AN OFFPRINT FROM ANCIENT TEXTILES SERIES 36 THE COMPETITION OF FIBRES EARLY TEXTILE PRODUCTION IN WESTERN ASIA, SOUTH-EAST AND CENTRAL EUROPE (10,000–500 BC) International workshop Berlin, 8–10 March 2017 Edited by WOLFRAM SCHIER AND SUSAN POLLOCK Paperback Edition: ISBN 978-1-78925-429-7 Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-78925-430-3 (epub) Oxford & Philadelphia THE COMPETITION OF FIBRES ANCIENT TEXTILES SERIES 36 THE COMPETITION OF FIBRES EARLY TEXTILE PRODUCTION IN WESTERN ASIA, SOUTH-EAST AND CENTRAL EUROPE (10,000–500 BC) International workshop Berlin, 8–10 March 2017 Edited by WOLFRAM SCHIER AND SUSAN POLLOCK Oxford & Philadelphia Published in the United Kingdom in 2020 by OXBOW BOOKS The Old Music Hall, 106–108 Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4 1JE and in the United States by OXBOW BOOKS 1950 Lawrence Road, Havertown, PA 19083 © Oxbow Books and the individual authors 2020 Paperback Edition: ISBN 978-1-78925-429-7 Digital Edition: ISBN 978-1-78925-430-3 (epub) A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Control Number: 2020932451 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher in writing. Printed in the United Kingdom by Short Run Press Typeset by Versatile PreMedia Services (P) Ltd For a complete list of Oxbow titles, please contact: UNITED KINGDOM Oxbow Books Telephone (01865) 241249 Email: oxbow@oxbowbooks.com www.oxbowbooks.com UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Oxbow Books Telephone (610) 853-9131, Fax (610) 853-9146 Email: queries@casemateacademic.com www.casemateacademic.com/oxbow Oxbow Books is part of the Casemate Group Front cover: Based on a poster by Birgit Nennstiel, Berlin. Photos: lime bast, copyright Anne Reichert (bottom); flax fibers, https:// commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1323711 (centre); sheep wool, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index. php?curid=6764684 (top). Contents Contributors Series editor’s preface Editors’ preface 1. Introduction Wolfram Schier and Susan Pollock 2. The Neolithic Revolution in the Fertile Crescent and the origins of fibre technology Ofer Bar-Yosef 3. Early wool of Mesopotamia, c. 7000–3000 BC. Between prestige and economy Catherine Breniquet 4. Continuity and discontinuity in Neolithic and Chalcolithic linen textile production in the southern Levant Orit Shamir and Antoinette Rast-Eicher 5. Fibres, fabrics and looms: a link between animal fibres and warp-weighted looms in the Iron Age Levant Thaddeus Nelson 6. An archaic, male-exclusive loom from Oman Janet Levy 7. The Topoi Research Group Textile Revolution: archaeological background and a multi-proxy approach Wolfram Schier 8. Fibres to fibres, thread to thread. Comparing diachronic changes in large spindle whorl samples Ana Grabundžija and Chiara Schoch 9. Finding the woolly sheep: meta-analyses of archaeozoological data from south-western Asia and south-eastern Europe Cornelia Becker, Norbert Benecke, Hans-Christian Küchelmann and Stefan Suhrbier 10. Taming the fibres: traditions and innovations in the textile cultures of Neolithic Greece Kalliope Sarri 11. Ex Oriente Ars? ‘Anatolianizing’ spindle whorls in the Early Bronze Age Aegean islands and their implications for fibre crafts Sophia Vakirtzi 12. Different skills for different fibres? The use of flax and wool in textile technology of Bronze Age Greece in light of archaeological experiments Agata Ulanowska 13. Neolithic flax production in the pre-Alpine region: knowledge increase since the 19th century Sabine Karg 14. Underrated. Textile making in Neolithic lakeside settlements in the northern Alpine foreland Johanna Banck-Burgess ix xiii xv 1 5 17 27 39 49 59 73 83 95 111 127 141 153 vi Contents 15. Textile materials in the Mesolithic and Neolithic and their processing Anne Reichert 16. Raw materials, textile technologies, innovations and cultural response in central Europe in the 3rd–1st millennia BC Karina Grömer 17. The first genetic evidence for the origin of central European sheep (Ovis ammon f. aries) populations from two different routes of Neolithisation and contributions to the history of woolly sheep Elena A. Nikulina and Ulrich Schmölcke 18. Sheep husbandry in the Ancient Near East. Cuneiform evidence from the archaic texts from Uruk (c. 3500–2900 