The Etruscan World (Routledge Worlds)

• Margarita Gleba –

evidence that textile production in Etruria ever reached an industrial scale of organization
before the Roman period, there is strong indication of a manufacture mode, which greatly
exceeded in quantity the simple subsistence production.

CONCLUSION

The abundance of textile tools on settlements and in burials from the Villanovan period
onwards demonstrates that various stages of textile production were among the main
economic activities and sources of wealth in Etruria. As one of the most important
and labor-intensive crafts of the ancient world, textile production had great social
signifi cance in Etruria. This was expressed in funerary ritual through the inclusion of
textile implements among the burial goods, as well as in religious activities through the
deposition of textile tools in votive and foundation deposits.^46 Textile production was
also an integral part of local and regional economies and local, regional and international
trade.
The sophistication of Etruscan textiles – from the Villanovan Verucchio mantles to
the Hellenistic triumphal mantle of Vel Saties depicted in the François Tomb at Vulci

• demonstrates the high level of technical and artistic skills of the local textile makers,
  which did not diminish with changing political and economic fortunes of the Etruscans.
  As the power of the military aristocracy declined, social and political power was transferred
  to the more mercantile element of society, and large urban centers developed that were
  able to afford to have specialists to produce not only luxury but also subsistence goods
  (see Chapter 7). Textile production thus became an enterprise on a much larger scale,
  moving from individual specialists of the early Iron Age to a specialized workshop-based
  manufacture during the Archaic and later periods. It should come as no surprise that
  many aspects of the Etruscan world were mirrored in its textiles and their production.

NOTES

1 On textiles in antiquity, see Barber 1991 and Gleba and Mannering 2012.
2 Schneider and Weiner 1989.
3 On Etruscan dress, see Bonfante 2003.
4 Gleba 2012.
5 See Steingräber 1985 and 2006 passim.
6 van der Meer 2007. Cf. Chapter 22 in this volume.
7 Turfa and Steinmayer 1999. Cf. Chapter 40 in this volume.
8 Pionati Shams 1987: 3–11. Pliny the Elder (36.19–21) calls it live or incombustible linen
and praises its usefulness for making funeral shrouds, napkins, lamp wicks, and fi shing nets.
The British Museum has an example of presumably Etruscan asbestos; see Gleba 2008: 63–
64.
9 Pliny the Elder (HN 7.196) quotes Verrius Flaccus who said that the Etruscan king of Rome
Tarquinius Priscus (traditional dates 616–578 bce) celebrated a triumph wearing a golden
tunic. On gold thread in ancient Italy, see Gleba 2008: 81–82.
10 Torelli 1997: 68–69; von Eles 2002.
11 Morigi Govi 1971.
12 Tamburini 1995: 169 no. 2081, Fig. 51.
13 Gleba 2008: 109–122.
14 Gleba 2009a.
15 Forte and von Eles 1994: 55 no. 32