The Roman Textile Industry and its influence - Softcover

Rogers, Penelope Walton; Jorgensen, Lise Bender; Rast-Eicher, Antoinette

9781782977407: The Roman Textile Industry and its influence

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1782977406 ISBN 13: 9781782977407

Publisher: Oxbow Books, 2014

Textiles were a hugely important Roman industry yet, because of their perishable nature, only fragments remain. These twenty-two essays provide a detailed study of surviving fragments from across the Roman world, from the dry sands of Egypt to the Atlantic coast and the northern frontiers and beyond. The result is a comprehensive reconstruction of both everyday and exotic Roman clothing with information about the influences of fashion and of Roman weaving techniques. Written by friends and colleagues, the contributions are offered as a tribute to John Peter Wild whose own studies of Roman textiles have been the inspiration of so much recent work.

Table of Contents

Roamn Egypt and Nubia
1. Mons Claudianus: investigating Roman textiles in the desert Lise Bender Jogensen and Ulla Mannering
2. On the road to Berenike: a piece of tunic in damask weave from Didymoi Dominique Cardon
3. Two wide-sleeved linen tunics from Roman Egypt Frances Pritchard and Christ Verhecken-Lammens
4. Varia romana: textiles from a Roman army dump Nettie K. Adams and Elisabeth Crowfoot
5. Goat-hair textiles from Karanis, Egypt Jane Batcheller
Contact with Asia
6. Two resist-dyed cottons recently found at Karadong, Xinjiang, (3rd centuary AD) Sophie Desrosiers, Corinne Debaine-Francfort and Abdurassul Idriss
7. A re-consideration of the human-figure emblems excavated in the at-Tar Caves in Iraq Kazuko Sakamoto
8. Was there Greek or Roman influence on Sasanian women's clothing? Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood
Europe, inside and outside the Frontier
9. Recent discoveries of gold textiles from Augustan Age Gadir (Cadiz) Carmen Alfaro Giner
10. Roman textiles in Switzerland Antoinette Rast-Eicher
11. Beyond the Empire: an Irish mantle and cloak Elizabeth Wincott Heckett
12. The Orkney hood, re-dated and recnsidered Thea Gabra-Sanders
13. Recent textile finds of the Roman period in Poland Jerzy Maik
14. The early Alamanni: the start of a new textile project Johanna Banck-Burgess
15. Recent analysis of the textiles from Bokener Moor and Vaaler Moor, Germany Klaus Tidow
16. A typical costume of te North German Iron Age? Some observations during conservation of the Bernuthsfeld 'plaid'
Later Strands
17. From the Roman horizontal loom to the 3/1 twill damask loom of the early medieval period Daniel De Jonghe
18. A previously unrecognised Lion Silk at Canterbury Anne Muthesius
19. The re-appearance of an old Roman loom in medieval England Penelope Walton Rogers
20. Where are the Romans? Classical influences on women's fashionable dress from the late eighteenth to the twentieth century Naomi Tarrant
21. The contribution of experimental archaeology to the research of ancient textiles Elizabeth Peacock
John Peter Wild: a bibliography

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About the Author:

edited by Penelope Walton Rogers, Lise Bender Jorgensen and Antoinette Rast-Eicher

Review:

a very welcome addition to a fast-growing twenty-first-century bibliography on textiles and dress in antiquity.' (Mary Harlow Britannia, 34, 2003)

Despite the fact that the volume is composed of such seemingly disparate papers, several strong themes recur throughout: the importance of provenienced material; the utility of single textile pieces in providing information about chronology, origin, function, and technology; and the significance of comparative studies for the understanding of broader cultural issues.'
' ... although most of the papers contain technical descriptions of individual textile fragments, these can be easily 'avoided' by those unfamiliar with the jargon. The wide spectrum of topics and approaches to the study of Roman textiles makes this an accessible and useful volume not only for the specialists. The lay reader will find this collection of essays helpful in appreciating the incredible advances of textile studies in the last few decades. It also reflects how vast, geographically speaking, our corpus of Roman textiles is, covering almost the entire empire with the lamentable exception of Italy itself.'
(For the full review go to the Bryn Mawr Classical Review website.) (Margarita Gleba Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2002)

The editors of this book not only provide a fitting tribute to a leading scholar in the field of Roman textiles but also provide a balanced and easily readable set of case studies about the use and construction of ancient textiles. This book is a very useful text for both scholars and lay readers interested in the Roman textile industry.'
'Although the focus of the book is on textiles, two recurring themes are interwoven throughout the book. The first theme relates to the range and extensive influence of the Roman textile industry. As all of the chapters in the book illustrate, the Roman textile industry was not only centered in southern Europe but extended its influence into the Near East, southern Asia, and northern Europe. Within a temporal framework, the manufacturing techniques and stylistic designs utilized by Roman weavers continued to be used to varying degrees into the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The second theme relates to the important role that older museum collections and their reexamination using modern archaeometric techniques can play when understanding the past. The overwhelming majority of the textiles discussed in this book were recovered previously and do not represent materials collected through more recent excavations. Instead, most chapter authors have chosen to reexamine previously identified textiles to confirm and/or put forth new ideas about the manufacture of ancient textiles.' (Christina B Rieth Society for Archaeological Sciences Bulletin 25, 2002)

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