Ancient Textiles

Summary. 

The burial site of Moshtcevaya Balka is located in the North-West Caucasus in a deep gorge in the upper course of the Bolshaya Laba river by the Labinsky mountain pass leading to Bzybsk Abkhazia. The burial site is known from the 19th century. The natives, who constantly looted it, called it Moshtcevaya Balka (wrom the Russian word moshtci, the imperishable remains of saints in the Russian Orthodox tradition), which suggests the presence of mummified bodies among the burials.

The specific feature of the burial site is the wonderful preservation of organic materials (wood, leather, textiles, etc.). Initially it even caused its not being regarded as an archaeological site. At the beginning of the 20th century archaeologists Nikolai Veselovskij and Nikolai Vorobyev took it for an eighteenth-century ethnological object, and therefore one of them transferred the artifacts collected there to the Ethnographic Department of the Russian Museum and the other one — to the Kunstkamera, leaving no reports for the Archaeological Commission. Thus for many years the unique materials from Moshtcevaya Balka remained unknown to archaeologists. Their study began only half century later, when, by the efforts of Joseph A. Orbeli, both collections were transferred to the Hermitage Museum. This collection (so far the most complete one) formed the basis for the present authors’ many years of research. In the 1970s, when the principal ideas on the burial site had been already formed, a small expedition from the Hermitage verified certain questions connected with the arrangement of the burial structures and discovered a burial of a mummified woman. Several finds were donated to the expedition by E.A. Milovanov, the director of a school in Kurdzhinovo.

In the present book the results of the research of the Moshtcevaya Balka site is presented in two principal blocks. The first one concerns the reconstruction of many previously unknown features of life of the local tribes: their dress, crafts, religion. Special attention is given to the funeral cult, especially to its recently discovered feature conventionally named the symbolization of the grave goods, which meant that all the necessary groups of grave goods were set along with the burials but purely symbolically — not whole objects, but only parts of them (adze handles, arrow shafts with no arrow-heads, etc.) or imitations of objects. Under normal conditions such symbolic grave goods do not survive, so we get a distorted idea of the actual burial rites.

The second block aims at the explanation of a very unusual for the early medieval period concentration of imported silk textiles in Moshtcevaya Balka. At the time when silk was highly valued, when silk garments were
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the privilege of the upper classes, the local tribesmen possessed such an amount of silk that ordinary people used it for their daily needs, and their chief wore a silk kaftan worthy of the king of kings of Sasanian Iran.

The solution of this problem required a methodical research of the textile manufacture which helped to understand the nature of the silk import to Moshtcevaya Balka. Among the discovered textiles there are, on the one hand, Chinese and Sogdian silks, on the other — Byzantine and Mediterranian silk textiles. These finds allow to reconstruct a special branch of the Silk Road and to understand its function. This route, called by the author the North Caucasus Silk Road, for the first time appeared, basing upon archaeological material, as a regular trade route between the Far East and the West, evading Iran (always a go-between, preventing any direct trade). This detour ran along the foothills of the Caucasus and across the mountain passes of the West Caucasus, while the Byzantine colonies of the Black Sea coast of Apsilia (Abkhazia) served as transition points. Silk textiles were accumulated by local tribes living by the mountain passes. The Labinsky mountain pass was controlled by the tribe living by Moshtcevaya Balka: textiles were coming as payment for crossing the passes and for various services offered by the natives.

Of a special interest is the goods of a Chinese merchant’ including a notebook testifying to the actual presence here of their owner in the 8th century. It also conforms the existence of the North Caucasus Silk Road and of the whole concept suggested here.

The present book is in no way just a Russian version of the monograph published fifteen years ago in Germany. It is addressed to a wider audience and introduces many new materials and recently developed ideas.

Textiles comprise a vast and wide category of material culture and constitute a crucial part of the ancient economy. Yet, studies of classical antiquity still often leave out this important category of material culture, partly due to the textiles themselves being only rarely preserved in the archaeological record. This neglect is also prevalent in scholarship on ancient Greek religion and ritual, although it is one of the most vibrant and rapidly developing branches of classical scholarship. The aim of the present enquiry is, therefore, to introduce textiles into the study of ancient Greek religion and thereby illuminate the roles textiles played in the performance of Greek ritual and their wider consequences.

Among the questions posed are how and where we can detect the use of textiles in the sanctuaries, and how they were used in rituals including their impact on the performance of these rituals and the people involved. Chapters centre on three themes: first, the dedication of textiles and clothing accessories in Greek sanctuaries is investigated through a thorough examination of the temple inventories. Second, the use of textiles to dress ancient cult images is explored. The examination of Hellenistic and Roman copies of ancient cult images from Asia Minor as well as depictions of cult images in vase-painting in collocation with written sources illustrates the existence of this particular ritual custom in ancient Greece. Third, the existence of dress codes in the Greek sanctuaries is addressed through an investigation of the existence of particular attire for ritual personnel as well as visitors to the sanctuaries with the help of iconography and written sources.

