Overview

Textile and dress production, from raw materials to finished items, has had a significant impact on society from its earliest history. The essays in this volume offer a fresh insight into the emerging interdisciplinary research field of textile and dress studies by discussing archaeological, iconographical and textual evidence within a broad geographical and chronological spectrum. The thirteen chapters explore issues, such as the analysis of textile tools, especially spindle whorls, and textile imprints for reconstructing textile production in contexts as different as Neolithic Transylvania, the Early Bronze Age North Aegean and the Early Iron Age Eastern Mediterranean; the importance of cuneiform clay tablets as a documentary source for both drawing a detailed picture of the administration of a textile industry and for addressing gender issues, such as the construction of masculinity in the Sumerian kingdoms of the 3rd millennium BC; and discussions of royal and priestly costumes and clothing ornaments in the Mesopotamian kingdom of Mari and in Mycenaean culture. Textile terms testify to intensive exchanges between Semitic and Indo-European languages, especially within the terminology of trade goods. The production and consumption of textiles and garments are demonstrated in 2nd millennium Hittite Anatolia; from 1st millennium BC Assyria, a cross-disciplinary approach combines texts, realia and iconography to produce a systematic study of golden dress decorations; and finally, the important discussion of fibres, flax and wool, in written and archaeological sources is evidence for delineating the economy of linen and the strong symbolic value of fibre types in 1st millennium Babylonia and the Southern Levant. The volume is part of a pair together with Greek and Roman Textiles and Dress: An Interdisciplinary Anthology edited by Mary Harlow and Marie-Louise Nosch.

Full Product Details

Author:   Mary Harlow ,  Cécile Michel ,  Marie-Louise Nosch
Publisher:   Oxbow Books
Imprint:   Oxbow Books
Volume:   18
Dimensions:   Width: 21.50cm , Height: 2.80cm , Length: 27.90cm
Weight:   1.111kg
ISBN:  

9781782977193

ISBN 10:   1782977198
Pages:   224
Publication Date:   08 January 2015
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

Index, acknowledgements 1. Paula Mazare, Investigating Neolithic and Copper Age textile production in Transylvania (Romania). Applied Methods and Results 2. Sophia Vakirtzi, Chaido Koukouli–Chryssanthaki, and Stratis Papadopoulos, Spindle whorls from two prehistoric settlements on Thassos, North Aegean 3. Richard Firth. Textiles Texts of the Lagash II Period 4. Ariane Thomas, Searching for lost costumes. A few remarks about the royal costume in Ancient Mesopotamia focusing on the Amorite Kingdom of Mari 5. Matteo Vigo, Giulia Baccelli, Benedetta Bellucci, Elements for a Comparative Study of Textile Production and Consumption in the Hittite Anatolia and Its Neighbours 6. Eleni Konstantinidi-Syvridi, Buttons, pins, clips and belts … Inconspicuous dress accessories from the burial context of the Mycenaean period (16th-12th cent. BC) 7. Valentina Gasbarra, Textile Semitic Loanwords in Mycenaean as Wanderwörter 8. Agnès Garcia-Ventura, Constructing masculinities through textile production in the Ancient Near East 9. Caroline Sauvage, Spindles and Distaffs: Late Bronze and Early Iron Age eastern Mediterranean use of solid and tapered ivory/bone shafts 10. Salvatore Gaspa Golden Decorations in Assyrian Textiles: An Interdisciplinary Approach 11. Tina Boloti, E-ri-ta’s dress: contribution to the study of the Mycenaean priestesses’ attire 12. Louise Quillien, Flax and Linen in the First Millennium Babylonia BCE: Origins, Craft Industry and Uses of a Remarkable Textile 13. Orit Shamir, Two Special Traditions in Jewish Garments and the Rarity of Mixing Wool and Linen Threads in the Same Textile in the Jewish Tradition

Reviews

The collected papers with their extensive bibliographies and revelation of multifarious outstanding problems inherent in the research field offer a pressing stimulus to further enquiry. -- John Peter Wild Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society

Author Information

Mary Harlow is Honorary Associate Professor in Ancient History at the University of Leicester. She is the author or editor of a number of books. Recent publications include A Cultural History of Hair in Antiquity (ed., 2021) and A Cultural History of Dress and Fashion in Antiquity (ed., 2021). Cécile Michel is Director of Research at the CNRS. She specialises in the study of cuneiform tablets, and trade and society in Upper Mesopotamia and Anatolia. Marie-Louise Nosch is Research Professor at the SAXO Institute, University of Copenhagen and former Director of the Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre for Textile Research, University of Copenhagen. She has published widely on the cross-cultural study of textiles from across the ancient Mediterranean and Near East, and is editor of many titles in Oxbow Book’s Ancient Textiles series.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions