The Common Thread

The Ancient Egyptians used it for both the living and the dead, the Greeks and Romans used it to signal their status, and it aided the Vikings in reaching the far shores of Europe and Eurasia. Textiles have surrounded us, literally and figuratively for millennia, but this common thread has long been ignored in scholarly research. With the inception of the Centre for Textile Research at the University of Copenhagen in 2005, however, this approach changed fundamentally, and today, every type of research discipline comes together to begin unravelling the stories told by textiles.

How do we understand textiles and how do we talk about them? Who produced textiles, where, and for what purposes? How do we conduct research into the origins of materials? How did cultivating flax or raising sheep change the ancient landscape? How have we researched textiles so far? What can we learn from textiles about society, gender, and production? This volume engages with these questions and explores how the fabric of society has changed through researching textiles in all its facets, from archaeology and history to natural sciences. Taking as its starting point the research interests and career of its honorand, Eva Andersson Strand, this meticulously researched volume consists of three parts, covering the tools and techniques that form the basis of all research explores; how craftspeople made use of tools and techniques; and how textiles have been used over millennia to signify identity and status.

Preface

1. In the beginning...
Anne Drewsen, Mary Harlow, Ulla Mannering, and Marie-Louise Nosch

I. Textile and Tools

2. Ragpickers. Critiquing the Third Science Revolution with Walter Benjamin
Tim Flohr Sørensen
3. Textile Analysis in Europe. Current practices and Future Prognosis
Margarita Gleba, Susanna Harris, and Jane Malcolm-Davies
4. From Fleece to Thread. Interdisciplinary Evidence for the Origins of Sheep Wool
Laura C. Viñas-Caron, Mikkel Nørtoft, Jonas Holm Jæger, Peder Flemestad, and Christina Margariti
5. An Arctic Thread
Mikkel Sørensen
6. The Beginnings of Clothing Experiments in Near Eastern Archaeology
Catherine Breniquet and Cécile Michel
7. Fløjstrup — A Viking Age Grave with Early Silk
Charlotte Rimstad, Irene Skals, and Ina Vanden Berghe
8. The Importance of Understanding Textile Tools
Francesco Meo
9. Making Visible the Invisible. The Case Study of Clay Sealings from Arslantepe (Turkey)
Romina Laurito

II. Craft and Cratf Traditions

10. Textile Workshops in the Nile Valley? Questioning the Concepts and Sources
Chiara Spinazzi-Lucchesi and Elsa Yvanez
11. Sprang Hairnets from Prehistoric Denmark and Byzantine Egypt. Experimental Research
Anne Kwaspen, Ida Demant, and Johanne Høgh
12. Spinning Fates and the Fate of Spinning. Towards a Nordic Textile Technical Terminology
Morten Grymer-Hansen and Susanne Lervad
13. Teaching and Disseminating Textile Archaeology in University and Museum Contexts
Lise Bender Jørgensen and Karina Grömer
14. Weaving Pictures. Evoking a World from Threads
Ulrikka Mokdad (with a helpin hand from Mark Schram Christensen)
15. Beyond Traditions. Rethinking Textile Crafts and Heritage
Magali-An Berthon

III. Identity and Status

16. Stitch and Status. An Analysis of the Expression of Worldviews through Knitted Garments
Maj Ringgaard and Tove Engelhardt Mathiassen
17. The Combat Agate and the Tartan-like Textiles of the Aegean
Kalliope Sarri
18. Textiles in Etruscan Dance. The Case of the Tomba del Triclinio in Tarquinia
Audrey  Gouy 
19.  Reading the Roman Toga from Sculpture
Mary Harlow and Lena Larsson Lovén
20. Two Donkey Burials
Ulla Lund Hansen and Anne Drewsen
21. Embellished Clothing in the Mesolithic Based on Finds from two Cemeteries in Sweden
Lars Larsson
22. Sequins and other ‘Bling’ in Viking Age Fashion
Charlotte Hedenstierna-Jonson, Marianne Vedeler, and Amica Sundström
23. One Silk Textile — Multiple Histories and Her-Stories
Ulla Mannering and Marie-Louise Nosch