The Textile Revolution in Bronze Age Europe

Production, Specialisation, Consumption

Serena Sabatini, Sophie Bergerbrant

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781108493598
• eBook ISBN:
  9781108659369
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

Textile production and the introduction of wool and woolen textiles represented a great revolution in Bronze Age Europe at the dawn of the second millennium BC. The available contemporary written sources from the Mediterranean and Near East suggest that textile production had a strong impact on the cultural, social, and economic life. In most parts of continental Europe, however, archaeological material alone can help us understand the details relating to textile production and its wider importance to early societies. This book provides new insights on patterns of production, specialization, and consumption of textiles in Europe throughout the Bronze Age. Assembling a diverse array of studies on various aspect of the textile production and economy, the essays, specially written for this volume, provide a wide range of scientific data as well as archaeological evidence. They also show the great potential of examining early textile production through the use of innovative methodologies and diverse perspectives.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• List of Contributors
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• One Textile Production and Specialisation in Bronze Age Europe
• Two The Wool Zone in Prehistory and Protohistory
• Three Weaving in Bronze Age Italy: the Case of the Terramare settlement at Montale
• Four Loom Weights in Bronze Age Central Europe
• Five Textiles Remains in Polish Iron Age BI-RITUAL Cemeteries
• Six To Let Textiles Talk: Fibre Identification and Technological Analyses of Prehistoric Textiles from Denmark
• Seven The Challenge of Textiles in Early Bronze Age Burials: Fragments of Magnificence
• Eight Textile Ceramics as a Complement to Textile Research
• Nine Prehistoric Transhumance in the Northern Mediterranean
• Ten Wool Production and the Evidence of Strontium Isotope Analyses
• Eleven Wool Textiles in the Early Nordic Bronze Age: Local or Traded?
• Twelve Archaeological Wool Textiles: A Window into Ancient Sheep Genetics?
• Thirteen Skin, Furs, and Textiles: Mass Spectrometry-based Analysis of Ancient Protein Residues
• Fourteen Wool in the Bronze Age: Concluding Reflections
• Index