"Aegean Bronze Age Textile Production Techniques - Spinning and Weaving", 2nd Experimental Archaeology Workshop in Warsaw, 15-19 June 2015, short report

AEGAEUM 33 Annales liégeoises et PASPiennes d’archéologie égéenne - KOSMOS. JEWELLERY, ADORNMENT AND TEXTILES IN THE AEGEAN BRONZE AGE, 2012

The most common archaeological evidence for textile production in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean is the presence of spindle whorls and loom weights. The spindle whorls demonstrate a production of spun thread while the loom weights indicate the use of the warp-weighted loom. A wide variety of both spindle whorl and loom weight shapes have been recorded. In the past, this diversity has generally been explained in terms of cultural, geographical and chronological factors. In contrast, recent research has considered some aspects of shape as an expression of textile tool function. This approach, which draws on experimental archaeology, has made it possible to render textile craft visible, even if the textiles themselves are not preserved.

In the contemporary studies on the textile production experimental approach to the process of manufacturing textiles and the functional analysis of textile tools produce an important part of the research. Thanks to the pioneer archaeological experiments conducted within the Tools and Textiles – Texts and Contexts (TTTC) Project of the Danish National Research Foundation's Centre for Textile Research in Copenhagen the most important technical parameters of the textile tools were acknowledged. During these experiments some copies of prehistoric Aegean spindle-whorls and loom weights were reproduced, tested and analysed in terms of their functionality. In the result the weight and the thickness of a loom weight were recognized as two crucial technical parameters directly influencing the quality of a fabric. The optimal set up of the warp weighted loom was estimated and the relation between the quality of warp threads and their optimal tension recognized. Moreover, the tests suggested that there is a possibility to approximate, what yarns and what fabrics respectively might have been produced with specific textile tools. Textile production in the Bronze Age Greece is the main subject of my research carried in the Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw. Experimental approach to the textile techniques, specifically weaving, is applied together as a research and a didactic method of teaching. The experimenters are mostly students, who attend the teaching courses on prehistoric weaving techniques and who are supposed to learn the basic “body knowledge” of weaving and the textile terminology by practice. In these experiments, mostly of experiential character, copies of loom weights from the Bronze Age Greece are also employed. Students first model themselves several copies of a chosen artefacts and afterwards they weave with different sets of loom weights. In that way students gain ‘hands on experience’ in weaving, being able to understand the aforementioned relation between loom weights and fabrics by practice. We have to our disposal several sets of copies of Minoan discoid, spherical and cuboid weights, three types of Late Helladic spools and finally two sets of Early Bronze Age loom weights from Tiryns. The last two sets consist of loom weights unique in the Aegean: a crescent like (“banana”) weights and heavy cylinders with three perforations. Both sets where several times applied for weaving, which allows for some observations on their functionality. More tests, including further modelling of artefacts, are planned for this winter/spring semester. In my paper I present insofar results of our experiments with copies of Early Bronze Age tools, though I have to emphasize that the students are not experienced weavers and therefore their observations have to be analysed with a special caution. I refer to the significant difference between the parameters of the discoid loom weights and heavy crescent shape weights, and cylinders. I discuss difficulties in the proper reconstruction of the way in which these two last types of weights might have been set up on the warp weighted loom; the use of crescent shape weights for twill weaving and the possibility of using “bananas” and cylinders as somehow more universal weights in the process of textile manufacturing.

in M.-L. Nosch & R. Laffineur (eds), KOSMOS: Jewellery, Adornment and Textiles in the Aegean Bronze Age. Proceedings of the 13th International Aegean Conference, 21-26 April 2010. Peeters: Leuven-Liège, pp. 57-63, 2012

