Evidence for blue dyed textiles becomes widespread in Europe during the first millennium BC. The dyestuff was likely dyer’s woad - Isatis tinctoria L. While archaeologists have done much to understand the dye process, archaeobotany and... more
Evidence for blue dyed textiles becomes widespread in Europe during the first millennium BC. The dyestuff was likely dyer’s woad - Isatis tinctoria L. While archaeologists have done much to understand the dye process, archaeobotany and chemical analysis of woad dye, there remains a question as to how accessible blue colour textiles were at this time. Through asking the question “how many woad plants does it take to dye 1kg of wool yarn blue?”, the aim of this research is to investigate the accessibility or exclusivity of woad dyed blue textiles, in this period terms of the resources, knowledge and skills required to produce them.
Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard is a three-year UK Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) project (2021- 2024) which aims to challenge current understanding of the process of hoarding through an interdisciplinary study of one of the... more
Unwrapping the Galloway Hoard is a three-year UK Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) project (2021- 2024) which aims to challenge current understanding of the process of hoarding through an interdisciplinary study of one of the best-preserved hoards found in Britain to date.
Research question (problem): Can we visualise a textile production, in the first farming cultures in the South Scandinavian Neolithic context, by relating the technologies for agriculture, building graves and houses, manufacture of... more
Research question (problem): Can we visualise a textile production, in the first farming cultures in the South Scandinavian Neolithic context, by relating the technologies for agriculture, building graves and houses, manufacture of ceramics, flint and skin, to a similar specialised textile technological development?
We are indebted to various sources for our knowledge of the pre-Roman Iron Age textile production on the territory of Austria (800-15 BC), such as well-preserved textiles, grave finds, textile tools, archaeological evidence in settlements... more
We are indebted to various sources for our knowledge of the pre-Roman Iron Age textile production on the territory of Austria (800-15 BC), such as well-preserved textiles, grave finds, textile tools, archaeological evidence in settlements and depictions of textile producers and their products. We can find evidence of their activities in each settlement, where they lived and worked. Spindle whorls, loom weights and needles in graves may indicate that the deceased who were accompanied by these tools were textile workers, and furthermore point to a special social status these persons occupied in their communities. Particularly during the early Iron Age predominantly women have textile tools in their graves, sometimes even being accompanied by tool sets (e.g. spindles and knifes or spindles and needles). Depictions of textile work, such as on the Sopron Urn and the Bologna tintinnabulum, illustrate different stages of the textile production process from spinning to weaving. The two case studies of Hallstatt and Dürrnberg demonstrate that textile production in Iron Age Austria was organised in different ways, providing diverse archaeological evidence concerning the producers, consumers and traders of textiles.
"'Fashion Awareness' in the Year 1130 B.C. - Textiles and Clothing in Ancient Egypt" - Contribution to the book accompanying the exhibition "New Clothes?!" at Museum August Kestner in conjunction with the University of Applied Sciences... more
"'Fashion Awareness' in the Year 1130 B.C. - Textiles and Clothing in Ancient Egypt" - Contribution to the book accompanying the exhibition "New Clothes?!" at Museum August Kestner in conjunction with the University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Hannover / Germany (31 August 2008 - 11 January 2009). Focus of the article is the group statue of Kynebu and Isis, originally from the time of Amenhotep III (Dynasty 18, c. 1350 B.C.) which more than 220 years later was usurped by the priest Kynebu of the time of Ramesses VIII (Dynasty 20) as equipment for his tomb (TT 113) which was completed in 1130 B.C. When reinscribing the older statue, Kinebu also ordered his garment to be altered, surely "up-dated", a unique attestation for 'fashion awareness' in Ancient Egypt. - Based on the objects on display in the Egyptian departement of the museum, under the title "kleopatragbar" beginner students of the curriculum of Fashion Design in Hannover designed t-shirts which were displayed in the Egyptian galeries of the museum and worn on catwalks in a fashion show at the end of the exhibition. - (in German)
A well-preserved burial, discovered during peat clearing on Langwell Farm in Strath Oykel, Easter Ross, consisted of a stone cist that held the skeleton of a woman who had died in 2200–1960 cal BC. Although the cist contents were... more
A well-preserved burial, discovered during peat clearing on Langwell Farm in Strath Oykel, Easter Ross, consisted of a stone cist that held the skeleton of a woman who had died in 2200–1960 cal BC. Although the cist contents were disturbed and partly removed before archaeological investigation took place, the burial rite can be interpreted to some extent. The woman, who died in her late 20s, had been wrapped in brown cattle hide, and wooden and woven objects were placed with her body. Periodic waterlogging created conditions that allowed the rare, partial preservation of the organic materials. Analysis of bone histology indicated that decay of the human remains had been arrested, either by deliberate mummification or by waterlogging. The cist had been sent into a low knoll on the valley floor and it may have been covered with a low cairn or barrow. This spot had been the site of a fire several hundred years earlier, and it may have been a node on a cross-country route linking east and west coasts in the Early Bronze Age. The use of animal hide suggests the creation and use of particular identities, linking the dead to ancestors and to powerful spiritual properties attributed to the natural world. The work was carried out for Historic Scotland under the Human Remains Call-off Contract.
