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REVIEW BY HILARY WILSON
Spinning and weaving are among the earliest ancient technologies, and implements used in textile production turn up in archaeological excavations worldwide. Introducing this volume, part of Oxbow’s ‘Ancient Textiles’ series, Chiara Spinazzi-Lucchesi emphasises the rarity of comparative studies in the analysis of textiles and the tools employed in their manufacture. She explores patterns and trends in the development of these everyday activities and their associated implements, such as spindle whorls and loom weights, which might reveal independent design evolution or shared influences. Given the geographical closeness of Egypt to the southern Levant, and the well-documented socio-political connections between the two regions, she aims to show how textile production was deeply embedded in both the domestic and wider trade economies of the ancient Middle East, and to highlight localised textile traditions indicative of regional identities and cross-cultural affiliations.
The survey covers a broad geographical area from the Nubian town of Buhen in the south to Hazor in the north of modern Israel. Published records of excavations at the chosen sites, each with an extensive history of occupation, have been used to produce a dataset of textile-related artefacts from urban contexts. Dispersed items identified within museum collections have been photographed, measured, and described in a catalogue to aid recognition and interpretation of these mundane tools. Such identification can be particularly challenging in the context of Levantine archaeology due to the poor preservation of organic remains, compared with finds made in the dry conditions prevailing in Egypt.
Discussions of the style and form of tools used for spinning and weaving various fibres, notably flax and wool, provide an overview of methods and processes. The author highlights certain deficiencies and biases in the recording of earlier excavations among the sites quoted as case studies. For example, the apparent predominance of Iron Age evidence for textile production in the Levant is partly due to archaeologists’ preference for studying levels relating to biblical times. Finds from Gurob point to significant textile manufacture at the site, but despite the documented involvement of Asiatic textile-workers, almost all the tools found were of Egyptian types, suggesting the industry was firmly established in the Egyptian tradition. Asiatic settlers, arriving in Egypt with their own textile patterns and styles, quickly adopted local costume as a mark of their assimilation into Egyptian society. By illustrating more differences than similarities, the author concludes that the Egyptian and Levantine textile industries evolved independently with minimal cross-cultural exchange. Not being a narrative read, this book will certainly be of most use to field archaeologists and textiles researchers.
Threads of Contact: Tracing the relationship between Egypt and the Southern Levant through textile tools
by Chiara Spinazzi-Lucchesi
Oxbow, 2025
ISBN 978-8-88857-147-7
Paperback, £40
