Weaving/looms

SUMMARY: Chapter 8, in Renfrew & Bahn's textbook (Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice), covers what typically survives, what constitutes an "artifact", interpreting usage, obtaining materials (e.g., quarrying; mining), transporting materials, installing materials, manufacturing items, identifying function, experimental archaeology, etc., regarding stone, bone, antler, shell, leather, wood, plant, metal, faience, glass, and other materials and diverse artifacts.  In my view, this is one of the best college textbooks available, and is invaluable for students, archaeologists, and the public in general, to obtain a top notch overview of approaching and interpreting the archaeological record.  UPDATED May 2023.

‘KNOT+ED’ was an event facilitated by the Sir James Fletcher Museum to bring together and share the traditional knowledge and practices of indigenous Taiwanese and Māori weavers. The purpose of the event was to encourage the sustainability of cultural knowledge by creating a platform for engagement with current and future generations. This booklet is a compilation of the key techniques and material uses of Tayal, Bunun and Māori traditional weaving skills, including the spiritual and symbolic meanings embodied and embedded within the weaving practices discussed.

Tablet woven bands were widely used to embellish various garments and even in some cases worn alone as a headband throughout the Viking Age. Numerous surviving examples have been found at Viking Age Norse archeological sites all throughout Europe including (but not limited to) Scandinavia, the European Mainland, and the British Isles. Considering this, I thought that I should try my hand at learning how to do some basic tablet weaving and have created a thin band of weaving with a basic chevron design. I will use this band (and more in the future as my skills build) to further embellish the period costumes I create and create a more authentic look and feel.

In this paper, I present results of a series of weaving experiments on a warp-weighted loom. This project was motivated by a desire to develop a better first-hand understanding of the role of some technical aspects of the loom on the types and frequencies of weaving patterns. As a reflection of my personal interest and to keep the scope of this paper manageable, I focused on two main aspects. The first is the fact that extant textile remains show that all four-shed patterns woven on a warp-weighted loom share a common characteristic and that is that they are always broken, not symmetrical. The second is motivated by the finds of crescent shaped loom weights and considers methods to maintain uniform tension in the warp threads while weaving twill.

We can approach the study oi weaving, clothing and other uses of textiles in ancient Egypt from archaeological remains, iconographic and written sources. They all indicate that the skirt and the tunic were the keys to dressing, and linen the fabric. Trends and social background made notable differences from the exquisite garments oi the Pharaoh and exclusive clothing of certain hierarchies to the almost nudity of the simple folks. This article pro vides some clues to understand that in ancient Egypt clothes adorned status more than they did people, and that the importance of attire went beyond death.

When we started preparing this catalogue, little work has been done in Bolivia on the museological aspects of textiles from the Andean and Amazonian regions of the country, and still less in a contextualised sense, taking into account the social life of its regions. Neither was there an adequate link, within Bolivian archaeology, between museum collections and national research into textiles, and this discipline is only recently showing an interest in this theme. And although there had been certain advances over the past decades within anthropology and the history of art into the study of textiles, this had not produced a renovation of ideas in theory or in practice, applicable to the organisation of textile exhibitions. In the present volume, in coordination with the Museo Nacional de Etnografía y Folklore (Musef), in La Paz, we decided to remedy this situation by proposing a new focus towards the woven objects located in the museum deposits, centred on making these textiles within the productive chain of weaving, taking into account the social life of the weaving communities of practice in the region, and also the social life of textiles as both objects and subjects.

