Archaeological textiles

The aim of this study is to collect evidence for textile recycling from a prehistoric and historic perspective. The basis are original textile finds and not, as might be expected, written or pictorial sources. The material presented here focuses on archaeological finds, especially on prehistoric to early medieval evidence from Central Europe, also mentioning some interesting examples from medieval and Early Modern times.
This is not a comprehensive study of all possible secondary uses of textiles, but it shall demonstrate different interesting case studies such as re-use and recycling of garments with examples from Bronze Age till early modern period. We also learn from Early Medieval evidence that textile rags have been employed for production processes e.g. of ceramic vessels, clay figurines or for thin bronze objects. In the salt-mines Hallstatt and Dürrnberg in Austria, hundreds of textile scraps have been found, left back in the mines after secondary use as make-shift binding material or sanitary items.
Worn-out textiles were used for caulking wooden ships, as sealing for water-management in prehistoric copper mines and as insulation material for medieval castles. At least, textile scraps also ended in medieval and early modern latrinae – after they have been used as “toilet-paper”. The evidence collected demonstrates a careful resource-management.

Tāmaki Paenga Hira (Auckland War Memorial Museum) holds a number of Māori archaeological textiles from cave and rockshelter sites in Aotearoa New Zealand. The textiles presented here are a cordage collection from Te Wao Nui a Tiriwa (Waitakere Ranges), Auckland. The cord fragments are manufactured with whiri (plaited) and miro (twisted) structures. The diversity of structural attributes reveals the use of a range of materials, strand forms and dimensions to manufacture cords. A range of local resources were used at all sites for plaited cords, however, the twisted cords are all made from the same plant species, harakeke (Phormium tenax, New Zealand Flax). The artefacts appear to be functional items such as lashing, binding and fishing lines. The exception is a plait made with human hair. In the main, the types of whiri and miro cords in the Te Wao Nui a Tiriwa collection are represented in other archaeological cordage assemblages in Aotearoa. This article provides comprehensive technical information which contributes to our understanding of Māori cordage technology and provides data important for future comparative textile studies.

Our knowledge about the age of the prehistoric salt mine in Hallstatt, Austria, is based on a complex system of archaeological findspots, 14C-datings and dendrochronology. In general, the oldest mining started at the so-called “North group” findspots and the Christian-Tusch-Werk, which are dated between 1600-1200 BC. The “East group” sites are contemporary to the Hallstatt cemetery and cover a time-span between 900-300 BC. Textiles from Hallstatt – as other finds from the mine – are usually dated according to their find context. But there are some woven items which - for special reasons - require a radiocarbon date.

We present an analysis of the fibres found inside a Roman clay lamp (Firmalampe) recovered in one of the graves discovered near the Via Claudia Augusta (open from Hostilia in Verona and from there to Tridentum and beyond the Alps) in Gazzo Veronese (Verona) during the excavations conducted in 2015 by the Department of Culture and Civilization, University of Verona. The lamp, which has blackened spout and a Vetilii stamp, is dated to the first half of the 1st century AD. Fibre identification of the wick preserved inside the lamp indicates the use of rush (Juncus sp.), a common plant in the wet environment typical for the Verona plain. This is the first evidence for the use of rush for this purpose in Roman Veneto.

The appearance of textiles, which by common perception is their main attribute, is shaped by many different factors, such as the raw material, ornamentation and structure, both as an external form and a manner of connecting fibers and other elements of textiles. It is not always realised by contemporary artists and designers that the same factors also determine the durability, conservation and storage methods. The paper briefly describes the main factors constituting textiles,  showing how important the awareness of their  role is to all who deal with textiles, from artists and designers, conservators and critics, to visitors to a gallery and museum exhibitions. It also shows that historical textiles, contemporary textile art and industrial textile products only appear to constitute separate independent worlds and in fact influence each other

Roman and Arabic textiles recovered archaeologically from Tell el Amarna and Quseir Al-Qadim in Egypt were examined using standard textile examination methods, optical microscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy and Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy. Some of the textiles were examined both before and after they had been washed using distilled water. Observations were made of the effects upon the textiles of this aqueous treatment. Other textiles were examined only after they had been washed using tap water. However, it was possible to compare these fabrics with unwashed fabrics excavated from the same archaeological site.
The results of this study were compared with previous studies of pre-Roman textiles from Egypt. Tentative conclusions point to a difference in the chemical and physical nature of textiles from pre-Roman and post-Roman Egypt, a difference possibly created through technological differences in ancient methods of manufacture and washing. These observations have implications for archaeological field and laboratory treatments of these textiles.