BC) Ingo Schrakamp 165 181 199 207 Participants of the Berlin conference, March 2017 Front row (from left): Hans Christian Küchelmann, Cornelia Becker, Chiara Schoch, Sophia Vakirtzi, Anne Reichert (standing). Second row: Malgorzata Siennicka, Janet Levy, Orit Shamir, Margarita Gleba, Virginija Rimkutė, Linda Hurcombe, Ofer Bar-Yosef, guest. Third row: Wolfram Schier, Agata Ulanowska, Søren Dietz, Vanya Petrova, Kalliope Sarri, Sabine Karg, Ana Grabundžija, Catherine Breniquet, Johanna Banck-Burgess. Fourth row: Ulrich Schmölcke, Susanne Jahns, Norbert Benecke, Helmut Kroll, Thaddeus Nelson, guest Contributors Prof. Dr Ofer Bar-Yosef Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA; obaryos@fas.harvard.edu Ofer Bar-Yosef (PhD, Hebrew University Jerusalem, 1970) is the MacCurdy Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University. He jointly conducted a series of Palaeolithic and Neolithic excavations in caves and open-air sites in Israel, Sinai (Egypt), Czech Republic, Republic of Georgia and China. He actively participated in three field projects in Turkey. His main interests are the archaeology of human evolution, global migrations, the origins of agriculture and the rise of pastoralism. Dr Johanna Banck-Burgess Regierungspräsidium Stuttgart, Landesamt für Denkmalpflege, Textilarchäologie, Berlinerstraße 12, 73728 Esslingen, Germany; johanna.banck-burgess@rps.bwl.de Dr Johanna Banck-Burgess works as textile archaeologist at the State Service for Heritage Management of BadenWürttemberg. For more than 30 years she has been involved with textile research; mainly early iron age and neolithic textiles. She is also responsible for excavated organic finds. Basic research including new methods of documentation and new research approaches are important parts of her work. Her publications also comprise critical assessment of the methods in textile research and reflect on transfer of knowledge in the field of reconstruction. Dr Cornelia Becker Weidenstr. 60, 26389 Wilhelmshaven, Germany; cobeckerwhv@gmail.com Cornelia Becker is a recently retired archaeozoologist, who studied zoology, botany and anthropology. Since 1974 she took part in the analysis of faunal remains from excavations in Germany, Greece and Switzerland. From 1983 to 2017 she worked as lecturer at the Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology of the Free University Berlin and was engaged in projects in Europe, south-west Asia and Africa. Her main focuses were prehistoric economy and ecology, as well as bone-working artisanry in different time periods, from the Aceramic Neolithic to Modern Times. Prof. Dr Norbert Benecke Referat Naturwissenschaften, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Im Dol 2-6 (Haus I), 14195 Berlin, Germany; norbert.benecke@dainst.de Norbert Benecke is head of the Department of Natural Sciences at the German Archaeological Institute and a specialist in the field of archaeozoology. His main research interests include the exploitation of animals by prehistoric people in the various landscape zones of Eurasia (Neolithic– Iron Age), animal domestications in prehistoric times and the environmental history of Eurasia. Dr Catherine Breniquet Pr. Histoire de l’art et archéologie antiques, Université Clermont-Auvergne/EA 1001-CHEC, UFR LCSH, 29 boulevard Gergovia, F – 63037 Clermont-Ferrand cedex 1 EA 1001-CHEC, France; catherine.breniquet@uca.fr Catherine Breniquet, PhD (Paris, 1990), HDR (Paris, 2006) is a Professor of History of Art and Archaeology of Antiquity at Clermont-Auvergne University. During the 1980s–1990s, she was a member of the French Archaeological Delegation in Iraq (DAFIq). She conducted fieldwork in Khirbet Derak, Tell el’ Oueili and Tell es-Sawwan in Iraq. The focuses of her research are the Late Neolithic period of Mesopotamia and textile archaeology. Dr Ana Grabundžija Institut für Prähistorische Archäologie (FU Berlin), Fabeckstr. 