La presente tesi di laurea nasce da un interesse personale inerente un particolare argomento assai trascurato e poco dibattuto: la tessitura. La mia ricerca è iniziata grazie alla pratica della rievocazione storica ed alle prove d’archeologia sperimentale svolte con diverse associazioni. Nel processo spettacolare/didattico di rievocazione storica vi è la necessità basilare di ricostruire gli abiti e i tessuti che venivano utilizzati quotidianamente nel passato, questo mezzo dunque assume un’importanza fondamentale nel mostrare al pubblico quale fosse l’aspetto di quelle persone. Il materiale da cui provengono queste informazioni viene principalmente dalle fonti archeologiche ed iconografiche. Il mio interesse verso questo studio è nato principalmente per motivi pratici legati alla necessità di avere materiali filologici da utilizzare in rievocazione. Questa ricerca iniziale si è approfondita sempre di più per contestualizzare il tipo e la qualità dei tessuti utilizzati, le tipologie di telai che producevano questi tessuti e le tonalità di colori naturalmente ottenibili. L’obbiettivo di questa tesi è dunque comprendere le fasi cruciali della tessitura, partendo dalla storia di quest’attività, comprese le prime attestazioni di cucito antecedenti alla tessitura vera e propria. Il metodo utilizzato è basato su un’analisi della storia della tessitura e dei più famosi reperti tessili ritrovati, uno studio dei primi metodi pratici utilizzati per l’intreccio delle fibre e la comprensione del funzionamento delle “macchine” per la realizzazione dei tessuti. Il primo capitolo affronta la storia della tessitura dalle sue iniziali attestazioni. Nel secondo capitolo è descritto lo sviluppo di alcuni dei numerosi tipi di telai esistiti nei diversi millenni, per la comprensione del funzionamento di queste macchine. Il terzo capitolo entra in una fase più specifica, attinente la fabbricazione delle materie prime da cui produrre i diversi tipi di filati d’origine vegetale e animale, poiché dal tipo di materia naturale utilizzata si ottengono importanti informazioni di carattere societario, quali le tipologie d’allevamento e le coltivazioni presenti. Di notevole importanza è la tintura dei tessuti, tema affrontato nel quarto capitolo, in particolare il tipo di pigmenti naturali ricavati dalle piante, dagli animali o dai minerali, che danno le varie gradazioni di colore, al fine di comprendere la minore o maggiore difficoltà nella realizzazione di questi e conseguentemente per capire l’importanza che assumevano determinati colori rispetto ad altri. Il quinto ed ultimo capitolo è la parte fondamentale di questa ricerca: l’applicazione dell’archeologia all’attività tessile. Sono affrontate le problematiche inerenti la rarità dei reperti tessili (dovuta al loro rapido deterioramento naturale), l’importanza assunta dal ritrovamento degli strumenti da lavoro, nonché le prove lasciate sul campo da questi manufatti; da questi elementi si possono ricavare informazioni pratiche sulla base delle loro caratteristiche fisiche (forma, materiale, resistenza) e delle loro finalità, determinate dalla funzione pratica. In questo campo l’archeologia ha la massima importanza, essendo il metodo diretto da cui otteniamo le informazioni in fase di scavo. Applicando i ritrovamenti alle numerose rappresentazioni grafiche ed alle fonti letterarie antiche, è possibile ottenere i dati con cui poter ricostruire buona parte del processo manifatturiero.

Texts and textile finds from Iron Age Deir ‘Alla in the Jordan Valley and Kuntillet ‘Ajrud in the North-Eastern Sinai shed some light on a female goddess. Both sites are dated about 800 BC, and revealed unique inscriptions and drawings on plastered walls and on both sites a special kind of textile was produced. In Kuntillet ‘Ajrud a collection of about a hundred textile fragments was discovered, amongst these pieces of textile was a fabric made of a mixture of wool and linen: the so called: sha’atnez (Lev. 19, 19. and Ex. 28, 4 –8). In Deir ‘Alla too a special textile has been excavated, in the complex in which the Balaam plaster text was found. Here a very fine hemp cloth was made. The benched (cult) room in Deir ‘Alla and Kuntillet ‘Ajrud and the production of a special cloth could point to a similarity in the function of both sites. The production of special fabrics may be interpreted in the light of the religious function of the sites because at least part of the fabrics are thought to be produced for the shrine. The names used in the texts from Deir ‘Alla and Kuntillet ‘Ajrud point to a female goddess. Textile production is often related to the goddess Asherah /Ishtar and weaving for Asherah is a usual ritual in the Levant during this period. Whether the production of textile in Deir ‘Alla and Kuntillet ‘Ajrud can be related to the goddess Asherah is debated.

Textiles are rarely found in archaeology because they decay due to climate and soil conditions. Objects that were used to make thread and fabric and that are found in excavations do, however, enable reconstructions of textile production. In this study the data from 1480 loom weights and a number of textile fragments from four Iron Age sites in Transjordan – dated between 800 and 332 BC – were used as a starting point to reconstruct the economic and cultic aspects of textile production. This opened up new insights into the availability and use of raw materials, production techniques, labour investment, producers, consumers and the market. The approach of this study, placing textile research in the context of text analysis, has enabled new interpretations of archaeological finds, unveiling aspects of the economic, social and religious fabric of Iron Age society, and simultaneously it sheds new light on texts from the southern Levant, resulting in a new kaleidoscopic approach to biblical archaeology.

