Panel 6.3 – Textiles and Fashion in Antiquity


Organiser/Chair:

  • Mary Harlow (University of Leicester)

Speakers:

Panel abstract

This panel will bring together a range of scholars and material which stress the points that in the ancient world, textiles and dress form key factors of cultural identity, and that textile production was one of the major consumers of raw materials and labour time. The various papers discuss the functionality of textiles whether as dress or soft furnishings or highly utilitarian items such as sails, and the various messages embedded in or projected by them.
Textile and dress studies engage with a wide range of primary material and a broad scope of methodologies. They tend to be about much more than the immediate subject, dealing with aspects of identity, of economics, of cultural interactions and indeed, of understanding of the cosmos. The papers offered here elucidate ways in which the study of textiles and dress can enhance both our understanding and engagement with the ancient world.

 

Paper abstracts

1. Mary Harlow (University of Leicester)

Spinning: the invisible profession
The Roman wardrobe required miles and miles and miles of spun thread (perhaps up to 40 kilometres to make an imperial toga) but spinning is a craft that is rarely commemorated in Roman inscriptions or literature. When spinners are commemorated they are almost invariably lower class/slave women, a factor which only adds to its invisibility in terms of profession. This paper will argue that studies of archaeological textiles suggest that the production of miles of standardised thread in a particular diameter suggest highly skilled craftswomen who, if not defined as a profession, were required to work in a professional manner in terms of rates of production and quality control.

 

2. Francesco Meo (University of Salento)

Textile production in Lucania in the Hellenistic Period. Some Case Studies
The research conducted during the last years on textiles and textile production in Southern Italy is giving meaningful results regarding the knowledge of ancient cloths and their production system.
This paper will focus on textile production in a specific area of the South of Italy, Lucania, through the study of some contexts.
The first of them is the so-called ‘Casa dei Pithoi’ of Serra di Vaglio, a 4th century BC aristocratic house. About 100 loom weights have been discovered in a row along a wall of this dwelling together with traces of the burnt loom. The loom weights have been investigated with the methods of investigation developed by the Centre for Textile Research of the University of Copenhagen which allow us to recognise the quality of the warp by analysing the relationship between the weight and thickness of the possible set of weights.
The results will be compared with those of the Square Building of the Heraion near the mouth of the Sele river where about 300 loom weights have been discovered and studied applying the same methods and where the presence of some looms for the production on several qualities of cloth has been hypothesized.
A second step will be the comparison of the previous results with a piece of cloth found mineralised in a 4th century BC Lucanian burial of Paestum and recently published.
The combination of the results from these contexts will give us a first picture of textile production in Lucania during the Hellenistic period.

 

3. Judit Pásztókai-Szeőke / Ivan Radman-Livaja (Archaeological Museum of Zagreb) / Ottó Sosztarits and Andrea Csapláros (Iseum Savariense)

Refurbishing Pannonian identities. Interpreting the archaeological evidence of a Roman workshop
As human skin covering the body from outside is seen as the physical boundary of the individual as a biological and psychological entity, gestures, formation-modification of the corporeal body and clothing together can be interpreted as its social skin. This constitutes a malleable surface, which is not only shaped by personal preferencies, social consent and expectations, but communicates personal and social identities as well. Both the type of dress and how it is treated are important parts of such a cultural medium.
The archaeological excavations of a workshop in the southern suburb of ancient Savaria yielded an abundant corpus of textile tools and inscribed commercial lead tags. Tools, most of which have no local indigenous predecessors, but their parallels origin back to Italy, are a very useful source for the textile technologies applied locally by the workers. The tags were used as labels for valuable garments entrusted by clients to the care of this workshop for refurbishing them.
The archaeological finds from this workshop and similar inscribed lead tags (more than 1200 has been known by now) from other sites of Pannonia not just allow us to study the local wardrobes (which seem to be different from the iconographically attested picture), and help to trace the cultural biography of different garments in this region (e.g. the Roman dress icon, the toga), but also the local practice for treating clothes in the local Pannonian culture.

