Textile Archaeology

Analysing textiles from Hallstatt in Austria always involves studying the whole chaîne opératoire. Due to their excellent preservation in the salt mine it is worth considering how the items were produced as well as the end point of the chaîne opératoire, the use, recycling and discarding. Additionally, the fi ndspot, Hallstatt, off ers insights into an interesting period for the development of textile crafts in prehistoric Europe: in the second and fi rst millennium BC many inventions and innovations fl ourished across Europe and transformed the textile world.

To compare the trousers of Daetgen with other excavated trousers from the first millennium AD, a new study of the pattern-cutting and the analyses of the material and weave was conducted. The reconstruction of the history of the conservation turned out to be necessary to figure out understand the original seams. The study of the pattern cutting shows that the cut of the Daetgen trousers differs from the other woolen trousers found in Northern Germany, which have a more developed cut. However, the cut of the trousers is similar to linen trousers from Egypt and Syria (6th – 7th century AD). On the basis of a replica, the fit and the size of this exceptionally preserved garment was examinated.

In: K. Grömer and F. Pritchard (eds.) 2015: Aspects of the Design, Production and Use of Textiles and Clothing from the Bronze Age to the Early Modern Era. NESAT XII. The North European Symposium for Archaeological Textiles, 21st – 24th May 2014 in Hallstatt, Austria. Archaeolingua Main Series 33. Budapest 2015.

During the excavation campaign in 2019 in the Iron Age areas of the saltmine Hallstatt, Austria, an approx. 34 cm long tablet weaving band was discovered. The band shows a variety of patterns. Such, it differs from other approx. 70 Iron Age tablet woven fabrics from the Iron Age in Central Europe, which - apart from one example from the princely grave of Eberdingen-Hochdorf - usually have a very uniform pattern with consistent pattern repeats.
There are different possibilities how this deviation from the usual Iron Age textile design is to be interpreted: Maybe, the band might have carried a symbolic content. The pattern varieties also could have been simply an expression of individual creativity in design or might have been a "test piece". In a citizen science-approach, the newly excavated tablet woven band from Hallstatt saltmine might serve as an invitation to tablet weavers, makers and creators to share their ideas on ancient handcraft. New exciting prehistoric textile artefacts inspire various people to do own research on them, to recreate and sometimes even to use them in their daily life.
Keywords: Hallstatt, Iron Age, textile design, tablet weaving, salt mines

The Roots of Asian Weaving: The He Haiyan collection of textiles and looms from Southwest China. Eric Boudot and Chris Buckley, Oxbow Books, Oxford, 2015.

This ground-breaking book documents the weaving traditions and textiles of one of Asia’s most ethnically diverse areas, placing them in a regional context. It represents a novel approach to anthropological and ethnographic studies, based on detailed field reports and an explicitly comparative approach, integrating both statistical (Bayesian phylogenetic, Neighbornet) and classical methods to present a unified picture.

The first three chapters describe the ethnographic and linguistic and historical background to the region, focussing on the diversity of ethnicities, and their (sometimes turbulent) relations with the dominant Han Chinese polity. The authors review historical and archaeological remains of textiles and looms from the region, and present a revisionist account of the development of loom technologies.

The core of the book consists of detailed fieldwork, based on more than a decade of first-hand study. The authors record the traditions of Miao, Yao, Buyi, Dong, Zhuang, Maonan, Dai and Li weavers from Guizhou to Hainan Island. Their investigation focuses on decorated textiles made on the loom (as opposed to embroidery or appliqué), since these are the most complex and most conservative part of the weaver’s repertoire. They describe the looms and techniques of these groups, including diagrams, descriptions and photographs of the weaving processes and woven structures. Interviews with active weavers reveal the social dimensions of weaving and the items that are made from woven cloth, including marriage and burial related customs. Each tradition is illustrated with precisely provenanced examples of textiles from each sub-region, drawn from the He Haiyan collection in Beijing, including many nineteenth century examples. The research was carried out with a sense of urgency, since many traditions are disappearing, and in some cases are limited to a small number of elderly weavers. These accounts form a primary ethnographic source for weaving cultures in the region, many of which have never been documented before.

