Overview

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. AUTHORS: Malgorzata Siennicka is an Associate Professor at the Saxo Institute, University Copenhagen and holds a PhD in Aegean archaeology from Warsaw University. Lorenz Rahmstorf is a Professor in the Department of Prehistory and Early History at the University of Göttingen. Agata Ulanowska is an Assistant Professor in the Centre for Research on Ancient Technologies of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology Polish Academy of Sciences in Lódz and Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw (sabbatical).

Full Product Details

Author:   Małgorzata Siennicka ,  Lorenz Rahmstorf ,  Agata Ulanowska
Publisher:   Oxbow Books
Imprint:   Oxbow Books
Volume:   32
ISBN:  

9781789256871

ISBN 10:   1789256879
Pages:   240
Publication Date:   01 September 2021
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

List of contributors Preface 1. Introduction Małgorzata Siennicka, Lorenz Rahmstorf and Agata Ulanowska 2. Early loom types in ancient societies Eva Andersson Strand 3. Discussing flax domestication in Europe using biometric measurements on recent and archaeological flax seeds – a pilot study Sabine Karg, Axel Diederichsen and Simon Jeppson 4. From adorned nudity to a dignitary’s wardrobe: symbolic raiment in the southern Levant 13 500 BC–3900 BC Janet Levy 5. The earliest cloth culture in Denmark Ulla Mannering 6. Loom weights and weaving at the archaeological site of São Pedro (Redondo, Portugal) Catarina Costeira and Rui Mataloto 7. Evidence of textile technology in the Early Neolithic site of La Draga (Banyoles, Spain). Some hypotheses Miriam de Diego, Raquel Piqué, Antoni Palomo, Xavier Terradas, Maria Saña, Ignacio Clemente and Millán Mozota 8. From east to west: the use of spinning bowls from the Chalcolithic period to the Iron Age María Irene Ruiz de Haro 9. From the loom to the forge. Elements of power at the end of Neolithic in western Europe: a focus on textile activities Fabienne Médard 10. Textile manufacture in the prehistoric pile dwellings of south-west Germany: planned investigation Johanna Banck-Burgess 11. Late Neolithic weaving tools from Melk-Spielberg in Austria: experiments with crescent-shaped weights Karina Grömer 12. Two sides of a whorl. Unspinning the meanings and functionality of Eneolithic textile tools Ana Grabundžija 13. Plant textiles in a grave mound of the Early Bronze Age in eastern Romania Neculai Bolohan and Ciprian-Cătălin Lazanu 14. Social contexts of textile production in Bulgaria during the Late Chalcolithic: from multimedia work-areas to material, social and cultural transformations Petya Hristova 15. Experimenting with loom weights. More observations on the functionality of Early Bronze Age textile tools from Greece Agata Ulanowska 16. Textile tools and manufacture in the Early Bronze Age Cyclades: evidence from Amorgos and Keros Giorgos Gavalas 17. Fibre crafts and social complexity: yarn production in the Aegean islands in the Early Bronze Age Sophia Vakirtzi 18. In search of ‘invisible’ textile tools and techniques of band weaving in the Bronze Age Aegean Agata Ulanowska 19. The Early Bronze Age textile implements from the Eskişehir region in inland north-western Anatolia Deniz Sarı 20. Investigating continuity and change in textile making at Arslantepe (Malatya, Turkey) during the 4th and 3rd millennia BC Romina Laurito

Reviews

First Textiles has succeeded in its aim to bring together recent studies in early textiles. In terms of academic level, this volume will suit a specialist audience who are either already versant with archaeological textiles or are potentially seeking to find information or inspiration on the analysis of textile evidence in their study region. -- The Prehistoric Society [ ... ]the publication makes an important corpus of data accessible [ ... a] valuable [read] for any researcher interested in textiles and their potential for archaeological research. -- European Journal of Archaeology First textiles is an attractive book bringing together data on early textiles and textile production from all over Europe. Papers on the Iberian Peninsula and the Balkans are particularly welcome, as little from these areas has previously been published in English. -- Antiquity Undoubtedly this is a book that researchers, graduate students and university libraries will want, as well as textile craftspeople and textile scholars. -- Ornament Magazine

Author Information

Małgorzata Siennicka is an Associate Professor at the Saxo Institute, University Copenhagen and holds a PhD in Aegean archaeology from Warsaw University. Her research interests focus on the Neolithic and Bronze Age Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, prehistoric cloth and textile production, craftsmanship, balance weights and metrology, settlements and architecture. She was awarded with a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship at The Centre for Textile Research at the University of Copenhagen (2013-2017). In 2013-2017 Małgorzata Siennicka directed an international research project “First Textiles” at the Centre for Textile Research in Copenhagen. Lorenz Rahmstorf is a Professor in the Department of Prehistory and Early History at the University of Göttingen. His research interests focus on the third and second millennia BC Aegean, Europe and West Asia and more specifically on weight metrology, early trade, textile production, transfer of innovations and urbanisation processes. He has obtained an MA (Bristol), PhD (Heidelberg) and Habilitation (Mainz), and participates in various international research projects. In 2015 he was awarded an European Research Council Consolidator Grant to lead a 5-years project “Weight and value. Weight metrology and its economic and social impact on Bronze Age Europe, West and South Asia”. Agata Ulanowska is an Assistant Professor in the Centre for Research on Ancient Technologies of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology Polish Academy of Sciences in Łódź and Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw (sabbatical). Her research interests focus on the Bronze Age Aegean, textile production and technology, experimental and experience archaeology and Aegean seals and sealing practices. She holds a PhD in Aegean archaeology from the University of Warsaw. In 2015-2017 she was awarded with FUGA post-doctoral grant of the National Science Centre for the project “Textile production in Bronze Age Greece – comparative studies of the Aegean weaving techniques”.

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