23-25, 14195 Berlin, Germany; agrabund@ gmail.com Ana Grabundžija studied archaeology, anthropology and geography at Zagreb University (MSc, 2010). She defended her PhD in Prehistoric Archaeology at Freie Universität Berlin (February 2017) on the topic ‘Archaeological Evidence for Early Wool Exploitation in South East and Central Europe’. x Contributors As postdoc she was employed in a follow-up project to incorporate more data from central European sites. Natufian, 13,000 cal BC, to the Chalcolithic, 5000– 3900/3800 cal BC, and their socio-economic impact. PD Dr Karina Grömer Prehistoric Department, Natural History Museum Vienna, Burgring 7, 1010 Vienna, Austria; karina.groemer@ nhm-wien.ac.at Karina Grömer studied prehistoric archaeology at the University of Vienna in Austria (Habilitation 2019). She has specialised in textile analysis, research on textile tools and reconstruction of prehistoric costumes. Since 2008, she has been working at the Department of Prehistory of the Natural History Museum Vienna for different international research projects, e.g., DressID – Clothing and Identity, CinBA – Creativity in the Bronze Age, and the Chehrabad Saltmummy & Saltmine Exploration Project. Her current research focuses on the analysis of textiles from graves, settlements, and salt mines, covering a time span from 2500 BC to AD 1000. Dr Thaddeus Jacob Nelson 128 ECC, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook NY, USA, 11794-2662; Thaddeus.Nelson@stonybrook.edu Thaddeus Nelson, Dr Phil. (Stony Brook 2016) is an Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at Suffolk County Community College. His dissertation analysed Iron Age II Levantine loom weights in order to explore the changes in textile production that occurred as components of social and economic centralisation observed in this period. Ongoing work focuses on reconstructing the scale and organisation of weavers through archaeological materials. Dr Sabine Karg MA Free University Berlin, Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, Fabeckstraße 23-25, 14195 Berlin, Germany; Sabine.Karg@ fu-berlin.de Sabine Karg, Dr Phil. II (Basel, 1994), is a senior researcher and lecturer in archaeobotany at the Free University of Berlin. She is an expert in plant macroremains analysis from all time periods, focusing on Europe. Her current research is financed by the German Research Council and deals with the knowhow of flax cultivation and plant fibre production in Neolithic UNESCO wetland sites in the pre-Alpine region. Hans Christian Küchelmann Speicherhof 4, 28217 Bremen, Germany; info@ knochenarbeit.de; http://www.knochenarbeit.de Hans Christian Küchelmann studied biology at the University of Oldenburg until 1997. He began working as a freelance archaeozoologist in his lab, Knochenarbeit, in Bremen, mainly on German assemblages. International engagements include projects in Armenia, Morocco and Turkey. Since 2015 he has been a researcher at the German Maritime Museum Bremerhaven in a project concerned with the medieval to early modern stockfish trade. From 2016 to 2018 he was employed at the archaeozoology lab of the University of Groningen. Dr Janet Levy Department of Bible, Archaeology and the Ancient Near East, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, POB 653, Beer Sheva 84102, Israel; janetl@post.bgu.ac.il Janet Levy received her PhD at the Department of Bible, Archaeology and the Ancient Near East of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in 2018. She specialises in fibre technology of the prehistoric Levant from the Epipalaeolithic Dr Elena A. Nikulina Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology, Foundation Schleswig-Holstein State Museums, Schloss Gottorf, 24837 Schleswig, Germany; elena.nikulina@schloss-gottorf.de Elena A. Nikulina, Dr rer. nat., is a Senior Researcher and leader of the archaeogenetic laboratory at the Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology (ZBSA) in Schleswig, Germany. She is an expert in evolutionary biology and marine biodiversity. Recently, her primary research interests include the distribution of species in Holocene Europe, the history of domesticated animal populations and the effect of human cultural development on species’ ranges. Prof. Dr. Susan Pollock Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Vorderasiatische Archäologie, Fabeckstr. 