Fibres used in the manufacture of archaeological textiles are full of information. Unfolded microscopically, analysis of such textiles and furs has become an important fi eld of archaeological study. Fibre type and even fi bre processing may become visible. Scanning electron microscopy has made analysis of metal-replaced and charred fi nds possible, something that was not determinable by light microscopy. Examination under the SEM has enabled a new world to become visible and is so presented in this book. A variety of archaeological examples and their modern day counterparts are assembled as well as a chapter devoted to the historical background of each fi bre and its use in Europe.

Hundreds of years of excavations along the Nile Valley have yielded great amounts of ancient textiles from Egypt and Sudan, well preserved thanks to the arid climate. Settlement sites have shown textile fragments, archaeobotanical remains, fibres, and threads, as well as many implements used for textile manufacturing; but it is from graves that most of the material comes from. The complex funerary rites of ancient Egypt and Sudan made great use of textile material, for wrapping human and animal remains, for offerings and for furnishing the tombs. From settlements to cemeteries, from iconography to textual sources, textiles were everywhere in the economy and society of the ancient Nile Valley.
Their omnipresence and important social role are often implied in scholarly literature, but this formidable textile material is still not studied and published to its full potential. Inspired by the current renewal of textile research in academia, new research projects are now emerging, advocating for a more inclusive and multi-disciplinary approach. This lecture will propose a model to build textile archaeology in the Nile Valley, using material from Meroitic Sudan as a case-study (TexMeroe, Marie Skłodowska-Curie project 743420). It will then present new perspectives currently opening in the domain of Pharaonic textiles.

El presente artículo tiene como propósito rastrear histórica y etnográficamente un gabán de uso exclusivamente masculino, tejido en telar de cintura en varias comunidades zapotecas del sur de Oaxaca, cuyo nombre es una derivación de la palabra nahua quechquémitl, con la forma españolizada " casqueme " y la zapotequización " kaxkem ". En su manufactura se empleaban originalmente fibra de lana y chichicastle, tintes naturales como grana cochinilla y añil, así como los colores naturales de ambas fibras. Además del abordaje histórico y etnográfico, en el artículo se plantea una hipótesis sobre la reutilización del nombre nahua de una prenda femenina usada en el centro y norte del país, como es el quechquémitl, para denominar al gabán masculino en la región zapoteca del sur. palabras clave Gabán, tradición textil, telar de cintura, lana, chichicastle. absTracT This article aims to track the history and ethnography behind an overcoat designed only for men known as " casqueme ". The garment is made with a backstrap loom in different Zapotec 1 El presente trabajo forma parte de una investigación mucho más amplia que versa sobre la tradición textil en la región zapoteca del sur de Oaxaca, en particular en comunidades de los distritos de Miahuatlán, Loxi-cha y Yautepec, la cual se realiza como parte de una estancia posdoctoral en el Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Para la preparación de este texto, agradezco a Alejandro de Ávila por compartir diversas consideraciones respecto a los gabanes producidos en la región zapoteca del sur y de su tradición textil en general, así como la mención de algunas referencias bibliográfi-cas en las que se registra dicha prenda, en particular, mediante el calificativo de casqueme o kaxkem.

In the prehistory of Cyprus, the so-called ‘Philia phase’ (ca. 2500-2200 BC) is a relatively brief, but crucial period which marks the transition between the Chalcolithic and the Bronze Age. Starting from Philia, indeed, a series of innovations in technologies, resource exploitation and material culture, economy, and society previously absent or elusive become evident in the archaeological record. During the Philia period, the first definite textile toolkit makes its appearance in Cyprus.           As most of the Philia materials (e.g. ceramic vessels, metals) and architectural features (e.g. rectilinear building form), spindle whorls and loom weights show marked similarities to Early Bronze Age Anatolian examples, and contribute to support the hypothesis that they were introduced to Cyprus by Anatolian people. However, it is worth noticing that the very first few examples of spindle whorls appeared in Late Chalcolithic contexts at Kissonerga Mosphilia.                                   The aim of this paper is to define the Philia textile technology and products, and to compare the Philia assemblage to that of the Early Bronze Age communities in Anatolia, in order to evaluate whether the new ‘textile habitus’ was introduced to Cyprus or was the result of a series of transformations and adaptations of the ‘original’ technology. To do this, textile tools from selected Anatolian sites will be analysed. Also, the Chalcolithic background will be explored to evaluate what was the extent of the contribution of Chalcolithic people to the adoption of the new tools, technologies, and resources.

