Textiles In European Archaeology

The NESAT symposium has grown from the first meeting in 1981 which was attended by 23 scholars, to over 100 at the tenth meeting that took place in Copenhagen in 2008, with virtually all areas of Europe represented. The 50 papers from the conference presented here show the vibrance of the study of archaeological textiles today. Examples studied come from the Bronze Age, Neolithic, the Iron Age, Roman, Viking, the Middle Ages and post-Medieval, and from a wide range of countries including Norway, Czech Republic, Poland, Greece, Germany, Lithuania, Estonia and the Netherlands. Modern techniques of analysis and examination are also discussed.

This volume presents the papers from the seventh North-European Symposium for Archaeological Textiles (NESAT), held in Edinburgh in 1999. The themes covered demonstrate a variety of scholarship that will encourage anyone working in this important and stimulating area of archaeology. From the golden robes of a Roman burial, to the fashionable Viking in Denmark, through to the early modern period and more technological aspects of textile-research, these twenty-four papers (five of which are in German) provide a wealth of new information on the study of ancient textiles in northern Europe.

Growing enthusiasm for handspinning and weaving as studio crafts and increasing awareness of the value of organic materials have led to wider interest in archaeological textiles. Although textiles are not common finds, textile implements are, and this book shows how both contribute to our appreciation of a universal ancient craft. Geographically this book is concerned with Britain and Europe and in time ranges from the neolithic to the medieval period. The processes of spinning and weaving are explained and illustrated and the reader is taken through early textile manufacture. Unusual textile terms are explained and illustrated in a glossary.

The North European Symposium for Archaeological Textiles (NESAT) was founded in 1981 as a discussion forum between various disciplines: textile archaeologists, historians, art historians, natural scientists, conservators and craftspeople. The NESAT XII symposium was organized by the Natural History Museum Vienna from 21st to 24th May 2014 in Hallstatt, Austria. The venue of the 12th Symposium was chosen on account of the archaeological heritage of Hallstatt as well as the flora and fauna of the whole region, which is designated in the UNESCO World Heritage list. The conference volume contains 35 scientific papers grouped into seven chapters. The first chapters introduce Austrian textile research and prehistoric textile finds from Europe, such as recent analysis of the earliest wool finds and early Scandinavian textile design. The main corpus of articles deals with textiles and clothing covering a time span from early medieval to the early modern period, their archaeological research, experiments and art historical context. Five papers focus on tools and textile production, object-based research as well as experimental archaeology and investigation of written sources. The chapter "Specific analyses" embraces interdisciplinary research including dyestuff analysis, isotopic tracing and a drawing system for archaeological textile finds from graves. The book, therefore, provides a wealth of information on recent research being undertaken into archaeological textiles from sites in northern Europe.

There is evidence that ever since early prehistory, textiles have always had more than simply a utilitarian function. Textiles express who we are - our gender, age, family affiliation, occupation, religion, ethnicity and social, political, economic and legal status. Besides expressing our identity, textiles protect us from the harsh conditions of the environment, whether as clothes or shelter. We use them at birth for swaddling, in illness as bandages and at death as shrouds. We use them to carry and contain people and things. We use them for subsistence to catch fish and animals and for transport as sails. In fact, textiles represent one of the earliest human craft technologies and they have always been a fundamental part of subsistence, economy and exchange. Textiles have an enormous potential in archaeological research to inform us of social, chronological and cultural aspects of ancient societies. In archaeology, the study of textiles is often relegated to the marginalized zone of specialist and specialized subject and lack of dialogue between textile researchers and scholars in other fields means that as a resource, textiles are not used to their full potential or integrated into the overall interpretation of a particular site or broader aspects of human activity. Textiles and Textile Production in Europe is a major new survey that aims to redress this. Twenty-three chapters collect and systematize essential information on textiles and textile production from sixteen European countries, resulting in an up-to-date and detailed sourcebook and an easily accessible overview of the development of European textile technology and economy from prehistory to AD 400. All chapters have an introduction, give the chronological and cultural background and an overview of the material in question organized chronologically and thematically. The sources of information used by the authors are primarily textiles and textile tools recovered from archaeological contexts. In addition, other evidence for the study of ancient textile production, ranging from iconography to written sources to palaeobotanical and archaeozoological remains are included. The introduction gives a summary on textile preservation, analytical techniques and production sequence that provides a background for the terminology and issues discussed in the various chapters. Extensively illustrated, with over 200 color illustrations, maps, chronologies and index, this will be an essential sourcebook not just for textile researchers but also the wider archaeological community.

Enth. u. a. (S. 45-52): Keltische Textilien in der Schweiz / Antoinette Rast-Eicher. [Betr. u. a. Textilien aus Münsingen-Rain.].

Discusses both the revolutionary cultural, social, and economic impact of Bronze Age textile production in Europe and innovative methodologies for future studies.