The Babylonian World (Routledge Worlds)

TEXTILE PRODUCTION IN MESOPOTAMIA –

MODES AND INSTITUTIONS

Much of what we know of Babylonian textile production is gained from economic
texts, though we also have been able to glean some information from archaeological
excavation. The type of information ranges from architectural indices to small artifact
distribution (principally spindle whorls, as they are often the object that remains well
preserved). Historical references to the production of textiles are plentiful in docu-
ments from Ebla (Pettinato 1991 ) and the Old Assyrian trading colonies in Anatolia
(Veenhof 1972 , 1977 ). Of particular interest are some economic texts from the Ur
III period which describe the textile industry under Ibbi-Sîn. These texts attest to
the primary importance of the textile industry in the royal economy as well as
document the economic mechanisms in place during the early third millennium BC
for textile production ( Jacobsen 1948 : 172 ). They also describe in great detail the
different stages of textile manufacture, from wool and linen processing to cloth fulling
and bleaching, and finally weaving. Technical descriptions of various stages of textile
production are sometimes detailed in texts that give specifications for different types
of cloth. For example, there are texts that describe coarse cloth, fulled on the one
side (Veenhof 1972 : 92 – 93 , 104 ). Other texts describe cloth made of two colors, but
not dyed (Old Assyrian barmum) (Veenhof 1972 : 186 – 187 ).

TEXTILES IN EXCHANGE

From textual evidence, it is well known that textiles were a widely traded item in
western Asia during the third and second millennia BC(Leemans 1960 ; Veenhof
1972 ). Textiles were a component of what Crawford ( 1975 ) termed “invisible exports,”
as their importance in trade is known solely from texts. Textile products were one
of the main items of export from southern Mesopotamia. Although there is virtually
no direct archaeological evidence remaining of textile production in Mesopotamia,
the export of textiles is well documented, especially by certain economic texts from
Larsa, Lagash, Ebla and Babylonia. For example, the Garment Texts from Lagash
account garment distribution among dignitaries during the reign of Gudea in the
second Lagash Dynasty c. 2200 BC. Fabrics were exported from Ur to Magan during
the Third Dynasty, and were also exported to Dilmun (Leemans 1960 ).
Texts relating to the Old Assyrian trading colonies are comprised of archives of
economic texts regarding the sale of textiles and wool, as well as letters, often personal
letters between husbands and wives, which discuss transactions in textiles between
the Karum and Assur. These texts reveal that there are different types of cloth denoted
by region, for example abarniumcloth, which denotes cloth from somewhere called
“Abarna.” Sometimes, these cloths were actually manufactured in Assur (Veenhof
1972 ), apparently after their type was sufficiently well known to become signate. The
practice of naming types of articles by the region from which they came also held
true for species or breeds of animals, for example the Shimashki sheep or the Magan
goat (Steinkeller 1995 : 50 , 59 ).
Textiles were apparently traded in bolts (by weight) as standard sizes, not as finished
garments in the Old Assyrian trading colonies. The differentiation between various
qualities and values of cloth is well documented here as well. Interestingly, there is

— Cloth in the Babylonian World —