23-25, 14195 Berlin; spollock@ zedat.fu-berlin.de Susan Pollock is professor of Western Asian Archaeology at the Freie Universität Berlin and formerly professor in the Department of Anthropology, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY. She has longstanding research interests in the village and early state societies of Western Asia and has conducted field projects in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey as well as Turkmenistan. Her research centres around commensality and food-related practices, processes of subjectivation, political economy, and feminist approaches to the past. Anne Reichert Experimentelle Archäologie/Archäotechnik, Storchenweg 1, D-76275 Ettlingen-Bruchhausen, Germany; anne.reichert@ freenet.de Anne Reichert is experimental archaeologist and archaeotechnician. For many years she has undertaken numerous experiments in reproducing Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age pottery, producing birch tar and processing vegetal matter such as vegetal fibre, bark and tree bast. She has reconstructed well-known archaeological find assemblages such as the Iceman’s (‘Ötzi’) equipment using authentic Contributors materials and techniques. She also developed a travelling exhibition about textile materials in the Neolithic and teaches Stone Age techniques at museums and schools. Dr Kalliope Sarri Centre for Textile Research (CTR), Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen, Karen Blixensvej 4, DK-2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark; kalliope.sarri@gmail.com Kalliope Sarri, MA (Athens), Dr Phil. (Heidelberg) was a Marie Skłodowska Curie fellow at the Centre for Textile Research, Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen. Her current project is entitled ‘Neolithic Textiles and Clothing Industries in the Aegean’. Her main research interests are south-east European prehistory, ethnology and textile studies. Prof. Dr Dr h.c. Wolfram Schier Free University Berlin, Fachbereich Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften, Institut für Prähistorische Archäologie, Fabeckstr. 23–25, Raum 0.1028, 14195 Berlin; wolfram. schier@fu-berlin.de Wolfram Schier is Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology at Free University Berlin. He studied at the universities of Munich, Saarbrücken and Oxford, and received his PhD in 1985. He held positions as Assistant Professor at Heidelberg University and as Professor at the universities of Bamberg and Würzburg. His research focuses on the Neolithic of south-eastern and central Europe, social structure and social change during the European Iron Age, and the diachronic and comparative archaeology of settlements and landscape. Currently, he is also researching the spread of prehistoric innovations (production of wool and copper), archaeo-astronomy, prehistoric transfer of knowledge and Neolithisation. Dr Ulrich Schmölcke Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology, Foundation Schleswig-Holstein State Museums, Schloss Gottorf, 24837 Schleswig, Germany; ulrich.schmoelcke@schlossgottorf.de Ulrich Schmölcke, Dr rer. nat., is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology (ZBSA) in Schleswig, Germany. As an archaeozoologist his main research interests are Holocene faunal history and the palaeoecology and development of European ecosystems. Chiara Schoch Institut für Vorderasiatische Archäologie (FU Berlin), Fabeckstr. 23-25, 14195 Berlin, Germany; schoch@zedat. fu-berlin.de In 2018 Chiara Schoch completed her PhD dissertation in archaeology on ‘Changes and Continuities in Textile Crafts from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age in Western Asia’. She aims to find the people behind the spindle whorls and tries to do so via practical experience and statistical analysis. xi PD Dr Ingo Schrakamp Freie Universität Berlin, Fachbereich Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften, Institut für Altorientalistik, Fabeckstr. 23-25, Raum – 1.1059, 14195 Berlin, Germany; schrakam@ zedat.fu-berlin.de Ingo Schrakamp, Dr Phil. (2010 Marburg, Habilitation 2018 Berlin), is a Post-Doc at the Institute for Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Freie Universität Berlin. He focuses on the early periods of Mesopotamia and has published on the history, chronology, geography, socio-economics and lexicography of Mesopotamia. Dr Orit Shamir Israel Antiquities Authority, PNB 586, Jerusalem, Israel, 90904; orit@israntique.org.il Orit Shamir, Dr. Phil. (Jerusalem 2007) is Head of the Department of Museums and Exhibits and Curator of Organic Materials at the Israel Antiquities Authority. Her