from burials, no one can be sure what use these items had in
everyday life.See also adornment; agriculture; art; clothing and
footwear; crafts; death and burial practices; econ-
omy; employment and labor; gender structures and
roles; household goods; occupations; religion and
cosmology; trade and exchange.FURTHER READING
Ferdinand Anton, Ancient Peruvian Textiles, trans. Michael Heron
(London: Th ames and Hudson, 1987).
Alison Austin, “Spinning in Ancient Rome.” Available online. URL:
ht tp://w w w.unc.edu/courses/rometech/public/content/sur v iva l/
Alison_Austin/spinning.html. Downloaded on April 20, 2007.
Elizabeth Barber, Prehistoric Textiles: Th e Development of Cloth in
the Neolithic and Bronze Ages with Special Reference to the Ae-
gean (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991).
Elizabeth Wayland Barber, Women’s Work: Th e First 20,000 Years:
Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times ( Ne w Yor k : W. W.
Norton, 1994).
Margaret DeRamus, “Fibers and Fiber Preparation.” Available on-
line. UR L: ht tp://w w w.unc.edu/courses/rometech/public/con-
tent/survival/DeRamus_Durham_Laxton/margaret.html.
Downloaded on April 20, 2007.
Margaret DeRamus, “Preparation of Finished Cloth.” Available on-
line. UR L: ht tp://w w w.unc.edu/courses/rometech/public/con-
tent/survival/DeRamus_Durham_Laxton/margaretfi n.html.
Downloaded on April 20, 2007.
Brian Durham, “Ancient Textiles as Evidence for Textile Produc-
tion.” Available online. URL: http://www.unc.edu/courses/
rometech/public/content/survival/DeRamus_Durham_Lax-
ton/brian.html. Downloaded on April 20, 2007.
Lallanji Gopal, “Textiles in Ancient India,” Journal of the Economic
and Social History of the Orient 4, no. 1 (1961): 53–69.
Jennifer Harris, ed. 5000 Years of Textiles (Washington, D.C.:
Smithsonian Books, 2004).
Kathy Laxton, “Looms and Weaving Tools.” Available online. URL:
http://www.unc.edu/courses/rometech/public/content/sur-
vival/DeRamus_Durham_Laxton/kathy.html. Downloaded
on April 20, 2007.
John Mack and John Picton, African Textiles: Looms Weaving and
Design (London: British Museum Publications, 1979).
Christa C. Mayer-Th urman and Bruce Williams, Ancient Textiles
from Nubia: Meroitic, X-Group, and Christian Fabrics from
Ballana and Qustul; An Exhibition Organized by the Art Insti-
tute of Chicago (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1979).
William Jay Rathbun, ed., Beyond the Tanabata Bridge: Traditional
Japanese Textiles (London: Th ames and Hudson, 1993).
Irmtraud Reswick, Traditional Textiles of Tunisia and Related North
African Weavings (Los Angeles: Craft and Folk Art Museum,
1985).
Mary Schoeser, World Textiles: A Concise History (London: Th ames
and Hudson, 2003).
Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, Th e Production of Linen in Pharaonic
Egypt (Leiden, Netherlands: Textile Research Centre, 1992).
Chen Weiji, comp., History of Textile Technology of Ancient China
(New York: Science Press, 1992).▶ towns and villages
introduction
In general, archaeologists have specifi c qualities in mind for
defi ning villages, towns, and cities. Th ey tend to disagree with
one another about what makes a city. Some insist that a city
must have a certain minimum population to make it a city;
otherwise it is a town. For these archaeologists, the Sumerian
city of Uruk was the world’s fi rst true city because by 2700
b.c.e. it had a population of 50,000 people. Others believe the
size of a settlement compared with others of its time mat-
ters most. Th us Çatalhüyük in Turkey, with several thousand
people, would be the fi rst true city in 7200 b.c.e., because at
that time nearly everyone lived in settlements of 250 people
or fewer. Th is means that defi ning towns is diffi cult, because
it is unclear when a town is large enough to be a city.
Archaeologists usually see distinct diff erences between
towns and villages. A town, like a city, needs to have a munic-
ipal government that organizes public works projects. It is ex-
pected to have leadership positions that form a hierarchy such
as the en and nin, council of elders, assembly of citizens, and
public employees of Sumerian towns. Th e en and nin were the
male and female coleaders elected by the assembly. Archae-
ologists and historians devote much study to the organization
of leadership in towns, because they believe the organization
will tell them about how ancient peoples experimented with
organizing their lives.
Where towns might have paved streets, areas for carry-
ing on the business of civic government, and neighborhoods
of homes, villages did not have those traits. Th ey had hu-
man-made structures, even if those structures were just huts
of mud or grass, and the structures would be intended to be
used over a period of years rather than just a few days or a
season. From this view, people who lived in caves did not live
in villages, and therefore the development of the village itself
was an important step for human societies.
A village almost certainly had a form of leadership, but
it would not be as formal as that of a town. Very oft en vil-
lages were composed of members of one family or clan, with
leadership belonging to family elders and with many deci-
sions about village life being made with the involvement
of all adults in the community. Villages did not have to be
inhabited all year. Some ancient peoples had two places to
live—one for the summer and the other for winter. In these
cases, their villages were defi ned by the permanence of the
homes, which would be sturdy enough to survive until the
villagers returned.
Aft er developing national governments, some cultures
tried to regulate the organization of towns and villages. For
instance, Romans insisted on ritually sanctifying the land
before building. In ancient India villages and towns were
intended to imitate the structure of the capital city, only
smaller. In addition to villages organized around clans, they
had villages and towns that were organized around craft s. For
example, a village population could be all blacksmiths, whotowns and villages: introduction 10850895-1194_Soc&Culturev4(s-z).i1085 1085 10/10/07 2:31:01 PM