The aim of this article, based on several weaving experiments carried out at the Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre for Textile Research (CTR) is to investigate plain gauze – a special weaving technique that was used to create transparent and semi-transparent textiles already in the 4thmillennium BC. The results of the experiments indicate that it is possible to weave fine gauze textiles in both wool and linen on very simple looms.
Keywords: gauze, tabby, wool, linen, transparency, warp twining

The article deals with the experience of scientific-restoration laboratory “Ostrov Krym”
of the conservation and restoration of archaeological textiles from disturbed mounds of the
IV–III centuries BC, located in the Kazakh Altai. The specialists of the laboratory participate in field works, carrying out the extraction of large blocks/monoliths with findings, using methods of forming blocks developed in practice.
Two methods are considered aimed on conservation of textiles recovered from excavation
blocks, depending on their content. The first method is a sequential splitting of the block
into its components with random set of fragments of organic material. The process of
stratification of the conglomerate as well as the stabilization of the separated fragments and
their identification is described. During the reconstruction of the textiles the well-preserved analogs of synchronous Altai burial mounds located on the territory of Russia and Mongolia have been used. Examples of reconstruction the pieces of felt are represented. The second method consists in preservation of the blocks without dissection. It is applied in case of their content has been considered as specific independent complex. The process of conservation is shown by the case-study of the fifth set, extracted from the excavation with the remains of the horse in the wet state. Conservation of dissimilar materials (fabric, felt, vegetable stuffing pillows, a tree with the metallic remains) in the form of conglomerate has been carried out similarly to the conservation of wet archaeological wood. The block stabilization has been made in the wet state with a gradual replacement of the soil solution by consolidator.
В данной статье представлен опыт работы научно-реставрационной лаборатории «Остров Крым» по консервации и реставрации археологического текстиля из потревоженных курганов IV–III вв. до н.э., расположенных в Казахстанском Алтае. Специалисты лаборатории принимают участие в полевых работах, осуществляя извлечение находок крупными блоками/монолитами, с использованием выработанных на практике методов формирования блоков. Рассмотрены два методических приема сохранениятекстиля, извлеченного из раскопа блоками, в зависимости от их содержимого. Первыйметод – последовательное разделение блока на составляющие его компоненты при беспорядочном наборе фрагментов органических материалов. Описан процесс расслоения конгломерата, стабилизации разделенных фрагментов и их идентификации. При реконструкции текстильных изделий используются хорошо сохранившиеся аналоги из синхронных алтайских курганов, находящихся на территории России и Монголии. Приведены примеры реконструкции изделий из войлока. Второй метод – сохранение блоков без их разбора – применяется, если их содержимое является определенным самостоятельным комплексом. Процесс консервации показан на примере седельного набора, извлеченного из раскопа вместе с останками лошади во влажном состоянии. Консервация разнородных материалов (ткань, войлок, растительная набивка подушки, дерево с остатками металла), находящихся в виде конгломерата, проведена аналогично консервации «мокрого» археологического дерева. Выполнена стабилизация блока во влажном состоянии с постепенным замещением почвенного раствора консолидантом.

Scenes of textile production on Athenian vases are often interpreted as confirming the oppression of women, who many argue were confined to "women's quarters" and exploited as free labor. However, reexamination of the iconography--together with a reconsideration of gender roles and the archaeology of Greek houses dating to the 5th and 4th centuries BC--suggests that these images idealize female contributions to the household in a positive way. The scenes utilize the dual metaphor of weaving and marriage to express the harmonia of oikos and polis, a theme particularly significant under the evolving Athenian democracy.

In 1969 a female burial from the Early Roman Iron Age with exceptionally well preserved textiles was excavated in Lønne Hede in Southwest Jutland, Denmark. At the time, the find drew a great deal of attention and since then, the Lønne Hede Maiden and her blue and red dress have been copied and displayed in museums and textbooks as the female costume of the Scandinavian Iron Age. This article shows that the interpretation of both her costume and her hairstyle is debatable. In 1995 further excavations were carried out revealing a cemetery with both cremation graves from the Late Pre-Roman Iron Age and inhumation graves from the Early Iron Age, as well as an older settlement with long houses, a smithy, and votive deposits from the Early Pre-Roman Iron Age. The burials are not rich graves, with the Lønne Hede Maiden with her pieces of silver jewellery as the exception. However, the Lønne Hede site is remarkable due to the well preserved, boldly coloured textiles and the exceptional pres...

An examination of textile finds from Meinarti led to a new identification of pieces of textile, including fragments of furnishing textiles, most likely carpets, previously unnoticed in the assemblage. This new evidence expands the available knowledge about textiles for furniture in medieval Nubia. The article describes the technical features of the fabrics and discusses their potential social and economic value in the archaeological context and during the specific historical period of the site.

