‘Nothing like Textiles’: Manufacturing Traditions in Textile Archaeology

Textiles are evaluated mainly in regard to their visual appearance and technical features of textile production. From a modern point of view, it is their optical perception that is most often displayed in reconstructions. This, however, can rarely be achieved due to the poor and fragmentary preservation of archaeological textiles, which hinders gathering basic information about details of the production technique. Sources illustrating garments or putative textile patterns are often additionally consulted to achieve a better understanding of the textiles. Over the past two decades, the author has made an effort to present a different approach to textile archaeology, that is to demonstrate that the significance of textiles was predominantly governed by culture-specific production techniques whose differences were optical – i.e. at the first glance imperceptible even for experts. Textile patterns were predominantly applied during production. There was little subsequent embellishment where textiles acted as a carrier of the decoration. This means that patterns were rarely additionally integrated after the basic weave was complete, for instance as in the case of embroidery. In consequence, archaeological textiles assume a different cultural and historical significance than previously thought. They are not merely objects whose surfaces served as carriers for culture-specific patterns. In this context, embroidery is of particular significance, as it is a procedure for subsequent decoration of fabrics. In this article, the author presents prehistoric, including the Bronze and Iron Ages, textile finds that have been described as embroidery but are actually a combination of weaving and wrapping weaving techniques.