area of specialisations are ancient textiles, loom weights and spindle whorls from the Neolithic to the medieval period in Israel. Her publications appear at www.antiquities.academia. edu/OritShamir Dr Stefan Suhrbier Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, Free University Berlin, Fabeckstrasse 23–25, 14195 Berlin; suhrbier@zedat. fu-berlin.de Stefan Suhrbier studied Prehistoric Archaeology at the Universities of Bamberg, Würzburg and Berlin until 2005. In 2017 he received his PhD from the Free University of Berlin. From 2006 to 2017 he held a lecturer position in Prehistoric Archaeology at the Free University of Berlin. His special field of study is the central European Neolithic. He has worked on the Middle Neolithic in northern Bavaria with a focus on chronology and settlement archaeology. His current research is on chronological network analysis. Dr Agata Ulanowska Centre for Research on Ancient Technologies, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Tylna 1, 90-364 Łódź, Poland; Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28, 00-927 Warsaw, Poland; a.ulanowska@uw.edu.pl Agata Ulanowska, PhD (Warsaw 2014), is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw. The focus of her research is on the Bronze Age Aegean, textiles and experimental archaeology. In 2015–2017 she was the head of the project Textile Production in Bronze Age Greece – Comparative Studies of the Aegean Weaving Techniques (FUGA 4 programme, Polish National Science Centre) and employed at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences in Łódź. xii Contributors Dr Sophia Vakirtzi Archaeological Resources Fund, Hellenic Ministry of Culture, 57 Panepistimiou str. Athens 105 64, Greece; sophievak@gmail.com Sophia Vakirtzi received her Archaeology degree from the University of Athens. In 2002 she completed her Master’s in Environmental Archaeology (DEA co-hosted by the Musée National d’Histoire Naturelle, Université Paris I, Paris VI, Paris X, Université de Besançon and the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon). In 2015 she defended her doctoral dissertation at the University of Crete on the topic of Bronze Age Aegean yarn production. Her research focuses on the prehistoric textile economy and technology. Series editor’s preface It is a pleasure to introduce this volume on ancient fibres as part of the Ancient Textiles Series. After much research focus on ancient dress, clothing and textiles, it is timely to dedicate a volume to the raw materials, the fibre and its qualities and technical aspects. The editors, Wolfram Schier and Susan Pollock, are to be congratulated for bringing this volume out, as a grand finale of the work carried out in the ‘Textile Revolution’ research group. It was a visionary decision to include a textile research team in the ambitious Excellence Cluster TOPOI. The Textile Revolution team has brought out significant new results and formed a new generation of textile scholars and archaeologists with a broad range of skills. This volume testifies to this achievement. Marie-Louise Nosch Copenhagen, September 2019 Editors’ preface The international Workshop ‘Competition of Fibres’ was held at the TOPOI building in Berlin-Dahlem 8–10 March 2017 with financial support of the German Research Foundation (DFG). It attracted some 20 international researchers in textile archaeology, who presented their most recent research on early textiles in south-west Asia and Europe and discussed it together with the members of the research group ‘Textile Revolution’, established in 2012 within the Berlin Cluster of Excellence TOPOI. The aim of the workshop was to stimulate discussions on the relationship between different fibre resources and their modes of exploitation. Special attention was given to the textile production process. The potential material advantages according to fibre type were reviewed within a broader context of environmental, cultural, economic and social interactions. Out of the 23 papers presented at the workshop, 16 have been collected as articles in this volume. A paper by Ingo Schrakamp, who was member of the research group but was not able to attend the workshop, was included for the publication. We received the written contributions in December 2017, while the review and editing procedure