Abstract
The study of textile production through the distorting prism that is Pompeii has suffered from nearly 40 years of debate between primitivists and modernists. By engaging in a re-appraisal of this topic, M. Flohr has proposed a model which, in many respects, offers new solutions and, potentially, a new vision of the Pompeian economy. However, the foundations upon which it builds are unstable: textile production itself — that is to say, the early stages of the chaine operatoire for transforming wool into fabric — finds an all-too-diminished place in the discussion, in order to give a central role to the fullers. This reduced focus on the first production steps is brought about by two opposing processes: the disqualification of certain workshops, namely the so-called officinae “lanifricariae”, and the over-qualification of evidence associated with weaving.
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