In this introduction the main research
approaches applied to textile tools will be
outlined. The ways in which the different
groups of artefacts have been studied in the
past will be investigated, as well as how more
innovative approaches came into being in
recent decades and, finally, which research
potentials have not yet been fully explored.
This chapter aims to present the research
produced by scholars of textile tools and why
and how, if at all, this pool of knowledge
has influenced Aegean and Near Eastern
archaeological research in general.
First, the chapter will provide an overview of
the research approaches and key issues related
to textile tools in the Bronze Age Eastern
Mediterranean, also in comparison to central
and northern Europe. Second, it will discuss
the research on various textile tools. Finally,
the chapter will conclude by proposing a shared
framework to ameliorate the scholarly work on
textile tools in the future. Published in in E. Andersson Strand and M.-L.  Nosch (eds.), Tools, Textiles and Contexts. Investigating textile production in the Aegean and  Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age. Ancient Textiles Ser. Vol. 21. Oxford: Oxbow, 1–23.

We are indebted to various sources for our knowledge of the pre-Roman Iron Age textile production on the territory of Austria (800-15 BC), such as well-preserved textiles, grave finds, textile tools, archaeological evidence in settlements and depictions of textile producers and their products.
We can find evidence of their activities in each settlement, where they lived and worked. Spindle whorls, loom weights and needles in graves may indicate that the deceased who were accompanied by these tools were textile workers, and furthermore point to a special social status these persons occupied in their communities. Particularly during the early Iron Age  predominantly women have textile tools in their graves, sometimes even being accompanied by tool sets (e.g. spindles and knifes or spindles and needles). Depictions of textile work, such as on the Sopron Urn and the Bologna tintinnabulum, illustrate different stages of the textile production process from spinning to weaving.
The two case studies of Hallstatt and Dürrnberg demonstrate that textile production in Iron Age Austria was organised in different ways, providing diverse archaeological evidence concerning the producers, consumers and traders of textiles.

Das Thema „Produktion“ ist Ausgangspunkt, in deutlicher Weise die Komplexität des prähistorischen Textilhandwerkes aufzuzeigen. Die verschiedenen notwendigen Arbeitsschritte zur Herstellung eines Gewebes gehen weit über das reine Spinnen und Weben hinaus: Arbeiten zur Rohstoffgewinnung, Materialaufbereitung, das Spinnen, verschiedene Web- und Verzierungstechniken, die Nachbearbeitung, und das Nähen. Für diese Arbeitsschritte werden unterschiedliche Geräte benötigt, aber auch sonstige Ressourcen wie Anbauflächen, Platzbedarf oder spezialisiertes Know how. Anhand ausgewählter Beispiele werden Möglichkeiten dargestellt, die in der Interpretation der Textilien und textilen Gerätschaften liegen. So sind etwa Diskussionen über die produzierenden Personen, sowohl deren Geschlecht als auch, ob die Tätigkeiten bereits in der Eisenzeit arbeitsteilig durchgeführt wurden, wie dann aus römischer Zeit bekannt, möglich. Nach den derzeitigen Hinweisen scheinen zumindest das Spinnen und Weben von Frauen durchgeführt worden sein. Das Geschlecht der TextilarbeiterInnen für die anderen Produktionsschritte kennen wir nicht.

Abstract: During excavations on the summit of the hill Timpone della Motta near the village of Francavilla Marittima (Calabria), many decorated and heavy loom weights of a unique type were found. These loom weights were uncovered with
fragments of cooking stands, bucket-shaped pithoi, and datable fragments of pottery imported from Euboea or inspired by
it. The objects are associated with the remains of a 28 m long, apsidal timber structure (Building V.b) with an altar, built by
Italic-Oenotrian elites in the 8th century BC. The loom weights were decorated with variations of meander-swastika motifs,
which were likely to have been inspired by woven fabrics. The motifs on the loom weights symbolised the sun and appear on
other objects used by Oenotrian women, including loom weights from Canale Ianchina. Thus, the Calabrian 8th-century BC
weaving was an indigenous activity, evidenced by its relation to the widespread European solar iconography of the Bronze Age.
However, contacts with Greeks from Euboea and elsewhere, may have changed or/and intensified the local textile production.

Between 1998 and 2001 at Contrà Pedemuro S. Biagio, in the town of Vicenza, an interesting cluster of loom weights has brought to light.
Contrà Pedemuro S. Biagio is located in the urban area of the town, in the north of via Postumia, nearby the river. Archaeological investigations revealed the presence of a complex structure of a building, dated from the Augustan period to the 2nd century.
Among the ceramic finds, 76 loom weights with truncated pyramidal shape and rectangular or thin rectangular base have been found. A lot of them (more than 55%) have an un-epigraphic little stamp on the upper base, but some sample have some decorative stamps on lateral surface or graffiti post cocturam.
The Contrà Pedemuro S. Biagio cluster of loom weights supply new details in relation to the results of a recent Padova University Project, and better define the role of wool economy in Roman Vicenza.

