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