. The hut was used for both food preparation and weaving activities.
Parole chiave: Sardegna, Bronzo Finale, civiltà nuragica, insediamento, capanne.
Key words: Sardinia, Final Bronze Age, nuragic civilization, settlement, huts.