Making Textiles in pre-Roman and Roman Times

People, Places, Identities

Margarita Gleba, Judit Pásztókai-Szeőke, Judit Pásztókai-Szeőke

• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781842179000
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Archéologie

Textile production is an economic necessity that has confronted all societies in the past. While most textiles were manufactured at a household level, valued textiles were traded over long distances and these trade networks were influenced by raw material supply, labour skills, costs, as well as by regional traditions. This was true in the Mediterranean regions and Making Textiles in pre-Roman and Roman times explores the abundant archaeological and written evidence to understand the typological and geographical diversity of textile commodities. Beginning in the Iron Age, the volume examines the foundations of the textile trade in Italy and the emergence of specialist textile production in Austria, the impact of new Roman markets on regional traditions and the role that gender played in the production of textiles. Trade networks from far beyond the frontiers of the Empire are traced, whilst the role of specialized merchants dealing in particular types of garment and the influence of Roman collegia on how textiles were produced and distributed are explored. Of these collegia, that of the fullers appears to have been particularly influential at a local level and how cloth was cleaned and treated is examined in detail, using archaeological evidence from Pompeii and provincial contexts to understand the processes behind this area of the textile trade.

1. Transformations in Textile Production and Exchange in pre-Roman Italy

Margarita Gleba

Introduction

As an item of consumption, textiles range between luxury and necessity and are ideal for the creation of specialised products, the manufacture of which may be narrowly localised. Such a localisation creates demand and necessitates redistribution, resulting in textile trade. Hence, two developmental directions can be observed. The first is towards the production of luxury items needed for status display and (long-distance) gift exchange between elites, which leads to the development of highly specialised/skilled craftsmanship and a network of exchange and resource and object circulation, which can be archaeologically traced through the distribution of objects. The second is directed towards the swift production of necessity goods demanded by growing urban communities. This in turn leads to a development of more organised modes of production and trade in these necessity products. Unlike many other specialised crafts that appeared in Mediterranean Europe during the first half of the 1st millennium BC (e.g. glass or certain metal and pottery types), textile production was not a new craft. Instead, part of the production shifted from making subsistence products to the manufacture of non-essential or luxury goods. Thus, in addition to the adoption of new weaving techniques, technological changes were also induced by an organisational shift in production, i.e. a change in purpose, intensity and scale of organisation of textile production. As such, textiles present a special case in the production system of pre-Roman Italy.

Pre-Roman Italy: Economic and Social Transformations

The period from the 10th through the 7th centuries BC in the Apennine Peninsula was the time of development from small villages of mostly egalitarian type, to large urban centers with social stratification and specialised crafts (e.g. Guidi 1998).¹ The process of urbanisation was accompanied by important technological transformations, illustrated qualitatively and quantitatively by the excavated artefacts. Organised production intensified steadily during these centuries, as did commercial exchange throughout and beyond the Mediterranean sphere. The growing mobility, particularly visible in Greek and Phoenician movements across the Mediterranean from the end of the Bronze Age (1200–1000 BC), set in motion “material and nonmaterial transformations which affected the socio-political relations of nucleated communities” during their urbanisation (Riva 2010). Urban centres benefited from this mobility and the accessibility to, and exploitation of resources that it fuelled. The urban network in turn encompassed the entire Mediterranean and stimulated contacts and cultural interaction that culminated in the first common pan-European culture, the Orientalising phenomenon, which was based on the widespread circulation of luxury and prestige objects, many of which were imported from the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East, i.e. the Orient (Riva 2005). Such goods now became indispensable elements that defined and legitimised aristocrats and in turn inspired local craftspeople to take up new techniques and produce works in similar style.

The communities of the small and large urban centres of the Early Iron Age Italy required great quantities of textiles and were pressed to organise their consumption not only on the basis of local agro-pastoral activities but also through exchange. The transition from a ‘rural economy’ to ‘urban economy’ involved intensification of agricultural production including that of textile fibres. The qualitative changes in textile production are reflected in the development of better raw materials (e.g. sheep wool, cf. Gleba 2012), which allowed faster processing and production, as well as more complex techniques and patterns. The quantitative changes are demonstrated by the deposition (i.e. taking out of circulation) of substantial quantities of textiles in burials, e.g. at Verucchio in Italy (von Eles 2002) and, later, sanctuaries, as known from ancient written sources.

Technological Changes

The archaeological evidence indicates the development of new or more effective production processes, standardisation and manufacture of objects for specific purposes. Such developments occurred primarily under the patronage of elites and were motivated by the need to produce status markers and prestige goods (Nijboer 1997). Textiles were undoubtedly among the most important of these status markers, being a medium which made up perhaps the largest proportion of the visual environment of urban antiquity and constituting in clothing a crucial expression of identity. The display of luxury and prestige goods as seen in the archaeological record is closely mirrored in the behaviour of warrior aristocracies in the Homeric poems and reflects the ideological system underlying the behaviour, beliefs and values of Orientalising Mediterranean elites (Riva 2005). The common culture and ideology are also reflected in the burial customs of the elites, indicating that the horizontal ties which bound people of similar social status were much more important than the vertical ties linking them with their own communities (similar to the later European royal houses). The central role of women, both in the establishment of aristocratic ties through intermarriage and in textile production in Early Iron Age Italy, raises important questions regarding the modes of transmission not only of textile technologies but also of fashion.