This paper is a document for an Arts & Science competition within the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA). Thus, it is presented in such a way as to show the history of this weave pattern, particularly in the Iron Age. The item woven in this document is a sleeping pad made out of alpaca rug yarn. Within you will find information on the archeology of this pattern in the Iron Age, and how to create a peg loom that will weave this pattern.

Abstract
Weaving in Anatolia from the Neolithic Period to the end of the
Early Bronze Age in the Light of Archaeological Finds
This study focuses on data relating to early weaving in Anatolia. In
fact, weaving, which dates back to the Paleolithic Age, is one of the
oldest occupations of humanity. In this context, an evaluation of the
development and technology of weaving in the light of archaeological
finds in the period from the Neolithic Period to the end of the Early
Bronze Age in Anatolia has been attempted. The first pieces of fabric
and weaving tools found in settlements dating to the Neolithic Period in
Anatolia provide important information about weaving. The first fibers
were bark fibers and plant fibers such as flax. In addition, the absence of
weaving weights and spindle whorls in settlements such as Çatalhöyük
is important in terms of showing that different techniques were applied
here at the beginning of weaving technology. The existence of fabrics
woven on weightless horizontal looms gives clues to the use of spindles
without spindle whorls or wooden spindle whorls that have not survived
until today. However, weaving weights found in Aşağı Pınar document
that production was carried out on weighted looms. This shows that
there were regional differences in weaving technology in the Neolithic
Period. In Anatolia, in the Chalcolithic Age, an increase is observed in
by-products, especially in parallel with the development of animal husbandry.
It is noteworthy that wool as an animal fiber started to become
widespread in this period. There is also an increase in the number of
terracotta or stone spindle whorls and loom weights. It is understood
from fabric remains that wool and linen weighted weaving was practised
in this period. The diameter and weight of the spindle whorls are very
important as they give information about the thickness of the fiber that
was being spun. Likewise, the width and weight of the loom weights
are important. While the weight helps to calculate what thickness of
rope tension it provides, if found in situ associated with loom residue,
the remains can give the width of the woven fabric when juxtaposed
on a loom. Unfortunately, a study that lacks these basic measurements
is tantamount to ignoring potential information. In the Early Bronze
Age, an increase in weaving activities is probably observed in parallel
with the increase in population. It is understood from the numerical
density of weaving tools that there was industrial scale production in
some settlements such as Troy and İkiztepe. moreover, it is known that there was a cloth trade between Harran, an important city-kingdom,
and the city of Ebla in Syria during this period. Surplus products from
weaving were probably used for trade. In Mesopotamian mythology,
the existence of the Goddess Uttu related to weaving is known. The
existence of some rituals related to the goddess indicates that there may
be symbolic meanings in the light of written documents on weaving.
Wool and linen fabrics are known to exist in the Early Bronze Age. It is
known that the fabric was used to wrap weapons in tombs or to wrap the
dead. Moreover, golden appliqués in the Alaca Höyük royal tombs, and
the remains of fabrics found in the royal grave of Arslantepe, suggest
that the dead were buried in clothes. It has been determined that in this
period vertical warp-weighted weaving looms were used in weaving
technology throughout Anatolia.
Keywords: Weaving Tools, Textile Production, Neolithic, Chalcolithic,
Early Bronze Age, Anatolia

This paper discusses a recently discovered coin hoard in the German-Israeli Tell Iẓṭabba Excavation Project. The copper-alloy coins date from the time of Alexander II Zabinas (129/128-124/123 BCE). The linen cloth in which the hoard was wrapped is discussed in light of the site history and archaeology-a Seleucidfounded settlement that was destroyed by John Hyrcanus in 108/107 BCE. We examined the relationship between the fabric and the truncated-pyramid loom weights, which were found at the site in considerable numbers as the area of Beth She'an was famous for the cultivation of flax and the production of linen for centuries. Is it possible that this linen fabric was woven on a loom using the loom weights found at the site? Or could it have been manufactured elsewhere?