 

4. Marie-Louise Nosch (University of Copenhagen) / Stella Spantidaki (Université Paris-Sorbonne) / Peder Flemestad (Lund University)

Where are the sails? An interdisciplinary search for the textiles of the Athenian fleet
The Athenian fleet is one of the most iconic endeavors of the Greek city state, a symbol of democracy, naval supremacy, organizational skills and technological skill. Thanks to the Athenian navy, Athens gained power over the seas and on this ground, founded an empire. The Athenian fleet’s glory is primarily known for the period from 480 to 322 BCE.
But where are the sails? This question is addressed to both the ancient Greek sources and to modern scholarship on the Athenian fleet.
Many studies focus of construction technology and function of the wooden parts of a trireme. Although the sails were not the main source of energy for the propulsion of a war ship, they remain a vital part of the equipment. They are recorded in detail in the naval inscriptions. They start around 400 BCE and give an overview of transactions, agents and equipment. Following a decree in the year of 358 BCE, these inventories and annual accounts become very precise, detailed and extensive. Archaeology of the harbor installations in these years is expanding, especially thanks to the ZEA Harbour project, and data from experimental archaeology and ship reconstructions provides new information, which will allow us to quantify resources and the use of sail cloth.
Ship archaeologists have mainly explored the hulls, masts and oars, and textile archaeologists focus on textiles for clothing and domestic use. This presentation will thus bridge a gap in scholarship on the textiles of war ships. In order to understand the extent of sail production and use, we will include results from experimental sailing and experimental weaving. We will explore sail technology, the organization of sail making and maintenance of sails, as well as the administration and storage facilities that were put in place for the war ships’ sails and rigging. Here, we will focus entirely on ships in the Athenian fleet.

 

5. Ali Drine (INP Tunisie)

Témoignages archéologiques et historiques sur les teintureries et les couleurs antiques dans la Petite Syrte
Témoignages archéologiques et historiques sur les teintureries et les couleurs antiques dans la Petite Syrte
Les recherches que nous effectuons dans la Petite Syrte ont permis la découverte des témoignages archéologiques sur les teintureries antiques. Ceux-ci proviennent des sites de Meninx dans l’île de Jerba et d’El Mdeina l’antique Zouchis au sud du Lac El Biben. Parmi ces témoignages citons des cuves utilisées dans les préparations de la teinturerie, des amoncellements des murex pilés dont les glandes servaient à l’obtention de la pourpre… La teinturerie à base de pourpre en Tripolitaine est confirmée par PLINE l’ANCIEN, la NOTITIA DIGNITATUM, le géographe STRABON…Les teintureries antiques étaient aussi d’origine végétale. Un document découvert à Meninx confirme l’utilisation de la garance pour obtenir une belle teinture de couleur rouge rosée.
Nous signalons aussi la présence d’autres couleurs : l’ocre rouge, le vert, le jaune et le vert. De boules bleues découvertes dans les horrea de Meninx seraient identifiées au fameux lomentum ou au caeruleum vestorianum qui se rapporte au bleu égyptien. Confectionné à partir de matières premières peu coûteuses, ce bleu nécessite un savoir-faire certain, ce qui explique d’ailleurs sa cherté : Une livre de vestorianum se vend en moyenne 11 deniers soit 45 fois le prix d’une livre d’huile, 175 fois le prix d’une poterie simple… (J.-P.Morel, 1984, p.99).

 

6. Lena Larsson Lovén (University of Gothenburg)

Textiles in Roman daily life
Textiles were multifunctional in Roman society and various types of textiles were used by everyone on a daily basis. In Roman culture, the clothed body was the social norm and clothes were used in everyday life by people of all ages: men, women and children. Clothes played an important role as identity markers of an individual that would visually communicate aspects of the age, gender and social status of the wearer. In addition to clothes, a variety of other textiles were used in daily life. Items such as bedcovers, blankets, cushions, and curtains were common in Roman private houses where they were used for both practical and decorative purposes. Like clothes, textiles in interior decoration could work as markers of status but up to date and in spite of the attention on historical textiles we have witnessed during the last almost twenty years, textiles in Roman interior decoration have drawn only scant scholarly attention. This contribution will focus on the use of clothes and other textiles and how they were used in daily life and how they could function as markers of status.

