The Fabric of Society: Textile Production in Pre-Roman Italy

On Thursday, March 26, 2012, Professor Margarita Gleba came to give a lecture on ancient

textiles. The lecture covered the many uses of textiles, ranging from protection to a form of expressing

one’s gender, age and social, economical, political and legal status. The knowledge of textile history can

help predict the social and economic context of the time period in which that particular textile was from.

For example, research has shown that in the Middle Bronze Age, 23.1% of textiles were made of wool, in

the Recent Bronze Age, 34.2% of textiles were made of wool, and in the Final Bronze Age, 49.7% of

textiles were made of wool. This suggests an increase in sheep availability as well as wealth and a

thriving economy. The reason so many connections can be made is because textiles survive much more

than believed due to preservation, such as waterlogging, freezing, carbonating and mineralizing. This is

the part of the lecture that interested me the most, that certain characteristics can be narrowed down to a

particular age, such as the characteristic of thread count. For example, textiles in the Bronze Age are

characterized as containing 10-20 threads/cm while textiles in the Iron Age are characterized as

containing more than 40 threads/cm. Other examples include the nature of the yarn. In the Bronze Age,

the yarn was plied while in the Iron Age, the yarn was single. The lecture also covered the steps of

creating textiles with a focus on flax and wool.