By merging the study of Greek religion and the study of textiles, the current study illustrates how textiles are, indeed, central materialisations of Greek cult, by reason of their capacity to accentuate and epitomize aspects of identity, spirituality, position in the religious system, by their forms as links between the maker, user, wearer, but also as key material agents in the performance of rituals and communication with the divine.

SUMMARY: Chapter 8, in Renfrew & Bahn's textbook (Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice), covers what typically survives, what constitutes an "artifact", interpreting usage, obtaining materials (e.g., quarrying; mining), transporting materials, installing materials, manufacturing items, identifying function, experimental archaeology, etc., regarding stone, bone, antler, shell, leather, wood, plant, metal, faience, glass, and other materials and diverse artifacts.  In my view, this is one of the best college textbooks available, and is invaluable for students, archaeologists, and the public in general, to obtain a top notch overview of approaching and interpreting the archaeological record.  UPDATED May 2023.

Textiles produced by Tai-Kadai peoples are widely admired and much studied, but to date there has been no comparative survey of weaving techniques. Looms and techniques are transmitted between generations in a conservative manner, and have the potential to reveal deep connections between different groups. In this paper I present a survey of loom and patterning techniques, using a mapping approach, combined with comparative analysis similar to that used by linguists. The results trace Tai migration routes, and parallel the findings of linguists in many respects, with some significant differences. They also highlight the important contribution made by Tai-Kadai weavers to the development of the complex patterning systems (drawloom systems) that eventually found their way to the silk weaving industry in Europe.

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.

Buckley C (2017) Looms, Weaving and the Austronesian Expansion. In: Cultural Exchanges in Monsoon Asia:  Andrea Acri , Roger Blench  and Alexandra Landmann (eds), ISEAS, Singapore.

Weaving plays an important role in Asian cultures, both in the practical and symbolic spheres. In this paper I trace the weaving technologies of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) and Mainland Southeast Asia (MSEA) to their origins on the Asian mainland. A distinctive suite of technologies, including the body-tensioned loom, warp ikat and the tubular sarong, is found across a wide area. In ISEA it is associated with Austronesian speakers, and remnants of it are found on the mainland amongst Daic and Austroasiatic speakers. Significantly, it is absent on Taiwan, which (together with Hainan and parts of Laos and Vietnam) preserve an older form of the loom. I conclude that the weaving traditions of ISEA came directly from the mainland, rather than via Taiwan.

Spinning and weaving were, in Viking Age Scandinavian societies, exclusively the domain of women. Woven in weaving huts (dyngja), textile production was associated with female embodiment, with beliefs about sorcery, fate, death, fertility and reproduction, while male involvement often resulted in allegations of homosexuality or death. Based on current research looking at gender and cloth in Viking and medieval Iceland new ideas have come to light regarding these age-old associations of female embodiment and the eventual transformation of cloth into a form of legal currency in the 12th century.

The purpose of this research is to explore the possibilities of using cartography to unpack lived spaces within social relationships. To do so I utilize biblical text along with epigraphy to explore the range of possibilities that connect and disconnect communities. To limit this project, I have chosen to engage in conversation with John Knox and Robert Jewett whose chronologies on Paul diverge significantly because of different approaches for how to use the book of Acts within a framework built around Paul's letters. Looking specifically at their disputes around Acts 13-14 affords me the opportunity to begin transcribing their tables to maps while also exploring the human relationships that exist within the ancient record. I argue that Acts 13-14 is more important than either Knox or Jewett realized because it offers important insights into how Paul formed and established relationships around Galatia. As a contribution to New Testament studies, this project points to a tendency to limit the study of Paul’s journeys to matters of timelines and relative chronologies without fully considering how Paul’s professional and religious associations enabled him to travel and spread the gospel. This has led to chronologies and maps that do not fully consider the nuances of Mediterranean travel and interactions and have consequently failed to change popular perceptions of Paul. When we change our perspective from concerns around time to matters of social connectivity, we can use chronology to engage historical material and observe nuanced social interactions. And new technologies, like Geospatial Information Systems (GIS), allow us to build interactive models that bring to the fore the lived spaces in maps.

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.

