Introduction
A textile is a binary system of fibers or other materials worked into threads. In essence a textile is formed by weaving, but the term can also be used more generically and thus covers flexible products made in other techniques, as, for instance, twining, needle binding, knotting, and knitting. Felting and basketry are also techniques related to textiles. Thus, textiles can be seen as one part of an overall cloth culture, which may include many different materials and techniques (Harris 2012).
Around the world and throughout time, humans have created textiles by exploiting different natural resources and inventing tools and methodologies to change these resources into a viable product. Some areas are rich in traditional textile resources, like materials for fibers, dyes, and tools, but also in less resource plentiful areas, humans have found solutions for fulfilling the demand for textiles.
Definition
Until very recent times, textiles were primarily made from natural...
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Andersson Strand, E., K.M. Frei, M. Gleba, U. Mannering, M.-L. Nosch & I. Skals. 2010. Old textiles - new possibilities. European Journal of Archaeology 13: 149-73.
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Gleba, M. & U. Mannering. 2012. Textiles and textile production in Europe from prehistory to AD 400 (Ancient Textiles series 11). Oxford: Oxbow Books.
Harris, S. 2012, From the parochial to the universal: comparing cloth cultures in the Bronze Age. European Journal of Archaeology 15: 61-97.
Mannering, U., G. Possnert, J. Heinemeier & M. Gleba. 2010. Dating Danish textiles and skins from bog finds by means of 14C AMS. Journal of Archaeological Science 37: 261-68.
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Schmidt, A.L., M.T.P. Gilbert, E. Cappellini & J.V. Olsen. 2011. Identification of animal species in skin clothing from museum collections. ICOM-CC 16 th Triennial Conference Lisbon, Portugal, September 19-23, 2011: 1-8.
Skals, I. 1996. From grave to showcase: modern care for ancient textiles. Archaeological conservation and its consequences. IIC Preprints of the Contribution to the Copenhagen Congress.
Peacock, E.E. 2005. Investigation of conservation methods for a textile recovered from the American Civil War submarine H.L.Hunley (1864), in P. Hoffmann, K. Strætkvern, J.A. Spriggs & D. Gregory (ed.) Proceedings of the 9 th ICOM Group on Wet Organic Archaeological Materials Conference: 497-512. Bremerhaven: WOAM.
Vanden Berghe, I., M. Gleba & U. Mannering. 2009. Towards the identification of dyestuffs in early Iron Age Scandinavian peat bog textiles. Journal of Archaeological Science 36: 1910-21.
Wilson, A.S., R.A. Dixon, H.I. Dodson, R.C. Janaway, A.M. Pollard, B. Stern & D.J. Tobin. 2001. Yesterday's hair - human hair in archaeology. Biologist 48: 213-7.
Further Reading
Banck-Burgess, J. 1999. Hochdorf IV, die Textilfunde aus dem späthallstattischen Fürstengrab von Eberdingen-Hochdorf (Kreis Ludwigsburg) und weitere Grabtextilien aus Hallstatt- und Latenezeitlichen Kulturgruppen. Stuttgart.
Barber, E.J.W. 1991. Prehistoric textiles. The development of cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Bender Jørgensen, L. 1986. Forhistoriske textiler i Skandinavien. Prehistoric Scandinavian textiles (Nordiske Fortidsminder ser. B 9). Copenhagen: Det Kgl. Nordiske Oldskriftselskab.
Bjerregaard, L. (ed.) 2007. Chachapoya textiles. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press.
Grömer, K. 2010. Prähistorische Textilkunst in Mitteleuropa. Geschichte des Handwerkes und der Kleidung vor den Römern. Wien: Naturhistorisches Museum Wien.
Hald, M. 1980. Ancient Danish textiles from bogs and burials. Copenhagen: National Museum of Denmark.
Möller-Wiering, S. 2011. War and worship. Textiles from 3rd to 4th-century AD weapon deposits in Denmark and northern Germany (Ancient Textiles series 9). Oxford: Oxbow Books.
Østergård, E. 2004. Woven into the earth. Textiles from Norse Greenland. Aarhus Universitetsforlag.
Schlabow, K. 1976. Textilfunde der Eisenzeit in Norddeutschland (Göttinger Schriften zur Vor- und Frühgeschichte 15). Neumünster: K. Wachholtz.
Tímár-Balázsy, A. & D. Eastop. 1998. Chemical principles of textile conservation. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann.
Walton, P. & G. Eastwood. 1983. A brief guide to the cataloguing of archaeological textiles. London: Institute of Archaeology Publications.
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Mannering, U., Skals, I. (2014). Textiles and Fabrics: Conservation and Preservation. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_488
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