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Missing link: an early wool textile from Pustopolje in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2018

Karina Grömer ,
Lise Bender Jørgensen  and
Marija Marić Baković
Karina Grömer*
Affiliation:
Prehistoric Department, Natural History Museum Vienna, Burgring 7, A-1010 Vienna, Austria
Lise Bender Jørgensen
Affiliation:
Department of Historical Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, N-7491 Trondheim, Norway
Marija Marić Baković
Affiliation:
Franjevački muzej i galerija Gorica Livno, Gorička cesta b. b., 80101 Livno, Bosnia and Herzegovina
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: karina.groemer@nhm-wien.ac.at)
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Abstract

In 1990 the excavation of a group of tumuli in south-western Bosnia was published in the pages of Antiquity. The key discovery was the Bronze Age burial of an adult male (Pustopolje tumulus 16), wrapped in a large woollen textile. At the time, little attention was paid to the textile. New analyses of the fabric, however, have led to a reappraisal of this find. The textile is presented here fully for the first time, with details of the analyses that have been undertaken. These reveal that the Pustopolje textile has major significance for our understanding of the early development of weaving technology and clothing in the Bronze Age archaeological record, and in particular it underlines the presence of distinct and separate weaving traditions in Central Europe and Scandinavia.

Keywords

Bosnia and HerzegovinaBronze Agetextilewoolgarment

Information

Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 92 , Issue 362 , April 2018 , pp. 351 - 367
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2018 

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Footnotes

Editor's note: for a glossary of textile terminology, see Zhao et al. in Antiquity 91 (2017): 371–73

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