Abschlussarbeit zur Erlangung der Magistra Artium im Fachbereich Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaften der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Institut für Archäologische Wissenschaften, Abt. Vor- und Frühgeschichte. Einreichungsdatum: 23.10.2007 (Frankfurt am Main, unpubliziert 2007).
NOTE: The PDF document consists of the written text of the master thesis, the figures just exist as photocopies and are not included.

While few archaeological finds remain concerning dress during the Iron Age of the Celtic Tribes in Europe, if we consider historical commentary, Celtic art, oral traditions and archaeological data together we can amass a generic idea what might have been available and worn by them. This broad approach to dress is not with out bias however and it must be noted that regional differences must have existed. The document tries to amass not just the generic view of dress but also emphasizes the issues of lack of evidence and culture and region differences that impact this information.

“An impressive presentation of Viking Age and medieval textile production in the North Atlantic, especially in Iceland and Greenland. All aspects have been examined: methods of spinning, weaving, dates, yarn, contemporary climate, as well as who did the work and for what purpose.”—Birgitta Linderoth Wallace, author of Westward Vikings: The Saga of L’Anse Aux Meadows 

“Hayeur Smith’s careful research undergirding The Valkyries’ Loom demonstrates how well she knows and understands the cultural and gender significance of textile analysis. Fascinating to read.”—Joanne B. Eicher, editor of Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion 

In The Valkyries’ Loom, Michèle Hayeur Smith examines Viking textiles as evidence of the little-known work of women in the Norse colonies that expanded from Scandinavia across the North Atlantic in the ninth century AD. While previous researchers have overlooked textiles as insignificant artifacts, Hayeur Smith is the first to use them to understand gender and economy in Norse societies of the North Atlantic. 

This groundbreaking study is based on the author’s systematic comparative analysis of the vast textile collections in Iceland, Greenland, Denmark, Scotland, and the Faroe Islands, materials that are largely unknown even to archaeologists and span 1,000 years. Through these garments and fragments, Hayeur Smith provides new insights into how the women of these island nations influenced international trade by producing cloth (vaðmál); how they shaped the development of national identities by creating clothing; and how they helped their communities survive climate change by reengineering clothes during the Little Ice Age. She supplements her analysis by revealing societal attitudes about weaving through the poem “Darraðarljoð” from Njál’s Saga, in which the Valkyries—Óðin’s female warrior spirits—produce the cloth of history and decide the fates of men and nations. 

Bringing Norse women and their labor to the forefront of research, Hayeur Smith establishes the foundation for a gendered archaeology of the North Atlantic that has never been attempted before. This monumental and innovative work contributes to global discussions about the hidden roles of women in past societies in preserving tradition and guiding change.

Explorations in their parental home in Stams, North-Tyrol, led two brothers to numerous finds in vaults beneath floorboards in the attic of the residential house of the farm. The northern half of the house dates to the 16th century. It was once part of the economic area of the Cistercian Stams Abbey, and was situated at a corner of the enclosing wall of the compound. The ground floor housed servants of the abbey in rooms with room numbers, while the farmer and his family occupied the first storey. The abbey probably also ran a workshop in the attic of the residential building. The finds consist of ceramic, metal and wooden objects, glassware, textiles and shoes, and even a mummified cat. The initial assessment showed the finds ranged roughly from the 17th to the early 20th century, with a good proportion of the textiles and shoes dating to the late 18th century. According to the finders, eleven single shoes were found arranged neatly in a row at the bottom of the small vault. Most notable are the fragment of an 18th century stomacher made of linen and silk and two clocked knitted stockings. Buttons, hooks and cufflinks represent all kinds of haberdashery, one cufflink showing the portrait of Louis XVI of France and the year 1790. This paper presents the new archaeological finds, and discusses whether they were merely disposed of as waste, whether the concealment of some of the objects can be tied to folkloric and superstitious traditions relating to the ritual protection of a household and its inhabitants, or if some of the artefacts might have been stored in the vaults for subsequent reuse.