In the final chapter the authors present a comparative analysis of loom technology across the Asian mainland, using techniques derived from linguistics and biology (Bayesian analysis and Neighbornet plots). They use these to chart the evolutionary history of looms in Asia, demonstrating that all the major traditions in East Asia, Southeast Asia and Island Southeast Asia are structurally and functionally related, in spite of their apparent diversity, and have their origins on the Asian mainland in the same region that includes the apparent homlands of many of the major linguistic groups. The results have far-reaching implications for the understanding of how complex culture develops and spreads. The findings also shed light on widely-discussed topics such as the development of the Chinese Drawloom, showing how key features of the complex patterning device on this loom were derived from Tai-Kadai looms.

Este artículo ofrece los resultados de prospecciones realizadas en el centro-sur de la
llanura de Santiago del Estero (Argentina), dando cuenta de 12 sitios arqueológicos. Gran
parte de ellos pudieron ser correlacionados con los mencionados por las investigaciones
arqueológicas pioneras en la región, cuya identidad y ubicación se habían perdido con
el tiempo. Para cada sitio se exponen características, factores de alteración y diversidad
material, la distribución que asumen y sus posibles implicancias cronológicas y culturales.
Se enfatizan las evidencias reconocidas en algunos sitios que muestran un patrón material
diferente al del Período Tardío regional y que podrían aportar a la discusión de una posible
ocupación desde el primer milenio de la era, hasta ahora invisible para el área. Se plantea
la necesidad de abordar la cuestión a partir de excavaciones y fechados actuales.

O.V. Orfinskaia, Y.V. Stepanova. On the Issue of Origins of Russian Traditional Dress with Shoulder Straps
The article draws on a variety of archaeological, written, and ethnographic sources in an attempt to examine the issue of origins of the traditional Russian shirt with shoulder straps (polika). The pri-mary sources for the study are archaeological data from the 16th –17th -century burials at the Voznesen-skii monastery of the Moscow Kremlin. The authors analyze a variety of 12th–18th
-century images depicting the decoration and specific features of the Russian dress. They argue that the origins of the shirts with shoulder straps could therefore go back to the 11th –13th
-century period, and make conclu-sions about the further development of the style.

IN 1938, a woman’s burial was uncovered by road builders at Ketilsstaðir in north-eastern Iceland. Recently, her physical remains and associated funerary goods were re-examined by an international, interdisciplinary team and formed the basis for an exhibition at the National Museum of Iceland in 2015. This paper focuses on the items of dress that accompanied the woman — born in the British Isles, but who migrated to Iceland at a very young age — to gain insights into the ways her cultural identity was expressed at the time of her death. Here we explore the roles played by material culture in signaling her identity, and the technologies and trade networks through which she was connected, visually, to Scandinavia, the British Isles, and the Viking world at large.

Textiles from the Bronze Age and Iron Age have been preserved for more than 3000 years in the salt mine of Hallstatt, Austria. Copper originating from prehistoric mining tools made of bronze has probably altered the colour of many of the textiles. Three woven bands from the Iron Age were chosen for reproductions in order to show how they might originally have looked, and to acquire knowledge of prehistoric dyeing technology. Dyeing techniques documented in historical, ethnographic, and experimental archaeological literature were analysed. Fibre, dye and element analyses of the prehistoric bands formed the basis for the experimental development of dyeing methods using woad (Isatis tinctoria L.), weld (Reseda luteola L.) and scentless chamomile (Tripleurospermum inodorum (L.) Sch. Bip.). The hand spun yarns were woven with rep band and tablet weaving techniques. Each band was successfully reconstructed in two possible colour variants. The light fastness of the dyed woollen yarns ranges between level 3 and 6 and matches everyday requirements today. Element and dye analyses and a post-mordanting experiment with copper acetate explain today's colours of the woven bands. A detailed picture of conceivable dyeing techniques in the Hallstatt Culture is provided, concerning the handling of textile material during dyeing, woad processing and dyeing procedures, mordanting techniques, and the tools and resources required. Dyeing with natural dyes is an ancient cultural technology that is simple in terms of equipment and resources, but sophisticated in terms of the knowledge required. It fully reflects the comprehensive knowledge prehistoric people had of the chemical properties of natural substances, the effect of temperature on (bio)chemical processes, and the ability to control and manage these processes. In central Europe, the beginning of this knowledge dates back to Bronze Age, the 2nd millennium BC, as proven by the textile finds in Hallstatt.

