Textile activity and its tools: indicators of cultural identity and interaction processes in Sicily and the Aeolian Islands (13th-5th century BC)

Abstract

This thesis aims to investigate cultural contacts in Sicily through the understudied archaeological categories of textile tools. Sicily and the Aeolian islands have been crossroads of cultures for millennia. The possible movement of peoples from the Italian Peninsula during the Final Bronze Age and the establishment of Greek and Phoenician incomers from the 8th century BC made Sicily a paradigmatic example of culturally hybrid frameworks. The results of these cultural interactions are often perceived to have stimulated changes in indigenous material culture and technologies. Past studies dealing with cultural encounters have mainly focused on architecture, metallurgy, pottery and social practices. Specifically, this thesis will test the hypothesis that textile tools serve as cultural markers in the hybrid framework of Sicily between the 13th and 5th centuries BC. By presenting seven case studies, I will explore how and to what extent the impact of intense cultural interactions affected indigenous textile traditions. Moreover, since dress and clothing are key indicators of individual and social identities across a wide range of societies, I will demonstrate how cultural interaction made a material impact on communicating identities through textiles. Finally, because women seem regularly to be involved in textile manufacture, I will investigate how and to what extent women played a crucial role in transfer of knowledge as well as in construction and representation of social identity through textile technology. The analysis carried out in this work will help to define the features of textile tradition at sites and approach textile culture within the investigation of cultural interactions.