 

7. Rocio Manuela Cuadra Rubio and Jordi Pérez González (Universitat de Barcelona)

Mobiliario textil en la casa romana. La comodidad perdida
El presente estudio representa la síntesis de una reflexion a cerca de la casa romana. La casa romana es entendida como un contenedor de la que se estudia su arquitectura, su decoración, su evolución y en algunas ocasiones también su contenido. Las investigaciones sobre la casa romana han sido siempre enfocadas en función a los hallazgos que nos hablan de la vida cotidiana de una sociedad. Sin embargo, exisite una serie de objetos que hoy no encontramos pero que existían en el día a día de la vida de un ciudadano romano y de los que se han realizado hasta el momento pocos estudios. Hablamos del mobiliario téxtil, es decir, aquel grupo de objetos como cojines, cortinas, manteles, etc. que creaban el comfort en la casa y contribuían, como hoy, al descanso o a las tareas del hogar de una familia. El estudio del mobiliario téxtil se basara en gran parte en la iconografía y a partir de ésta, lograr entender cómo era y cuál era su presencia en la casa romana. Una vez realizada una primera aproximación al mundo de las telas como parte indispensable del mundo privado de las casas romanas, estudiaremos cuales fueron los diversos tipos y cualidades de las telas utilizadas en el mobiliario romano, de donde procedieron y cuales fueron las rutas de acceso utilizadas por los comerciantes textiles. Para ello será indispensable conocer quienes estuvieron detrás del comercio de las mejores lanas, linos, sedas y púrpuras representados en las figuras de los lanarii, sericarii o purpurarii.

 

8. Anna den Hollander (University College Roosevelt/Utrecht University)

Gendered Economics and Dedications: an Analysis of the Brauron Clothing Catalogues
This study aims to investigate women’s economic contributions to the oikos through the garments that they produced, as reflected in their dedications from Brauron. The Brauron clothing catalogues provide the names of the dedicants and the nature of the garments, indicating that the textiles were donated and possibly made by women. Arguably, the economic value of the garments lies in the time and labour spent producing them, as well as in purchased resources like raw materials. The material requirements for the production of the garments will be compared with the list of ancient professions and their wages in Loomis (1998). This will be complemented with a grounded analysis of various literary sources, including Aristophanean comedy, focusing on the presented definition of female economic activity in general and women’s textile production in particular. By deriving the grounded categories to define these aspects from the sources themselves, grounded theory contributes to less a biased, more reflexive hypothesis regarding women’s craft activity in ancient Athens. Existing gaps in the record of the clothing catalogues are tentatively filled through a semantic analysis like the one applied by Cleland (2005). The paper will argue that the wealth embedded in the garments exceeds the value one would expect based on literary sources, which describe a very limited female economic contribution to the oikos.

 

9. Audrey Gouy (Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour)

The Performative Clothing in Preroman Italy. Ritual Function of Etruscan Dress among Mediterranean Interactions and Cultural Identity (6th-5th cent. B. C.)
The representations of ritual performances found in Tyrrhenian Etruria and dated from the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. permit to define a complete repertoire of Etruscan clothes for this period. The studies of Larissa Bonfante distinguished the clothes inspired from the Mediterranean area and those properly Etruscan. I will propose an innovative functional and anthropological study in order to stress a cultural definition of Etruscan dress and to focus on its importance as a ritual device.

  1. How can we determine the clothes had a ritual function? And what was it? My PhD thesis on Etruscan dance has highlighted that specific clothes were employed for rituals, and that they were used according to the moments and the functions of the rituals. This brings me to consider them as performative tools. I will study in particular the reliefs from Chiusi and the tomb paintings from Tarquinia.
  2. Consequently, it questions the actors' status in rituals. It is possible to draw differences of clothing between performers and thus their different functions during rituals. The clothes will be understood as propitiatory ritual devices.
  3. Finally, I will study the differences of use and clothing between imported textiles from the Mediterranean area and those Etruscan. It seems the ritual function of clothes is defined by their geographical origin, their colours and motives. It possibly created a ritual trade. This point will deal with aspects of identity and cultural interactions.