" Colonial chroniclers marveled at the quality and variety of textiles produced at the Postclassic center of Cholula.  As a principal market center, textiles were produced for tribute and exchange while other woven goods were manufactured for local consumption.  This paper examines ethnohistorical and archaeological evidence to interpret the technology, materials, scale, and social relations of textile production.  Original spindle whorl data from the UA-1 domestic compound is contrasted with other archaeological whorls from Postclassic Cholula as well as from other sites in central Mexico.  Results of this analysis indicate the complexity of pre-Columbian textile production, and the significance of spinning and weaving for economic and social reconstructions of the past.

RESUMEN EN ESPAÑOL
Fuentes etnohistoricos describen los trajes prehispanicos de Cholula, ambas en las cronicas de los españoles e en los codices indigenas.  Desafortunadamente, los textiles no conservan bien como evidencia arqueológica, hasta que casi no existen ejemplares verdaderos de estos vestimentos.  En actualidad los arqueólogos dependan en la cultura material, especialmente los malacates, para interpretar la producción textil precolombino.  En este articulo hablamos de la producción textil en Cholula en base de fuentes etnohistoriscos y materiales arqueológicos, y incluimos los relaciones sociales de la producción.
En años recientes varios investigadores han estudiado los malacates de Mesoamerica para inferir materias de producción (Parsons 1972; Smith and Hirth 1988), cambios diacronicas (García Cook y Merino Carrión 1974), y cambios sociales con enfasis en el papel feminil (Brumfiel 1991; McCafferty y McCafferty 1988, 1991).  Utilizando malacates de la Cuenca de México, Parsons (1972) sugiera un división entre los de tamaño chico (para hilar algodón) y los grandes (para hilar ixtle, la fibra de la maguey).  En nuestro discusión sugerimos que los malacates de Cholula necessitan un modelo más diversa para incluir un rango mas eztensivo de materias, como plumas, pelo de conejo, chichicaztli (mala mujer), y palma, entre otros.
Investigamos tres problemas el el estudio:
1) La intensidad de producción en Cholula del Postclásico.
2) La utilización de materias, incluyendo algodón, ixtle, y otros (especialmente plumas).
3) El desarrollo social de producción, especialmente en respecto a genero.
Los malacates de Cholula estan discos perforados de barro.  Pueden ser medida en varios maneras: diametro, altura, peso, y diametro de perforación (Cuadras 1-5).  Muchas veces tienen decoración de molde o incisión, y varios tienen pintura negra de chapopote.  Todos que hemos encontrado provienen del Postclásico, indicando que antes la gente usaban malacates impermanentes, posiblemente de madera o barro secado en el sol. 
Malacates usados en nuestro estudio provienen de excavaciones domesticas, come UA-1 y UA-79 de los terrenos de la Universidad de las Américas, y un entierro multiple en San Andrés Cholula.  El corpus consisten de 237 malacates de contextos excavados, entre los concentraciones mas abundantes de Mesoamérica.  Asi podemos apoyar las fuentes etnohistoricas que Cholula sí era centro de producción textil.
Para inferir la utilización de materias, dividimos las malacates en 10 tipos, mas subtipos, definidos en Cuadra  6.  Cuatro de los tipos ocurren como más de 10% del total (Cuadra 7): Tipos B, D, E, y J.  Tipos B y E corresponden a tamaños asociados con malacates para algodón en el Valle de México, y Tipo J corresponde a los malacates grandes para hilar maguey.  El tipo más abundante, Tipo D (31%) es ligera como los de algodón, pero más ancho de diametro y con una perforación más grande que Tipos B y E.  El Tipo D producirá un hilo gruesa, y sin mucho torción.  Según Sahagún (1950-82, Libro 8:49), este correspondería a los malacates “llanos” que las usaban para hilar plumas.  En base de los datos de malacates, entonces los Cholultecas del Postclásico hilaban algodón, ixtle y plumas, y posiblemente otras materias todavía no identificadas.
Para interpretar dimensiones sociales de la producción textil de Cholula, consideramos restos incluidos con entierros de Cholula.  Las fuentes ethnohistoricas claramente relatan los processos de hilar y tejar como obras de mujeres (McCafferty y McCafferty 1991); en contraste, entierros de ambos mujeres y hombres incluyen malacates como ofrendas.  Por seguro es más común con mujeres, y los hombres enterrados en San Andrés Cholula pueden haber sido esclavos o servientes, y entonces no tan desarrollado por modos de genero.  Pero la evidencia que tenemos de los entierros implican que los representaciones de genero que hacemos de las fuentes no corresponden completamente con la “practica” que podemos ver en la tierra.
Otros rasgos de la producción textil incluyen tecnicas de hilar, especialmente la diferenciación entre el hilado por tirar (“drop-spinning”) y el hilado de soporte, que interpretamos en base to restos de uso (como marcas abrasivas  en el acabado) y la distribución de las malacates en sus contextos de deposición.
Por fin, consideramos evidencias decorativas en los malacates, con cambios diacronicos en patrones entre el Postclásico Temprano y el Postclásico Tardio.  Otro cambio relaciona con el uso de chapopote para pintar los malacates–este rasgo es más común en el Postclásico Temprano, y puede indicar interacciones culturales con la Costa del Golfo.
En conclusión, los malacates de Cholula indican un rango de información acerca de la producción textil y su desarrollo social.  Aunque casi no existan textiles prehispanicas de Mesoamérica, el análisis de los malacates, espcialmente cuando es relacionado con datos etnohistoricos, producen interpretaciones importantes sobre la cultura material de México antigua."

