Making Textiles in pre-Roman and Roman Times: People, Places, Identities

by Margarita Gleba (Editor), Judit Pásztókai-Szeőke (Editor)

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, labor 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.

Table of Contents

Preface Margarita Gleba
Maps
Introduction John Peter Wild

1. Textile Production and Trade in pre-Roman Italy Margarita Gleba
2. Textile Making – Questions Related to Age, Rank and Status Sanna Lipkin
3. Discovering the People behind the Iron Age Textile Producers and their Products in Austria Karina Grömer
4. Textile Production and Trade in Roman Noricum Kordula Gostenčnik
5. Craftspeople, Merchants or Clients? The Evidence of Personal Names on the Commercial lead tags from Siscia Ivan Radman-Livaja
6. Female Work and Identity in Roman Textile Production and A Methodological Discussion Lena Larsson Lovén
7. Trade, Traders and guilds (?) in the Case of Southern Gaul and Northern Italy (1st-3rd Centuries AD) Jinyu Liu
8. Textile Trade in the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea Manuel Albaladejo Vivero
9. Textiles and their Merchants in Rome’s Eastern Trade Kerstin Droß-Krüpe
10. (In)visible Spinners in the Documentary Papyri from Roman Egypt Sophie Gällnö
11. Textile Production Centres, Products and Merchants in the Roman Province of Asia Isabella Benda-Weber
12. Ulula, Quinquatrus and the Occupational Identity of Fullones in Early Imperial Italy Miko Flohr
13. A ‘Private’ Felter’s Workshop in the Casa dei Postumii in Pompeii Jens Arne Dickmann
Index

240 pages, Hardcover

First published October 30, 2013

Reviews

[C.L. Francisco · Rating 4 out of 5]

After having scrambled myself for bits of information on just this subject, I can appreciate how difficult it is to come by, and what hard work has gone into these small gold nuggets. Some of the essays were more useful to me than others, and scholars are not always entertaining writers, but I read everything with pleasure. Margarita Gleba's introductory chapter, Ivan Radman-Livaja's intriguing unraveling of the mystery of lead name tags, and Lena Larsson Loven's study on women's work and identity had to be my favorites, but then Benda-Weber's look at the complexity of textile production in Roman Asia was quite fascinating. There's an amazing world of history out there that most of us will never see. Take a look!

[Heather Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the types of publications that Oxbow is specializing in these days is collections of conference papers on textile topics such as this one. It comes from a workshop entitled “Work and Identity: The agents of textile production and exchange in the Roman period” and includes thirteen papers on both specialized and general topics related to textile production and trade. Both in topics and presentation the collection has a strong “traditional archaeology” feel to it. My favorites included several papers examining evidence (of various types) for the presence of women in textile production, both individual and commercial.