Textiles are sensuous; we respond to them through touch, vision and smell, movement, sound and temperature. Through sensations, textiles embody emotions of identity, and define hierarchies of power and value. Yet through the taphonomy of... more
Textiles are sensuous; we respond to them through touch, vision and smell, movement, sound and temperature. Through sensations, textiles embody emotions of identity, and define hierarchies of power and value. Yet through the taphonomy of decay, ancient textiles are frequently devoid of their original sensory properties, they come to us as faded, fragile, dirty rags. A sensory archaeology of textiles, therefore, requires a suite of methods to reveal these sensations and a contextual analysis to interpret them within their chronological and regional archaeologies. In raising to this challenge, this chapter proposes for the first time a sensory archaeology of textiles. Through innovative case studies, the author invites the reader to recognise the implications of a sensory archaeology of textiles, and to consider the consequences for their own research fields.
Loom weights or spit supports? Clay weights from the Late Bronze Age settlement near Březnice in south Bohemia from the perspective of archaeology and archaeobotany. Clay weights rank among frequently neglected artefacts commonly found at... more
Loom weights or spit supports? Clay weights from the Late Bronze Age settlement near Březnice in south Bohemia from the perspective of archaeology and archaeobotany. Clay weights rank among frequently neglected artefacts commonly found at prehistoric settlements. However, their detailed analysis could in fact contribute to the resolution of numerous important questions, including the production technology of pottery and textiles, the handling of waste, depositional and post-depositional processes and others. An assemblage of weights that allows such questions to be raised comes from the Late Bronze Age settlement investigated in south Bohemian Březnice in 2005–2009. Two mass finds of several dozen weights found in two specific trench-like features were subjected to a detailed archaeological and archaeobotanical analysis. These analyses make it possible to study the role and purpose of these artefacts in societies at the time and to ask questions concerning how and why their mass deposition was made in the aforementioned trenches.
The aim of this article is to investigate the sight, sound, smell and touch of different cloth types in the Late Ertebølle of southern Scandinavia and to argue that such an approach provides stimulating new insights into an area of... more
The aim of this article is to investigate the sight, sound, smell and touch of different cloth types in the Late Ertebølle of southern Scandinavia and to argue that such an approach provides stimulating new insights into an area of material culture that has previously been studied by archaeologists in a highly empirical manner. The archaeological evidence drawn together in this article points to this as a time when furs and skin products were of prime importance and plant fibres were the basis for knotted nets, looped cloth and basketry. In the archaeological literature these cloth types are usually treated separately and described according to the species of raw materials, such as pine marten fur, or the technology of their production, such as couched button-hole stitch. Using an experiment where participants are asked to handle modern cloth types and answer structured questionnaires, it is possible to create a sensory description of these cloth types. These descriptive results are then used to reconsider aspects of cloth and clothing in the Late Ertebølle of southern Scandinavia. By moving from the standard technological description to a sensory description, the Mesolithic cloth types investigated in this article are placed within a sensory and phenomenological theoretical framework. The presentation of these results seeks to provide a new description of these materials and allow archaeologists to revaluate the culturally-embedded nature of cloth and clothing at that time.