lasted until October 2018. At the end of 2018 it became clear that Edition TOPOI would no longer be available for publishing the conference proceedings due to the termination of its funding. The editors had to search for alternative publishing options and are very grateful to Oxbow Books for accepting this edited volume for publication. Our special thanks goes to Marie-Louise Nosch (Copenhagen) for welcoming the volume in the series Ancient Textiles and, in general, for her marvellous support of our research group. We are thankful for the support in copy-editing the volume contributed by Anna Hahn, Gisela Eberhardt and Julia Ebert. Birgit Nennstiel agreed that her attractive poster for the conference could be used as inspiration for the book cover designed by Declan Ingram at Oxbow Books. Finally, we wish to thank our authors for their patient cooperation and hope that the volume will be welcomed as a representative collection of recent research on early textiles between south-west Asia and central Europe. Wolfram Schier and Susan Pollock Berlin, November 2019 12 Different skills for different fibres? The use of flax and wool in textile technology of Bronze Age Greece in light of archaeological experiments Agata Ulanowska Flax and wool were the basic raw materials in textile production in Bronze Age Greece. Both fibres represent different physical and chemical properties, but if exploited together they provide an excellent choice in response to various needs. The cultivation and processing of flax and wool required different knowledge, organizational strategies and skills. These differences are well understood based on experimental archaeology, but they are difficult to grasp in the archaeological record. This paper aims to trace these differences by discussing the evidence that may be helpful in order to recognize how different properties of both fibres were exploited and how the procurement of fibres was organized. It also examines modern experiences of actors and experimenters who process flax and wool today. Keywords: Bronze Age Greece, flax, wool, textile technology, skills, experimental archaeology, experience archaeology Introduction Flax and wool have been assumed to be the basic raw materials in textile production in Bronze Age Greece that must have also played a major role in Bronze Age economies.1 Even if the use of other fibres has been attested by actual archaeological textiles (e.g. nettle and goat hair),2 may be speculated with high probability (e.g. hemp) or is suggested by various yet indirect evidence (e.g. wild silk and sea silk),3 archaeological and textual evidence implies that the exploitation of flax and wool indeed dominated. The properties of flax and wool may be recognized as representative for the two major classes of natural fibres, i.e. plant (flax) and animal (wool). Since these properties are, in many respects, complementary, the use of both fibres seems to provide an excellent choice in response to various consumers’ needs. The cultivation, husbandry and processing of wool and flax required different types of knowledge, organizational strategies and skills. Although the chaînes opératoires of fibre procurement are well understood based on experimental archaeology (including ethnographic and historical comparanda), their traces are difficult to grasp in the archaeological record. Also, the history of flax and wool exploitation in the Aegean, the level of intensity with which these raw materials were used and possible innovations in processing of both fibres are not easy to recognize or reconstruct. This paper aims to contribute to the overall discussion on the use of flax and wool in Bronze Age Greece by focusing on this part of the archaeological record (e.g. archaeological textiles, textile tools, iconography of fibres, textual evidence), which may be helpful in order to recognize how different properties of both fibres were exploited and how the procurement of fibres was organized. In order to examine the differences in skills required to procure both fibres, this paper also discusses a range of archaeological experiments undertaken to explore textile technology in Bronze Age Greece. These experiments comprise the author’s experience and that of students of archaeology with spinning and weaving flax and wool, and