Bronze Age Textiles: A Preliminary Analysis of Fragments Discovered at Tepe Dasht, Sistan

Abstract

Of the many diverse arts that flourished during the third millennium BC, textiles played an especially<br />significant role in society. Archaeological textiles offer an important source of material cultural testimony for<br />daily life in ancient times- relating simultaneously to agriculture, pastoralism, trade, migration, ritual, and so<br />forth as well as to craft technologies. The study of the techniques and production of textiles is therefore highly<br />valuable, yet has only recently become appreciated by archaeologists. This is principally due to the very<br />impermanent and fragile nature of textiles, as most are completely destroyed by the natural taphonomies of<br />most archaeological sites. However, in some extreme conditions, whether frozen, desiccated, waterlogged or<br />even buried in highly alkaline soils, some textiles and other organics do survive rather well. In these rare<br />situations, there still remain manifold problems, both with regard to discerning the way in which different<br />textiles were made, and to the materials and tools used in the process. This paper is a discussion of the analysis<br />of some textiles discovered at Tepe Dasht, a satellite site of Shahr-i Sokhta in Sistan, to identify some of the<br />spinning and weaving methods used. Textile remains are exceedingly rare in archaeological sites. When<br />compared to artifacts of a more durable nature, such as ceramics, seals or metal objects, the survival of textile<br />objects is uncommon. Textile fragments discovered from Tepe Dasht, though somewhat ravaged by time and<br />the elements, have enormous potential to reveal information about ancient life and the local environment in the<br />third millennium BC in Sistan.