- chapter 42: The world of Etruscan textiles –
TEXTILE PRODUCTION AND ITS DEVELOPMENT
THROUGH TIMEThe textile fi nds from Sasso di Furbara and Verucchio show many similarities, including the
use of thread with varied twist direction to create a pattern, and the tablet-woven borders
technique, as well as complex dyeing procedures. They demonstrate that by the seventh
century bce a sophisticated technology with the capacity to produce highly complex and
labor-consuming luxury textiles existed in Etruria. The production of these textiles not
only required highly specialized materials and skills, available only to the members of the
elite classes of society, but was also in itself an exclusive, elite female occupation marked
at death by the funeral deposition of associated tools. Thus, the tintinnabulum of Bologna
and the Verucchio throne, both depicting textile production scenes, are prestige objects
in their own right, indicating not only that textiles constituted a source of wealth and/
or status for their owners, but also that specialized textile production, specifi cally the
manufacture of ceremonial garments, was the prerogative of the elite women represented.
Despite the high degree of specialization that characterizes this type of textile
production in the Early Iron Age, it remained confi ned to the household level, as
indicated by the regular fi nds of small quantities of textile instruments on settlement
sites. By the seventh century bce, however, a new production mode seems to come into
play, appearing at certain sites, such as Murlo and Acquarossa, where large quantities of
tools were found concentrated in small areas or in specifi c structures.^41 The size, shape,
material and, often, decoration, of the tools themselves show increasing standardization,
and they were most likely produced by specialists. Frequently, textile implements are
concentrated in areas where other kinds of production, such as ceramic or metal, have
been documented, suggesting a household or even workshop mode of manufacture and
the existence of at least part-time specialist craftspeople. This change coincides with
the specialization and professionalization of other crafts, most notably metallurgy and
ceramic production.^42
These changes also coincide with the emergence of urban centers in Etruria. Socio-
political power became more and more concentrated in the hands of wealthy families who
controlled both trade and production. Changes in economic demands led to “a gradual
shift from production of luxury goods to subsistence goods and intensifi cation of local
specialized production” during the seventh and sixth centuries bce.^43 The picture that
emerges from the funerary context is one of textile production that is no longer controlled
by the elites in the same way as it was in the Early Iron Age. The bronze distaffs that
were common during the Villanovan period disappear by the sixth century bce, as do
the spools, which are found mainly in tombs dated from the tenth through to the sixth
centuries bce, with a few exceptional cases dated between the fi fth-fourth centuries bce.
The weaving of ceremonial textiles is no longer the prerogative of elite ladies but is now
handled by specialists or even slaves on a more “industrialized” level.
Robes such as the Verucchio mantles were made for specifi c ceremonial purposes
and would probably have circulated through gift exchange. During the Orientalizing
and Archaic periods there is a signifi cant increase in the scale of textile production,
indicated by the large number and standardization of tools. Cloth was likely produced
for commercial purposes and textile trade in Etruria has been tied to salt, amber, slaves
and other commodities.^44 Textile trade seems to be indicated indirectly by the spread
of Etruscan fashion to central Europe as attested in the Situla Art.^45 While there is no