The textile tools recovered at the Late Bronze Age levels of Tepecik Mound, which is located in Çine Town of Aydın Province, provide important information about the weaving history of Anatolia.  In this study, several types of baked clay and unbaked clay loom weights were examined in terms of their typological and technological characteristics.  In addition, the comparisons were made with the similar examples that were recovered in various findspots in Anatolia, in the Aegean and in the Near East with an aim to determine their distribution area.  The loom weights were studied in terms of cultural relations, focusing on the reasons for the usage of different types loom weights at the same period. As a result, it is understood that they were represented in 4 different types and the existence of local Western Anatolian types together with the crescent loom weights known from Hittite cultural region and the unbaked spools which were widespread in a large geographical area as from the Aegean to the Eastern Mediterranean, proves that Çine-Tepecik mound was an important centre with active interregional cultural relations in Anatolia during the Late Bronze Age.  Given the number of loom weights, it is understood that textile production were not in industrial scale, rather had a local character that caters the needs of local people. The loom weights in various weights and shapes demonstrate that the different types of textiles were produced. It also shows that the residents of Çine-Tepecik Mound used traditional weaving technologies together with the new Technologies./ Aydın ili Çine ilçesinde bulunan Tepecik Höyüğü Geç Tunç Çağı tabakalarında ele geçirilen çeşitli dokuma aletleri Anadolu dokumacılık tarihi bakımından önemli veriler sunmaktadır. Bu çalışmada pişmiş ve pişmemiş topraktan üretilmiş, çeşitli tiplerdeki tezgah ağırlıkları tipolojik ve teknolojik bakımdan değerlendirilmiştir. Ayrıca Anadolu, Ege Dünyası ve Önasya’dan çeşitli buluntu yerlerindeki benzer örneklerle karşılaştırmalar yapılarak dağılım alanları belirlenmeye çalışılmıştır. Kültürel ilişkiler bakımından incelenen farklı tip tezgah ağırlıklarının aynı dönemde bir arada kullanılmasının nedenleri üzerinde durulmuştur. Sonuç olarak 4 farklı tip ile temsil edilen dokuma tezgah ağırlıkları, yerli Batı Anadolulu tiplerin yanında, bir taraftan Hitit kültür bölgesinden tanınan hilal biçimli tezgah ağırlıkları ve diğer taraftan Ege Dünyası’ndan Doğu Akdeniz’e kadar çok geniş bir coğrafyaya yayılan pişmemiş topraktan yapılmış silindir biçimli tezgah ağırlıkları; Çine-Tepecik Höyüğü’nün Geç Tunç Çağı Anadolu’sunda bölgeler arası ilişkileri etkin olan önemli bir merkez olduğunu kanıtlamaktadır. Tezgah ağırlıklarının sayısı göz önüne alındığında tekstil üretiminin endüstriyel boyutlarda olmadığı, daha çok halkın ihtiyacına yönelik yerel karakterde olduğu anlaşılmaktadır. Çeşitli ağırlık ve şekillere sahip tezgah ağırlıkları, farklı türde kumaşların üretildiğini kanıtlamaktadır.  Bu durum Çine Tepecik Höyüğü sakinlerinin, dokumacılıkta geleneksel teknolojiyle beraber yeni teknolojileri de kullandığını göstermektedir.

The contribution of this thesis to the existing field of tiraz textile studies is that it
has tried to overcome the existing rift between historians and textile specialists,
in approaching the subject in a more unified way, which takes into account the
interrelationship between production, administration and use. Historians have
traditionally worked on the textile industry and administration from the point of
view of Arabic literary sources, while textile specialists focused on the material
evidence of fabrics and their manufacture.

Rather than relying on one collection, as most previous authors have done,
samples from all the major museum collections are examined here and have
been arranged in a database of 1823 items, which made it possible to analyse
the properties of textiles taxonomically. By using taxonomic analysis both
material and historical information could be combined and emerging trends
tested against the historical evidence of literary sources. A major discovery here
has been how the textile evidence reflects administrative changes in control of
the textile industry and the wider administrative relationship between Egypt and
Iraq under the Abbasids.

While there is agreement by both textile specialists and historians that tiraz
textiles were produced for court consumption, neither considered the question
why tiraz textiles were used in burials, from which most surviving tiraz textiles
have in fact been recovered archaeologically. This thesis approaches this
subject by considering both material and literary evidence and suggests that
tiraz textiles were regarded as a source of blessing for the deceased because of
their caliphal association recorded in their inscriptions.

Description of the Shroud of Turin and of its textile structure, with reference to the weaving technology and to the parallels found in different historical periods, and comparison with what is known from the history of weaving and from archaeology, particularly in the Palestinian area. The artifact is confirmed fully compatible with a late medieval origin.
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Descrizione materiale della Sindone di Torino e della sua struttura tessile, con riferimento alla tecnologia di tessitura e ai paralleli riscontrabili nelle diverse epoche storiche, e confronto con quanto ci è noto dalla storia della tessitura e dall’archeologia, in particolare di area palestinese. Il manufatto si conferma pienamente compatibile con un’origine bassomedievale.