Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Öhrman, Magdalena

Titel

From Use-Wear to User: Working with Literary Sources on Worn Textile Tools

Ist Teil von

• Ancient Textile Production from an Interdisciplinary Perspective, p.163-184

Ort / Verlag

Cham: Springer International Publishing

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Focussed on Greek and Roman textile production, this paper argues that attentive reading of textual sources effectively complements our understanding of user-tool relationships in antiquity, when informed by archaeological and experimental investigations alongside the text’s literary context. While the class and gender bias of ancient literary sources place them at one remove from many production contexts and literary aesthetics determine their expression and content (often at the expense of information about craft processes, raw materials, etc.), these texts originate in a historical context where textile production could be experienced as part of everyday life. Thus, literary texts provide a valuable bystander’s view on Graeco-Roman textile crafts and the information they provide can be fruitfully employed in textile research. This does, however, require a fully interdisciplinary approach, including not only understanding of archaeological and craft-historical evidence but also of literary and stylistic aspects. Through case studies centred on Greek Hellenistic epigrams featuring workers involved in textile production (Anthologia Palatina 6.247; 7.726 and 6.47; 285; 288) the paper tests this hypothesis by examining the extent to which user attitudes displayed in literary texts correlate with user attitudes to tools suggested by archaeological evidence, such as use-wear and tool inscriptions, and experimental archaeological evidence. Through close readings, the paper demonstrates that literary tool users assess and relate to their tools in terms of functionality and efficiency in securing a desired output, as well as economic dependency, even if their depiction is shaped also by other contemporary cultural concerns.