The archaeological site of Pyrgos (Belgiorno 2009) offers the opportunity to carry out archaeometric investigation on Bronze Age textile evidence. In 2003, during the excavation campaign, twenty spindle-whorls were found in the textile area G7 (Belgiorno 2004). In the following years, spindle whorls have been detected all around the excavation area and the evidence were distributed as follows: five objects from F5/7, a living unit; eight from E5/7, a living unit; three from F9, new excavation area; eight from G8, an area in connection with the textile sector; one from H7, a small storage/service room; two from H9, the winery; one from I6, the oil press/perfumery; two from I8/9, a metallurgical court; four from K7, a metallurgical court; four from M/L5, a working area with two basins in connection with metallurgy

Louise Quillien – Kalliope Sarri (Eds.) Textile Workers, 2020

Prehistoric textile production continues to attract the interest of scholars studying the remains of textiles as well as textile tools made of various materials, particularly clay, stone and bone. From Early Bronze Age (EBA) Greece (the 3rd millennium BC), almost no actual fabrics have been preserved, thus textile research can only investigate the numerous implements used in their production which were primarily found in the settlements. The aim of this paper is to discuss craftsmanship in EBA Greece. New insights regarding textile tools, yarn manufacture and weaving, and the organisation of production will be presented. The textile implements commonly preserved display various qualities and methods of production, from ‘home-made’ to standardised. Therefore, it seems that in some cases they may have been made by professional craftspeople and widely distributed, while in other cases they were made instead for private use. By analysing the archaeological contexts of such finds (especially clay spindle whorls and loom-weights), it is to a certain extent possible to reconstruct patterns in their use, for example regarding the working areas and the organisation of textile manufacture. There is no reliable evidence for specialised textile workshops in this period and a household-based production or individual/home industry is more probable. On account of the wide range of types and dimensions of spindle whorls and loom-weights, it can be assumed that textile craftspeople developed specialised skills in the manufacturing of yarns of various thicknesses and quality and textiles of diverse quality, patterns and weaves, according to their needs or the requirements of the market, whether it was local or part of wider trade routes. Keywords: Aegean; Early Bronze Age; textile production; textile workers; textile tools; craftsmanship

In 2013-2017 a research project “Greek Textile Tools. Continuity and changes in textile production in Early Bronze Age Greece” was undertaken in the Centre for Textile Research (CTR), SAXO Institute at the University of Copenhagen within a Marie Skłodowska Curie fellowship (FP7-PEOPLE-2012-IEF, PIEF-GA-2012-329910). Its aim was to investigate , development and changes of textile tools, techniques of textile making, as well as influences from Anatolia and the Balkans on textile production in Early Helladic Greece. The research was based on a thorough investigation and analysis of archaeological finds from excavations mainly in the Peloponnese (predominantly spindle whorls and loom weights), experimental tests undertaken at CTR and the University of Warsaw (by courtesy of Dr. Agata Ulanowska), as well as collected ethnographical, zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical data. In this paper, the main results of the project will be summarised with emphasis on 1. Changes in spinning and weaving during Greek Early Bronze Age; 2. New textile implements and techniques; 3. Use of plant vs. animal fibres; 4. Organisation of textile production.

The manufacture of textiles and garments had a long tradition in the Aegean already prior to the beginnings of the Early Bronze Age. Numerous textile tools, especially spindle whorls and loom weights, are preserved from the Neolithic sites which demonstrate that spinning with spindle whorls and weaving on the warp-weighted loom were commonly practiced. Plant fibres, particularly linen, seem to have been the main material for the production of cloth and textiles during this period. At some point, most probably during the Early Bronze Age, animal fibres (sheep wool) began to be used in the Aegean on a wider scale. Since hardly any Neolithic and Early Bronze textiles are preserved from the Aegean, we can study textile tools made of stone, bone and clay in order to comprehend technological traditions and innovations in textile production. Diachronic changes in the use of spindle whorls and loom weights (their weights, dimensions and shapes) may shed some light on alternations in not only fibre use, but also in various spinning and weaving techniques. In this paper I would like to focus on chosen aspects of textile implements from Early Bronze Age Peloponnese.