 

10. Torill Christine Lindstrøm (University of Bergen)

Fashion or Function? Costume and Colour in the Great Fresco in Villa of the Mysteries, Pompeii
The Great Fresco of the Villa of the Mysteries (Villa dei Misteri) in Pompeii has been given numerous interpretations. The interpretations have been mainly connected to data from the behaviour of the persons in the Fresco, the fresco’s total composition, and the Fresco’s visual references to Dionysiac mythology and rites, including divinations and initiations. However, the Fresco seems to contain data that are still poorly explored. This paper focus on possible semiotic elements in connection to textiles and clothes in the Fresco. I will demonstrate that certain colours and colour-combinations can be found in the persons’ costumes and other textiles. A statistical chi-square analysis revealed that the colour combinations are not arbitrary, but carefully chosen. I suggest that it is possible that particular symbolic colours and dress-codes may be hinted at, or even spelled out in the Fresco. As fixed dress-codes and colour-symbolism often have characteristic functions in religious societies and rites, these findings may have relevance for the interpretation of the Fresco. In this paper I relate the dress-codes in the Fresco to other information about Dionysiac congregations (thiasoi).

 

11. Monika Muszyńska (University of Warsaw)

How deep is your love, Hadrian?
Two famous portrait busts of Hadrian – the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek piece and the one form Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples – show the emperor dressed in a cloak draped over his naked body. The question as to what the emperor was actually wearing: Roman paludamentum or Greek chlamys has been asked repeatedly, but no conclusive answer was offered. Both types of garments can be similarily draped, both are held in place by a brooch. Comparative material is scarce, although this type of costume seems to have been used more frequently for depictions of young boys and youths.
If one takes into consideration evidence offered by ancient writers concerning appearances in the chlamys, such a choice of costume for public display should be considered an act of bravery, a sign of deep philhellenism, even true love. But was this really the case? Was Hadrian audacious and innovative in his choice of costumes? The problem will be investigated basing on an extensive analysis of the typology of portrait busts – the result of several years of research on this fascinating subject.

 

12. Marta Zuchowska (University of Warsaw) / Robert Zukowski (Polish Academy of Sciences)

Exotic fabrics in Palmyrene clothing
Among fabrics found in Palmyra, pieces of over 500 diverse textiles were documented, including local but also imported products, such as Indian wild silk and Chinese mulberry silk. In the same time, archaeological research brought to light numerous iconographic representations, mostly funerary sculpture but also some wall paintings. The abundance of both – iconographic and archaeological material give us a unique opportunity, allowing for a multi-aspect analysis of clothing and fabrics worn by Palmyreans. One of the most intriguing issues, concerning Palmyrene dress is the use of imported material – yarn and fabrics produced in India and China. Were they used and worn in Palmyra, or constituted only valuable trading goods? Were they popular decoration of local dress, or valuable enough to be worn only by the richest? Were their style and ornaments attractive enough to influence the local production, or they were considered bizarre and thus never imitated? Basing on analysis of fabrics found in Palmyra and their iconographic representations we will survey this topic and try to answer the main questions concerning the use of exotic fabrics in Palmyra.

 

13. Amy Wale (University of Leicester)

Sartorial Expressions: North African Mosaics
As a combination of art and architectural decoration, the rich corpus of North African mosaics provide colourful and striking representations of the Late Antique world through various artistic, iconographic and figurative repertoire. These mosaics, however, have not yet been comprehensively investigated for their sartorial value. Artistic renderings of dress offer nuanced insight into Roman dress systems and attitudes to dress. Clothing was an important form of identity communication through processes of identity construction, negotiation, and expression. While this was manifested in the practice of dressing, visual depictions of clothing also evidence aspects of dress rhetoric: acceptable forms of attire for particular contexts, changing attitudes towards certain items of apparel, or purposeful representations of sartorial deviation. Mosaicists were bounded by the conventions of their medium and the conventions of ‘visual’ clothing. Both dictated how clothing and dress systems were represented. Mosaics were an important arena for sartorial expression. Understanding and interrogating mosaics as such can provide significant insights into the daily practice of dressing and ways in which clothing, and the clothed body, could be imagined and portrayed.