"ABSTRACT Costume is one of the most significant forms of material culture in ethnographic contexts, yet remains of cloth are extremely rare at most archaeological sites. Artifacts that typically relate to textile production include... more
"ABSTRACT
Costume is one of the most significant forms of material culture in ethnographic contexts, yet remains of cloth are extremely rare at most archaeological sites. Artifacts that typically relate to textile production include spindle whorls and bone tools. This paper summarizes results of analyses of a large corpus of whorls and a remarkably extensive assemblage of bone tools from the Early Postclassic site of Santa Isabel in Pacific Nicaragua. Ethnohistoric sources identify several Mesoamerican groups as living in the region during the Postclassic period, with the Oto-Manguean-speaking Chorotega likely candidates for the cultural group at Santa Isabel. Textiles were probably made from cotton and yucca, among other plant fibers. In addition to cloth production we also consider the importance of spinning thread for fish-nets and hammocks.
RESUMEN
La vestimenta es uno de las formas más importantes de cultura material en contextos etnográficos, sin embargo debido a su limitada preservación restos arqueológicos de tela son escasos en la mayoría de sitios explorados. De manera recurrente, los artefactos asociados a la producción textil registrados en contextos arqueológicos incluyen malacates para hilar y herramientas de hueso tallado. Este artículo presenta los resultados del análisis de material en una muestra de malacates y herramientas de hueso del periodo Postclásico Temprano del sitio Santa Isabel en Nicaragua. Fuentes etno-históricas identifican varios grupos culturales mesoamericanos en la región durante este periodo. El grupo lingüístico Oto-Mangue, llamados también Chorotega, es probablemente el grupo cultural que habito el sitio de Santa Isabel, Nicaragua. Los textiles probablemente fueron hechos de algodón y yuca, entre otras fibras vegetales. Además de la producción textil para vestimenta, consideramos la posibilidad de la fabricación de hamacas y redes para pescar."
Until recently textiles in archaeology were studied predominantly in terms of the technology of production and the social identity of clothing. Lately scholars have recognised the expense of textiles in terms of labour and resources,... more
Until recently textiles in archaeology were studied predominantly in terms of the technology of production and the social identity of clothing. Lately scholars have recognised the expense of textiles in terms of labour and resources, which addresses the question of value largely through an economic perspective. We may ask more broadly; why were textiles valued, what for, by whom, and were some textiles valued more highly than others? This raises deeper theoretical concerns in understanding textiles as a specific form of valued material culture. Such theoretical concerns need to be addressed in archaeological methodologies of artefact analysis. In this paper I suggest that there are five principle ways archaeologists can recognise the value of textile through the material record; through materials with affordances, in terms of expense and exclusivity, as artefact biographies, as items with conspicuous, sensory appeal and in terms of fungibility. By addressing value, rather than wealth or prestige, we open up questions as to how textiles were valued across social matrices, according to changing ambitions during the life course and through the biography of the textile. Textile value will be explored through archaeological evidence in Mediterranean Europe from 1000-500 BC.
The Etruscan Cloak Experiment uses visual observation of two cloaks, made to represent those of the seventh century BC in Italy, to understand the relationship between textile technology and visual experience. The technology of production... more
The Etruscan Cloak Experiment uses visual observation of two cloaks, made to represent those of the seventh century BC in Italy, to understand the relationship between textile technology and visual experience. The technology of production has been a major theme in archaeological textile research. Recent research has generated new data on old and new archaeological discoveries in Etruria and neighbouring areas. As well as techniques of production, scholars across disciplines recognise the huge visual importance of textiles and textile clothing in terms of consumption. Although this aspect of archaeological textile is less studied, pioneering research by Lena Hammarlund's seeks to classify of fragment of archaeological textiles according to visual types. In a complementary way, the research presented here seeks to investigate the visual qualities of textile clothing according to the parameters of light and distance. Methodologically, the experiment builds on previous experiments by the author on the sensory aspect of cloth type materials. The results of the experiment highlight the similarities and differences between the technological and visual understanding of textiles for clothing, and allow us to reconsider the relationships between the two in the specific context of Etruria and its northern enclaves.
