Exploring Ancient Textiles: Pushing the Boundaries of Established Methodologies

Alistair Dickey · Margarita Gleba · Sarah Hitchens · Gabriella Longhitano

korr 2022 · Oxbow Books

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Over the past 30 years, research on archaeological textiles has developed into an important field of scientific study. It has greatly benefited from interdisciplinary approaches, which combine the application of advanced technological knowledge to ethnographic, textual and experimental investigations. In exploring textiles and textile processing (such as production and exchange) in ancient societies, archaeologists with different types and quality of data have shared their knowledge, thus contributing to well-established methodology. In this book, the papers highlight how researchers have been challenged to adapt or modify these traditional and more recently developed analytical methods to enable extraction of comparable data from often recalcitrant assemblages. Furthermore, they have applied new perspectives and approaches to extend the focus on less investigated aspects and artefacts.

The chapters embrace a broad geographical and chronological area, ranging from South America and Europe to Africa, and from the 11th millennium BC to the 1st millennium AD. Methodological considerations are explored through the medium of three different themes focusing on tools, textiles and fibres, and culture and identity. This volume constitutes a reflection on the status of current methodology and its applicability within the wider textile field. Moreover, it drives forward the methodological debates around textile research to generate new and stimulating conversations about the future of textile archaeology.

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Alistair Dickey is currently a doctoral researcher at the University of Liverpool (UK). His research interests include Neolithic to Middle Bronze Age textiles from ancient Egypt. He has excavated at sites in Egypt, Cyprus, Italy, Kazakhstan and Northern Ireland.

Sarah Hitchens is currently a doctoral researcher at the University of Liverpool (UK). Her research interests include textiles and processing implements from ancient Egypt and Nubia. She has excavated in Egypt, Mexico, Sudan, and the UK.

Gabriella Longhitano is an archaeologist working in Italy and Crete. She specialises in ancient textile production and related social practices. She holds a PhD in Archaeology (2019) from the University of Liverpool (UK). She is currently undertaking a PhD in Cultural Heritage at the University of Catania (Italy).