This book deals with an issue that is central to the study of the classical past, namely, what were the driving forces behind the artistic activity that occurred in fifth century Athens--artistic activity of which we have many physical vestiges, and which inspired a classical tradition that has spanned more than two millennia? By examining metaphors of weaving (especially in Euripides’ Ion) and descriptions of ancient textiles, and comparing them with what can be gleaned from the scanty archaeological record, it has been possible to show that the competitive creation of pictorial cloths (notably of the peplos made every four years for the Great Panathenaea) may have provided one of the dynamos that generated such creativity. Tapestry workshops (usually run by men, with women in a subsidiary role) also contributed to the progressive enrichment of the household environment that took place between the early fifth century and the mid-fourth. Wall-hangings (which might double up as garments) were employed in the dining rooms of the rich, and also in the temporary structures erected at festivals

O. SERGI, I Capitoli, Ordinazioni e Statuti dell’Arte della seta di Catanzaro e la produzione di manifatture seriche tra XVI e XVII secolo, in Capitoli Ordinazioni e Statuti dell’Arte della Seta di Catanzaro, a cura di O. Sergi, Catanzaro, Camera di Commercio di Catanzaro, 2010, pp. 22 – 31.

The Incas carried out some of the most dramatic ceremonies known to us from ancient times. Groups of people walked hundreds of miles across arid and mountainous terrain to perform them on mountains over 20,000 feet (6,096 m) high. The most important offerings made during these pilgrimages involved human sacrifices (capacochas). Although Spanish chroniclers wrote about these offerings and the state-sponsored processions of which they were a part, their accounts were based on second-hand sources, and the only direct evidence we have of the capacocha sacrifices comes to us from archaeological excavations. Some of the most thoroughly documented of these were undertaken on high mountain summits, where the material evidence has been exceptionally well preserved. In this study, we describe the results of research undertaken on Mount Llullaillaco (22,109 ft / 6,739 m), which has the world's highest archaeological site. The types of ruins and artifact assemblages recovered are described and analyzed. By comparing the archaeological evidence with the chroniclers' accounts and with findings from other mountaintop sites, common patterns are demonstrated, while at the same time previously little-known elements contribute to our understanding of key aspects of Inca religion. This study illustrates the importance of archaeological sites being placed within the broader context of physical and sacred features of the natural landscape.

From 2000-2002, a salvage excavation was conducted to record and remove 397 burials exposed by a stadium redevelopment in the centre of the city of Brisbane, Queensland. These burials formed part of the North Brisbane Burial Ground which received interments between 1843 and 1875. During the course of the excavation, 71 buttons were collected, consisting of 40 ceramic buttons, 17 metal buttons, 8 bone buttons, 1 shell button, 2 textile-covered buttons, 2 thread buttons, and 1 ivory button. The buttons were typed and analysed microscopically and compared to those of other sites. The threads used to attach these buttons were preserved in 16 samples, and fragments of a twill woven garment with button holes were preserved on two brass buttons. Given the very poor preservation of burial remains at the site, the complex taphonomic processes are also investigated and of the thirty four burials that contained buttons, six were assigned date ranges of interment based upon button morphology.

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.

From a cursory appraisal it is a simple step to assume that Minoan women's costume included a corset of varying degrees of tightness. This essay aims to show, however, that such an interpretation is based on a misunderstanding of the garment combined with the reliance on forgeries, rather than on genuine examples of Minoan clothing.

Clothes are often considered mundane, but they play a crucial role in people’s lives beyond only providing protection from the heat and cold. The meaning of a piece of clothing changes the moment it is worn, as it becomes associated with its wearer. Attire can demonstrate affiliation to a particular group, be it religious, political, ethnic, social, etc., serving as an important means to construct the self-identity of a person. In terms of social impact, attire can include, as well as exclude, an individual from a certain group, playing a part in acculturation or assimilation. In order to understand what clothes can reveal about the ethnicity, beliefs, social rank, profession and gender or age of the wearer, it is necessary to reconstruct its particular socio-cultural context and understand the non-verbal language the dress conveys.

The conference creates a venue for a multidisciplinary and comparative approach to dress studies in the ancient world. It brings together scholars working inside broad geographical and chronological frameworks but pursuing common themes in their research. It gathers specialists studying ancient attire from different perspectives and applying different methodologies. Non-verbally, attire conveys important meaning that must be decoded through various methodological approaches, be it an artifact, visual- or text-oriented approach. The fragmentary corpus of evidence available to assist in the study of ancient costume in different geographic areas justifies searching for cross-cultural patterns in dress behavior. The goal of the proposed conference is to construct (a) definition(s) of the clothed self and investigate multiple trajectories of the dress’ role in the construction of various identities in the ancient world.
https://oi.uchicago.edu/research/symposia/2018.html

This article will discuss the findspots of cotton textiles and the location of their manufacture, questioning the origin of these different cotton fabrics, their provenance, and the route they took to their new owners.
Through the duration of the Byzantine period, in the 5th-6th c. CE, cotton remained rather rare in Palestine. It continued to be infrequent during the Islamic period, leading to very few discoveries on selected sites. At least one of these location shows that cotton was also a foreign product coming mainly through importation networks with India. Such commerce has left a strong imprint on the textile landscape of ancient Palestine. The caravan town of Nahal ‘Omer has left us a rich textile assemblage of good quality pieces where cotton was predominant, attesting the prosperity of the site’s inhabitants and the travellers who frequented it. These finds contrast sharply with the textiles characterizing nearby sites of the same period. In most of Palestine except for Nahal ‘Omer, wool was still the fibre of choice during the Early Islamic Period (7th-8th c. CE) in sites such as Nahal Shahaq, ‘En Evrona, ‘En Marzev (Yahav), and Yotvata.
The exceptional quantities of silk and cotton fabrics discovered at Nahal ‘Omer testifies to textile encounters with faraway lands. This distinct foreign character of cotton textiles continued to be relevant during the Later Islamic period, at Qasr el-Yahud for example, where cotton textiles are associated to Nubians and South Egyptians pilgrims. Nonetheless, local cotton production continued to be slowly developed through the medieval period, until the fibre became quite prevalent and even replaced linen.
https://journals.openedition.org/ethnoecologie/4176

Notwithstanding more than 100 years of investigation and the collection of a significant amount of data, little positive provenance information has yet emerged to pinpoint the origins of most Oriental carpet designs.  The author of this paper, Jack Cassin, presents new commentary and evidence to begin to understand this situation.

Progress has been made on several fronts particularly the recognition these designs did not exist in a vacuum and must be studied by taking other decorative arts into account. Clues garnered from diverse objects such as pottery and other findings from pre-historic archaeological excavations; metalwork from the bronze age and later periods; calligraphy from 9th century; architecture beginning in the 12th century; miniature painting from the 13th century and book-binding and wood-work from the 14th century have encouraged a number of important insights.

However, the origins of the designs found on historic and later complex patterned weavings still remain mysterious and undetermined. Obviously the weavings themselves hold the greatest store of facts to assist in unraveling these questions and it is there more concentration must be applied.

This can be done in several ways. The first is by the employment of the various analytic techniques developed by cutting-edge forensic sciences. Utilization of these new tools will facilitate the identification of important key elements that have hereto remained hidden. Once this is accomplished the sources of the raw materials and their various production methods will become identified. Collating these results will provide statistical profiles and examples, even those that formerly appeared unrelated, could then be grouped together based on verifiable criteria.

These scientific findings, rather than the less positive comparisons of technique and design used today, will definitely improve chances for solving provenance questions. Similar intensive studies of the existent raw materials like wool, dyestuffs and water supplies, which are still present in the eastern Mediterranean areas where many of these historic weaving are believed to have produced, is a second area of inquiry.

Collecting and comparing these results to those gathered from the weavings themselves will undoubtedly add other valuable criteria for these profiles. In conjunction with scientific field investigation, a far more intensive search, both above and below ground level for historic weavings will also add new examples to the relatively small number now known and likewise assist in answering these questions.

However the third and perhaps the easiest - a re-examination of the small number of known historic weavings – can also yield new findings and discoveries. Since the first two are beyond the possibilities of this writer and The Weaving Art Museum at the present time, this third method has been chosen to present our Sixth Exhibition “A New Look At Some Ancient Knotted-Pile Carpet Fragments”.

The examples selected for this inquiry come from the largest and most comprehensive grouping of early historic cut-pile carpets - The Lamm Collection.

Both individually and as a group these wondrous little fragments provide a valuable source of material to answer the intriguing question: What were the origins of Oriental carpet designs?

Analisis de la coleccion de tejidos de la sociedad arqueologica Paracas Necropolis, reunida a principios del siglo XX por el doctor Julio C. Tello, que custodia el Museo de Arqueologia y Antropologia de la Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos de Lima. Incluye una revision integral de los tejidos, e informacion sobre su temporalidad, elaboracion, funcion, iconografia y posibles usuarios [tildes omitidas].

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.

One of the most famous antique carpets, the Dragon and Phoenix rug now in Berlin: Museum fur Islamische Kunst, inventory # I. 4, has been unconvincingly and vaguely attributed to the 15th century as the work of Qaraqoyunlu Turkmen Dynasty.  This is in part due to late 19th and early 20th German scholarship that assumed rugs from the Near East were automatically the work of Islamic craftsmen and women, particularly Turkmen and later Ottoman, but with no precise documentation.  This general undocumented supposition also applied to Oriental carpets depicted in hundreds of Renaissance Italian paintings, although all of them are presented in a Christian context, particular associated with the Virgin Mary.  The author presents firm documentation involving both historical but especially earlier iconographical examples of the dragon-phoenix motif in Armenian art of the late 13th century, borrowed directly from the source of this coupling of animals, China during the Yuan Mongol Dynasty.  He suggests that its most convincing provenance is Armenia perhaps as early as the 14th century.