The Textile Revolution in Bronze Age Europe Production, Specialisation, Consumption

About this book

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. The Textile Revolution in Bronze Age Europe 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.

Contents

1. Textile production and specialization in Bronze Age Europe / Serena Sabatini and Sophie Bergerbrant
2. The Wool Zone in prehistory and protohistory / Eva Andersson Strand and Marie-Louise Nosch
3. Weaving in Bronze Age Italy: The Case of the Terramare Settlement at Montale / Serena Sabatini
4. Loom weights in Bronze Age Central Europe / Jutta Kneisel and Stefanie Schaefer
5. Textiles remains in Polish Iron Age cemeteries / Joanna Slomska and Lukasz Antosik
6. To let textiles talk: fibre identification and technological analyses of prehistoric textiles from Denmark / Irene Skals
7. The challenge of textiles in early Bronze Age burials: fragments of magnificence / Susanna Harris
8. Textile ceramics as a complement to textile research / Stefanie Schaefer and Jutta Kneisel
9. Prehistoric transhumance in the Northern Mediterranean / Francesco Carrer and Mara Migliavacca
10. Wool production and the evidence of strontium isotope analyses / Karin M. Frei
11. Wool textiles in the early Nordic Bronze Age: local or traded? / Sophie Bergerbrant
12. Archaeological wool textiles – a window into ancient sheep genetics? / Luise Ørsted Brandt and Morten Allentoft
13. Skin, furs, and textiles: mass spectrometry-based analysis of ancient protein residues / Fabiana Di Gianvincenzo, Clara Granzotto and Enrico Cappellini
14. Wool in the Bronze Age. Concluding reflections / Kristian Kristiansen and Marie-Louise Stig Sørensen

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Biography

Serena Sabatini is Associate Professor at the Göteborgs Universitet, Sweden and a scholar of Bronze Age trade and exchange networks in Europe and in the Mediterranean area. Her current research focuses on Bronze Age textile production and wool economy.

Sophie Bergerbrant is Associate Professor in Archaeology at the Göteborgs Universitet, Sweden. Her main areas of research are the Early and Middle Bronze Age in Northern and Central Europe relating to textile archaeology, costume, mobility, gender, and embodiment.


Contributors:
- Serena Sabatini
- Sophie Bergerbrant
- Eva Andersson Strand
- Marie-Louise Nosch
- Jutta Kneisel
- Stefanie Schaefer
- Joanna Slomska
- Lukasz Antosik
- Irene Skals
- Susanna Harris
- Jutta Kneisel
- Francesco Carrer
- Mara Migliavacca
- Karin M. Frei
- Luise Ørsted Brandt
- Morten Allentoft
- Fabiana Di Gianvincenzo
- Clara Granzotto
- Enrico Cappellini
- Kristian Kristiansen
- Marie-Louise Stig Sørensen