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Key Words cloth, cordage, fiber analysis, perishables, pseudomorphs
* Abstract Archaeological textile studies are now recognized as a robust source of information for anthropological inquiry. Over the past two decades several important developments have taken place, enabling a more integrated approach to their study than in the past. Topics addressed range from the development of methods for analyzing degraded fibers to the comparative study of specific histories of textile and clothing traditions. Archaeological textile studies address relevant issues ranging from aesthetics and style to gender; from technological development to production and exchange economics. This chapter presents an overview of current research in the growing field of archaeological textile studies.
INTRODUCTION
The craft of using fiber to produce goods, ranging from floor mats to bridal dowry, addresses all three of the basic human needs: food, clothing, and shelter. Cordage, basketry, and matting, as well as woven cloth, have long been such an integral part of human adaptations that one can hardly pass through a day without using a metaphor that is ultimately derived from the production of fiber-related goods. The history of textile technology and its related crafts of spinning, plaiting, twining, and basketry is long and wide. We now know from direct evidence that the fiber arts were known in the Upper Palaeolithic on the Eurasian continent and came with the earliest inhabitants of the New World.
The advent of producing spun thread from plant fibers is now recognized as a technological revolution (Barber 1994; Adovasio 2001). Manipulating reeds, bark, basts, and seed down into cords, braids, baskets, nets, mats, and cloth bolstered our capacity to adapt exponentially. By fastening some of these manipulated elements into passive threads onto a frame, the history of the loom began.
Direct evidence for looms is rare, but we find early depictions on ceramics in the neolithic in Egypt, western Asia and in Europe (Broudy 1979). Looms diversified in their evolution in different regions of the world as distinct weaving traditions developed. Simple looms are not limited to producing simple woven cloth, however, as particularly evidenced in the later prehistory of Peruvian textiles. Complexity in weave, design, and manufacture are, in a very general sense, attributes of wealth and prestige, as cloth is a very practical visual display...