Ongoing excavations at the Middle Bronze Age site of Erimi Laonin tou Porakou (Cyprus) have been revealing substantial evidence for textile production and clues of its economic impact and social implications to this prehistoric community. The analysis of the architecture and artefacts recovered in the workshop complex, in combination with archaeobotanical evidence, has allowed us to identify the presence of different textile activities, including dyeing. An additional textile data-set comes from coeval extramural funerary contexts pertaining to the Erimi settlement. As a key-site for understanding textile production during the Middle Cypriot period (MC), Erimi offers a privileged viewpoint on a large array of social dynamics connected to textile work. This paper will discuss the impact of textile production in the transmission of knowledge and expertise, and in the construction of the community mindset by applying the model of Communities of Practice (CoP) as a theoretical background.

Begleitheft des Kolloquiums im Rahmen der Masterveranstaltung am Institut für Prähistorische Archäologie an der FU Berlin

Clothing in prehistoric times, booklet from the master colloquium at the Institute for Prehistoric Archaeology (FU Berlin). With English summary from each article.

Beim Begriff „Kinderkleidung“ denkt man unwillkürlich an eine spezielle Art von Kleidung, mit eigenem Schnitt, besonderen Stoffen, Farben und Mustern. Abgesetzt in verschiedene Zeitabschnitte – Baby, Kleinkind, „Schulkind“, Jugendliche – sind auch noch heute verschiedene Kinderkleidungen üblich, wenn auch (bis auf das Baby- und eventuell noch Kleinkindalter) nicht mehr so signifikant eine bestimmte Altersstufe kennzeichnend wie im 18.– und 19. Jahrhundert. Damals setzte sich Kinderkleidung gewollt deutlich von jener der Erwachsenen ab. Im folgenden Beitrag gilt es nun, in größere zeitliche Tiefen vorzustoßen, an den Beginn unserer Geschichte. Wie drückte sich Identität durch Kleidung aus? Gab es bereits vor 2.000 Jahren spezielle Kinderkleidung?