The transformation of raw materials into final product involves a set of technologies and organisation on the part of a producer who possesses certain skills and recipes. Technology may be defined as “a corpus of artefacts, behaviours, and knowledge for creating and using products that is transmitted intergenerationally” (Schiffer and Skibo 1987). Thus, information about technology can be deduced from every archaeological artefact. Artefacts, in turn, represent a part of technology which can be recovered archaeologically, and, through their variability, attest to technological changes. Beyond the material aspects of technology, the technical decisions a craftsperson makes are also embedded in the worldviews, cultural practices and social relations of a given society (Lemonnier 1986; Dobres 2000). Changes in technology may hence be caused by experimentation, change in demand involving a product’s function, or economic processes such as competition (Schiffer and Skibo 1987; van der Leeuw and Torrence 1989).

Animal Husbandry

Procurement of raw materials is the first step of any craft. While the data are insufficient to support any conclusions about transformations in flax cultivation in pre-Roman Italy (cf. Gleba 2004), changes in wool production can be traced archaeologically through bone assemblages. Thus, analysis of the animal bone data from the settlements of Central Tyrrhenian and Adriatic Italy demonstrated an increase in ovicaprids “from 23.1% in the Middle Bronze Age, to 34.2% in the Recent Bronze Age and 49.7% in the Final Bronze Age” (de Grossi Mazzorin 2001, 325 and 326, table 2). This increase in sheep numbers has been interpreted as part of the wealth accumulation of the emerging aristocracy (de Grossi Mazzorin 2001, 325). More significant are the mortality data, which indicate that, starting in the Early Iron Age, sheep were being reared increasingly for wool, as demonstrated by the large number of old animals present in the assemblages (Barker and Rasmussen 1998, 73; de Grossi Mazzorin 2001, 327 and 326, fig. 1).

The question of sheep breeds is even more complex, and it is relevant to the discussion of wool qualities. Ancient literary sources indicate that, by the beginning of the Common Era, different qualities of wool were available to Roman consumers and many of the best fibres were produced in Italy, from where they spread throughout the Roman Empire in the form of sheep, raw materials or finished textiles (Frayn 1984; Jongman 2000; Vicari 2001; Gleba 2008, 74). Indeed, the analysed Roman textiles from various geographical locations demonstrate a wide range of wool qualities (e.g. Bender Jørgensen and Walton, 1986, 179; Ryder, 1981; Ryder, 1983, 177–180). The variety observed during the Roman times reflects a long period of evolution, based on selective breeding and the development of processing technologies. It is likely that, already in the Early Iron Age, intensive selective breeding was aimed at producing fleeces with specific qualities that would permit the manufacture of highly specialised and differentiated textiles. In fact, a recent diachronic investigation of wool quality from a variety of Italian pre-Roman sites demonstrates the development of sheep fleece from primitive Bronze Age wool with very fine underwool and very coarse kemps to the disappearance of kemp and more uniform fleece (Gleba 2012). By the end of the Iron Age, several fleece qualities coexisted in Italy, suggesting the presence of different sheep varieties.

Increase in the Number and Standardisation of Tools

The increase in sheep bone percentages correlates with the large numbers of textile implements found on settlement sites. Textile tools are ubiquitous at archaeological sites throughout Italy and often constitute the single most important and plentiful type of evidence for the assessment of the scale of textile production and technology at a given site (Gleba 2008). These implements include tools associated with various stages of textile manufacture: the preparation of fibres (shears), spinning of yarn (spindle whorls), weaving of fabric (loom weights), and secondary processes such as sewing (needles).

Large concentrations of spindle whorls and loom weights indicate a greater intensity of spinning and weaving activities. The increase in the numbers of textile implements is furthermore accompanied by their standardisation in shape and size and particularly in a general decrease in size that indicates finer products and higher expertise. At Poggio Civitate di Murlo, for example, the vast majority of spindle whorls are small and over 90 % of them are of the same truncated conical shape (Fig. 1.1; Gleba 2000). Loom weights found at the contemporary site of Acquarossa, similarly, have very uniform sizes and shapes (Fig. 1.2; Östenberg 1975). Since such uniformity is not essential for weaving itself, it is likely that it is due to the general standardisation of loom weight production. Compared to the preceding periods, implements were probably increasingly produced by specialist craftspeople, such as potters and coroplasts in the case of clay tools, and smiths in the case of metal implements. The standardisation of tools thus indicates that they were produced on a larger scale than before, corresponding to the intensification of textile making activities and a demand for the appropriate equipment. Such a demand would be especially high in urban areas.

Fig. 1.1. Ceramic spindle whorls, Poggio Civitate di Murlo, 7th-6th century BC. (Courtesy of Anthony Tuck, Poggio Civitate Excavation Project).

Fig. 1.2. A group of loom weights found in situ, Casa A, Zona B, Acquarossa, 6th century BC. (After Östenberg 1975, 79).

New Tools

In addition to the standardisation of the old implements, certain new tools make their appearance during the period under discussion, indicating new techniques and, consequently, new or improved products. Thus, shears came into use in the Iron Age (Fig. 1.3), revolutionising the way raw wool was collected and possibly triggering the development of new breeds of sheep with non-shedding fleece (Ryder, 1992 137). The introduction of shears most likely resulted in the intensification of wool production.

The appearance of spools (Fig. 1.4) in the Final Bronze Age corresponds to the advent of tablet weaving in Italy, which is of particular relevance to luxury and ceremonial textile production (see below; on tablet weaving, cf. Ræder Knudsen 2012). The fact that they are found in earlier contexts in the north seems to indicate that the technique arrived from Europe via the Alps. The presence of spools in the Early Iron Age contexts of southern Italy points to a rapid spread of this new technology throughout the peninsula, which most likely occurred through intermarriage or, alternatively, through slave trade.

New Textiles

One of the major turning points in textile history is the appearance of twill. Twill comes into use by the Urnfield period in Europe (9th-8th centuries BC),² starting what Bender Jørgensen has termed as “the twill horizon” (Bender Jørgensen 1992, 120). Different types of twills developed in different geogra...