Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-2lccl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-29T05:46:45.521Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The question of prehistoric silks in Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Lise Bender Jørgensen
Lise Bender Jørgensen*
Affiliation:
*Department of Archaeology and Religious Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, N-7491 Trondheim, Norway (Email: lise.bender@ntnu.no)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Textiles and clothing are among the most visible aspects of human social and symbolic behaviour and yet they have left all too few traces in the archaeological record and it is easy to overlook their importance. Luxury textiles such as silk can additionally provide evidence of long-distance contact, notably between Europe and China during the Han dynasty and the Roman empire. But can these connections be projected back in time to the prehistoric period? The late Irene Good proposed a number of identifications of silk in Iron Age Europe and was instrumental in bringing the issue to wider attention. Closer examination reported here, however, calls those identifications into question. Instead, the case is put that none of the claimed Iron Age silks can be confirmed, and that early traffic in silk textiles to Europe before the Roman period cannot be substantiated.

Type
Research article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 87 , Issue 336 , 1 June 2013 , pp. 581 - 588
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2013

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Banck, J. 1994. Die Textilfunde aus dem Hallstattzeitlichen Fürstengrab von Hochdorf, Gemeinde Eberdingen (Kreis Ludwigsburg), in Jaacks, G. & Tidow, K. (ed.) Textilsymposium Neumünster: Archäologische Textilfunde— archaeological textiles. 4-7.5.1993 (NESAT V): 43–52. Neumünster: Textilmuseum Neumünster.Google Scholar
Banck-Burgess, J. 1999. Hochdorf IV, Die Textilfunde aus dem späthallstattzeitlichen Fürstengrab von Eberdingen-Hochdorf (Kreis Ludwigsburg) und weitere Grabtextilien aus hallstatt-laténezeitlichen Kulturgruppen (Forschungen und Berichte zur Vorund Frühgeschichte 70). Stuttgart: Konrad Theiss.Google Scholar
Banck-Burgess, J. 2012. Case study: the textiles from the princely burial at Eberdingen-Hochdorf, Germany, in Gleba, M. & Mannering, U. (ed.) Textiles and textile production in Europe: from prehistory to AD 400: 139-50. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Bender Jørgensen, L. 1992. North European textiles until AD 1000. Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.Google Scholar
Biel, J. 1985. Der Keltenfürst von Hochdorf. Stuttgart: Theiss.Google Scholar
Gleba, M. 2008. Textile production in pre-Roman Italy. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Good, I. 1995. On the question of silk in pre-Han Eurasia. Antiquity 69: 959–68.Google Scholar
Good, I. 2010. When east met west: interpretative problems in assessing Eurasian contact and exchange in antiquity, in Betts, A.V.G. & Kidd, F. (ed.) New directions in Silk Road archaeology. Proceedings of a workshop held at ICAANE V, Madrid, 2006 (Archäologische Mitteilungen aus Iran und Turan 42). Berlin: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut & Dietrich Reimer.Google Scholar
Good, I. 2011. Strands of connectivity: assessing the evidence for long distance exchange of silk in later prehistoric Eurasia, in Wilkinson, T.C., Sherratt, S. & Bennet, J. (ed.) Interweaving worlds: systemic interactions in Eurasia, 7th–1s t millennia BC. Papers from a conference in memory of Professor Andrew Sherratt: 218-30. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Hayes, J. 1977. Some Etruscan textile remains in the Royal Ontario Museum, in Gervers, V. (ed.) Studies in textile history: 144-48. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum.Google Scholar
Heyart, H. 1972. Textilreste. Hémecht 24: 500–501.Google Scholar
Hundt, H.-J. 1970. U¨ ber vorgeschichtliche Seidenfunde. Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum 16(1969): 59–71.Google Scholar
Hundt, H.-J. 1974. Gewebereste aus dem Fürstengrab von Worms-Herrnsheim. Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum 18(1971): 113-17.Google Scholar
Hundt, H.-J. 1985. Die Textilien im Grab von Hochdorf, in Planck, D., Biel, J., Süsskind, G. & Wais, A. (ed.) Der Keltenfürst von Hochdorf. Methoden und Ergebnisse der Landesarchäologie, Katalog zur Ausstellung Stuttgart, Kunstgebäude vom 14 August bis 13 Oktober 1985: 106-15. Stuttgart: Landesdenkmalamt Baden-Württemberg.Google Scholar
Mann, K. 1999. Aminosäurenanalysen, in Banck-Burgess, J. (ed.) Hochdorf IV, Die Textilfunde aus dem späthallstattzeitlichen Fürstengrab von Eberdingen-Hochdorf (Kreis Ludwigsburg) und weitere Grabtextilien aus hallstatt-laténezeitlichen Kulturgruppen (Forschungen und Berichte zur Vorund Frühgeschichte 70): 235-38. Stuttgart: Konrad Theiss.Google Scholar
Margariti, C., Protopapas, S. & Orphanou, V.. 2011. Recent analyses of the excavated textile find from Grave 35 HTR73, Kerameikos cemetery, Athens, Greece. Journal of Archaeological Science 38: 522-27.Google Scholar
Megaw, J.V.S. 1975. The orientalizing theme in early Celtic art: east or west? Alba Regia. Annales Musei Stephani Regis XIV: 15–33.Google Scholar
Panagiotakopulu, E., Buckland, P.C., Day, P.M., Doumas, C., Sarpaki, A. & Skidmore, P.. 1997. A lepidopterous cocoon from Thera and evidence for silk in the Aegean Bronze Age. Antiquity 71: 420-29.Google Scholar
Rast-Eicher, A. 2008. Textilien, Wolle, Schafe der Eisenzeit in der Schweiz (Antiqua 44). Basel: Archäologie Schweiz.Google Scholar
Riek, G. & Hundt, H.-J.. 1962. Der Hohmichele. Ein Fürstengrabhügel der späten Hallstattzeit bei der Heuneburg (Römisch-Germanische Forschungen 25). Berlin: de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Schauer, P. 1971. Die Schwerter in Süddeutschland, O¨ sterreich und der Schweiz (Pra¨historische Bronzefunde IV, vol. 2). M¨unchen: C.H. Beck.Google Scholar
Scherping, R. & Schmidt, J.-P.. 2007. Seide im Norden—Die Textilreste am ¨ Alterbronzezeitlichen Halskragen von Thürkow, Ldkr. Güstrow (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern). Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 37: 207-20.Google Scholar
Thill, G. 1972. Frühlaténezeitlicher Fürstengrabhügel bei Altrier. Hémecht 24: 487–501.Google Scholar
Thill, G. 1987. Altrier, in Mohen, J.-P., Duval, A. & Eluére, C. (ed.) Trésors des princes celtes, Galeries nationals du Grand Palais, 20 octobre 1987–15 février 1988: 251-54. Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux.Google Scholar
Wild, J.P. 1984. Some early silk finds in northwest Europe. The Textile Museum Journal 23: 17–23.Google Scholar