This Habilitationsschrift (University Vienna) “Archaeological Textile Research: Technical, economic and social aspects of textile production and clothing from Neolithic to the Early Modern Era” reflects two decades of applied research on archaeological textiles and related sources. The motivation is to improve understanding of the role of textile production and textile products in the history of humankind. Embedding finds and their context information into socio-economical and cultural discourse contributes to a cultural anthropology of textile use. For pre- and protohistory in the region of Central Europe, it is a challenge that textiles are among those organic materials that are rarely preserved under the prevailing climatic conditions.
Despite the scarcity of organic finds, nevertheless, for the studies of the author the analysis of actual textiles from archaeological contexts serves as main source of knowledge. This are mainly textiles from grave contexts that survived attached to metal artefacts, as well as textiles from saltmines. Minor importance for my research play waterlogged and dry conditions. Textile finds, together with tools, pictorial and written sources, yield information on the chaîne opératoire of textile production. Thus one of the research foci is to help identify different production processes and sequences such as preparing raw materials, making threads, weaving (and other methods of constructing fabrics), patterning and sewing techniques. Textile techniques and their uses in different periods of time are studied to gain information about developments in techniques such as inventions, innovations, traditions, and the various modes of production. This research about the technological aspects of textile craft is also set in context with the social and economic background of innovation in Central European Prehistory. The period from the 3rd to 1st millennium BC is specifically the focus of studies on textile technology.
Besides textile technology, the most important research undertaken by the author are about functions, resource management, dress and identity, as well as creativity and design. The function of textiles in Prehistory and Antiquity is identified from context information and the properties of the textiles. Finds consist of clothing, soft furnishings, textiles used for technical purposes (e.g. linings of scabbards), including grave goods or textiles as tools (e.g. carry sacks in mines). Research about resource management, use, reuse and “recycling” addresses questions which are also important today. The same applies to the field of dress and identity and the social value of clothing and textiles from the Bronze Age to the Medieval era. The material can also be studied in terms of representation and appearance of textile surfaces and patterns, visual codes, creativity and design – such as the relevance for non-verbal communication.

Textiles are rarely found in archaeology because they decay due to climate and soil conditions. Objects that were used to make thread and fabric and that are found in excavations do, however, enable reconstructions of textile production. In this study the data from 1480 loom weights and a number of textile fragments from four Iron Age sites in Transjordan – dated between 800 and 332 BC – were used as a starting point to reconstruct the economic and cultic aspects of textile production. This opened up new insights into the availability and use of raw materials, production techniques, labour investment, producers, consumers and the market. The approach of this study, placing textile research in the context of text analysis, has enabled new interpretations of archaeological finds, unveiling aspects of the economic, social and religious fabric of Iron Age society, and simultaneously it sheds new light on texts from the southern Levant, resulting in a new kaleidoscopic approach to biblical archaeology.

Colour, pattern and glamour are not usually terms associated with textiles in Bronze Age and even for Iron Age Central Europe. Such textiles are usually assumed to be merely functional - textile technology was not so developed and woven fabrics are thought to have been coarse and in dull natural shades. Although this is true for the main corpus of Bronze Age textiles in Europe, recent projects carried out for the textiles from the saltmine Hallstatt, offered a glimpse of an alternative picture. In the Bronze Age we can discern the beginnings of a creative interplay with the possibilities of the materials - patterns, surfaces, colours and their combination with metal. Recently analyzed finds from the Bronze Age mines at Hallstatt (1500-1200 BC) give first examples for advanced weaving techniques, spin pattern and dyeing. Textile patterns are rare, but in the case of the Irgenhausen find very elaborate and mirroring the pattern from contemporary clay figurines in Eastern Europe. Gold threads from Austrian and Hungarian find-spots bring some glamour into the woven world.
An innovative process can be detected in Bronze Age Europe, to give the textiles an attractive appearance as with as other materials and objects like jewellery. In Iron Age Europe first specialisation in textile craft can be seen. After the innovative Bronze Age we now have a full developed textile art with artfully used dyes, divers patterning techniques – both during the weaving process and afterwards. Within Early Iron Age, the interplay between textiles and metal objects attached on them reaches a very high standard – in expressing wealth and beauty. This was discussed with reference to the work of Peter Wells (2008) and his analysis of the visual qualities of objects

Iconographic sources indicate that textiles were used for a variety of purposes by the Etruscans, Paleovenetians, Faliscans and other inhabitants of ancient Italy but until recently little was known about what these textiles actually were like. The latest and ongoing studies of the surviving fabric remains found primarily in burial contexts are for the first time permitting not only qualitative but also quantitative assessment of the data. The paper focuses on the recently analysed textile remains from across Italy, and places them in the wider context of Italian and European pre-Roman textile production.

In an excavation carried out in 1968 four headdresses dating from the early to first half of the 16th century were discovered in a crypt in the parish church of Lienz in East Tyrol (Austria). All four headdresses are remarkably well preserved and two of them reveal techniques that are surprising considering the early date. A hairnet with macramé knots and a coif adorned with bobbin lace most likely date before 1509 making them the earliest extant examples of macramé and bobbin lace to date. This paper gives an account of the finds and considers the implications these headdresses might have on the history of lace.