Systematic excavations at the Castillo de Huarmey archaeological site, located on the North Coast of Peru, enabled researchers to collect an immense number of fabrics. During the first season of textile investigations, carried out in July of 2014 by American and Polish researchers, 724 objects were examined, including textile fragments, yarns, and cordage. A general description of the basic structures indicates a variety of weaving techniques. Although the collection consists mainly of plain weave of all kinds, new structures such as three-dimensional cross-knit looping and feather-mosaic work were recognized, none of which were encountered among textiles collected from the surface in previous decades.

Bone needles are often recovered from archeological sites dating to Roman times. They are found in both settlements and in burials. Most bone needles have a single eye, but some have been identified with two or three holes. Were bone needles exclusively used for sewing, or does the occurrence of multi-eyed needles indicate their use in other crafts? This paper proposes that the bone needles, especially those with three holes, could have been used to make fabrics using the nålbinding technique. With this technique, many items could have been made without sewing, as it creates a very stretchy fabric, which would have been particularly useful for socks and other garments. To test our hypothesis, we conducted an experiment to create fabric using copies of Roman bone needles. Bone needles were very common, and their occurrence could be explained by use of the nalbinding technique to produce fabrics both in the familia and in textile workshops. The nålbinding technique would make it possible to diversify textile production, with important economic consequences.

Nach einer kritischen Wertung der bislang bekannt gewordenen 35 Nachrichten über Moorleichen aus 23 Fundstellen im Landkreis Rotenburg (Wümme) können zehn Moorleichen aus neun Fundstellen mit hoher Wahrscheinlichkeit als subrezente
Funde bestätigt werden. Davon haben sich nur in fünf Fällen Hinterlassenschaften bis heute erhalten. An Objekten aus drei Fundstellen (Barchel, Bremervörde und Stemmen) konnten weitergehende Untersuchungen durchgeführt werden. Die Fundund Forschungsgeschichte dieser Exemplare wurde ausführlich dargestellt. Aus einem mutmaßlichen Leichenwachs (Barchel FStNr. 53) konnte keine menschliche DNA mehr extrahiert werden, um weitere Informationen zu gewinnen. Eine
Niedermoorleiche (Bremervörde FStNr. 98) konnte in das 7. Jahrhundert n. Chr. datiert werden. Hier gelang es über eine konventionelle anthropologische Untersuchung das biologische Alter auf etwa 40 Jahre festzulegen. Das Geschlecht konnte
nicht eindeutig bestimmt werden, aber vermutlich war es weiblich. Möglicherweise ertrank die Person in der Oste oder wurde Opfer eines Verbrechens.
Textilreste einer weiteren, nicht mehr erhaltenen Moorleiche (Stemmen FStNr. 17) konnten in das 3./4 Jahrhundert n. Chr. datiert werden. Textiltechnische Untersuchungen belegen eine Beschaffenheit, wie sie aus dem mediterranen Gebiet oder den
römischen Provinzen bekannt ist. Die Moorleiche lag mit dem Gesicht nach unten im Moor und wurde durch ein größeren Ast oder kleinen Baum bedeckt. Als Deutung kommt eine kultische Opferung oder eine Sonderbestattung in Frage.

Following a critical assessment of the known 35 reports of bog bodies from 23 locations in the County of Rotenburg (Wümme), ten bog bodies from nine locations could be confirmed as prehistoric finds with a high probability. Remains of only five of those cases have endured until our time. Further examinations could be carried out on objects from three locations (Barchel, Bremervörde and Stemmen). The history of the finds and the research about these specimens have been described extensively. A find of potential adipocere (Barchel FStNr. 53) was examined for human DNA in order to obtain further information; this effort failed. A bog body from a fen (Bremervörde FStNr. 98) could be dated to the 7th century AD. In this case it was possible to establish a biological age of about 40 years through a conventional anthropological examination. The sex could not be determined unequivocally, but was most likely female. The person might have drowned in the river Oste or become the victim of a crime. Fabric remains from another, no longer existing bog body (Stemmen FStNr. 17) could be dated to the 3rd / 4th century AD. Close examination of the technical composition of the fabric revealed properties familiar from the Mediterranean area or Roman provinces. This bog body was positioned face
down in the fen and covered with a large branch or small tree. It can be interpreted as ritual sacrifice or special burial.