New Book Chronicle

This NBC considers a collection of volumes that spotlight textiles in the archaeological record. The specific conditions required to preserve fabrics mean that there are very few places or contexts in which they survive archaeologically, and when they do, they are often fragmentary and fragile. Consequently, our understanding of textiles comes as much from the evidence for their manufacture as from the fabrics themselves. Despite these challenges, textiles have been vital to both the physical and economic survival of human societies. The volumes under review shed new light on archaeological textiles, with studies that range from detailed investigations of specific weaving techniques in Bronze Age Sicily to broad overviews of the significance of textiles in the past, and to theoretical approaches to production processes that challenge us to explore more fully the phenomenological considerations of crafting.