Since early prehistoric times textiles have been a necessity for daily protection, social display, home furnishing, transportation, war logistics and various other purposes. Even though textiles only survive under extreme environmental conditions, many archaeological finds bear witness to these indispensable goods as well as to the craft itself. Finds such as fragmentary preserved fabrics, textiles mineralised on metal objects, carbonised fibres and textile imprints provide data on the quality and type of materials and techniques used to produce textiles in the past. In addition, a wealth of tools offer insights into the technologies used by prehistoric and ancient craftspeople to process the raw fibres into finished textile products. Even though textiles were crucial to past societies, they are less represented in archaeological publications than other finds. One of the reasons for this could be their gender-specific character. For decades, they were thought to be the result of a modest domestic craft, mainly practised by women. Other reasons are the general lack of interest in the subject and the lack of knowledge about such objects. As a result, the publication of textiles and textile-related tools is still prone to confusion and misinterpretation. Recent advances in the field of archaeological textiles provide good reasons for a reassessment of the old literature and for an in-depth analysis of how professionals in archaeology might approach and better publish textile-related artefacts in the future. This volume brings together archaeologists and other textile experts to share their insights into the history of recording textile artefacts, and to suggest new methodologies to integrate these finds into general archaeological publications and disseminate them to the broad public with the same consistency as other finds.
Part 1: Textiles in context
Introduction. Is there still need for new methodologies for textiles and textile tools research?
Alina Iancu and Kalliope Sarri
1. Recording textile toolsʾ contexts? Cases from the Aegean prehistory
Sophia Vakirtzi
2. The Necropolis of the Wielbark culture in Wilkowo as an example of successful co-operation between field archaeologists, conservators and textile archaeologists
Magdalena Przymorska-Sztuczka
3. Recording shells in archaeology and identifying purple dye manufacture on a site: an updated methodology
Rena Veropolidou
4. A few textile terms explained: spool versus bobbin; form versus shape; thread versus yarn
Alina Iancu, Agata Ulanowska and Hana Lukesova
Part 2: Spinning and weaving
5. Roman spinning tools. A history of misunderstanding
Ilija Dankovic
6. Anything but a distaff: The misidentification of textile tools in the north-west provinces of the Roman empire
Anique Hamelink
7. Import of textile tools to Roman Hispania: Some case studies
Macarena Bustamante-Alvarez
8. From text to loom: Written and archaeological sources on looms and their tools from the 1st–5th centuries AD
Claudia Vega Medeiros and Leyre Morgado-Roncal
9. Loomweights through the ages: What can they look like – how heavy should they be?
Elisabeth Trinkl
10. Lead spindle whorls and loom weights in the Aegean and in Pontus in the first millennium BC
Liviu Iancu
11. Tablets for weaving and related equipment and tools
Lise Raeder Knudsen
12. Making textile tools from scratch: pot sherds and fragments of bricks recycled for spinning and weaving
Alina Iancu and Kalliope Sarri
13. Net sinkers or loom weights? Perforated sherds from the prehistoric settlement on Koukonisi, Lemnos as a study case
Tina Boloti
14. How were perforated clay loom weights made, and why is their shape so different?
Jannette Boertien
15. A less known yet essential class of textile tools: Clay spools in archaeology
Alina Iancu
Part 3: Other tools and tool containers
16. Grey areas in the identification and recording of textile tools: Some enigmatic cases from Aegean prehistory
Kalliope Sarri
17. Tool boxes for textile work? Funerary model chests from Iron Age Athens in the light of recent textile research
Saane Houby-Nielsen
Part 4: Interdisciplinary methods of tools research and ways of exhibiting and communicating textiles
18. Recording use-wear traces on textile tools with Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI): a case study from Archaic Messapia
Gaia Sabetta
19. Communicating textile artefacts: Teaching and exhibiting through scientific and digital storytelling
Gerasimoula Ioanna Nicolovieni
20. The Digital Atlas of European Textile Archaeology: Disseminating textiles from 10,000 BC to AD 2000
Alina Iancu, Catarina Costeira and Francisco B. Gomes
Height:
Width:
Spine:
Weight:0.00