Agata Ulanowska

University of Warsaw | UW · Faculty of Archaeology

The new research project entitled “Textiles and Seals” explores a significant relationship between textile production and seals and sealing practices in Bronze Age Greece, from the Early to Late Bronze Age (c. 2650-1200 BCE). The project aims at identifying the structure and meaning of this relationship by investigating the use of seals in the admi...

The Faculty of Archaeology, University of Warsaw is pleased to announce the CALL FOR PAPERS for Sympozjum Egejskie: 10th Conference in Aegean Archaeology, which will take place at the University of Warsaw, Poland and online on June 9th to 13th, 2025. For the main conference, the organisers invite proposals on all themes (e.g. art, crafts, everyday...

Textile imprints on clay are commonly viewed as a useful source for analysing the properties of actual spun fibres and textiles. The quantity and quality of information that can be retrieved from a specific impression varies due to its preservation, clearness, size and properties of the clay fabric, as well as due to the adopted methodology. A subs...

Textiles are particularly complex and labor-intensive structures, thus their constructive elements, such as fibers and yarns, as well as the final textile products (e.g., threads, cords, fabrics, and applied decoration) reveal a range of important technical, technological, and sociocultural information. In this paper, we discuss the analysis of exc...

Sympozjum Egejskie: Papers in Aegean Archaeology is a peer-reviewed sub-series of Warsaw Studies in Archaeology. It has been designed to fulfil the role of a platform for presenting and introducing a wide range of new research approaches and themes within the broad area of Aegean Archaeology. This is primarily achieved through showcasing the work o...

It is our pleasure to announce the Call for Papers for the NESAT XV Conference which will be held the University of Warsaw, Poland, from 22nd to 24th May 2024. Following the tradition of previous NESAT Conference editions, the NESAT XV Conference in Warsaw will focus on the study of archaeological textiles in Northern and Central Europe, spanning...

It is our pleasure to announce the Call for Papers for the NESAT XV Conference which will be held the University of Warsaw, Poland, from 22nd to 24th May 2024. Following the tradition of previous NESAT Conference editions, the NESAT XV Conference in Warsaw will focus on the study of archaeological textiles in Northern and Central Europe, spanning...

We warmly welcome you to Sympozjum Egejskie: 9th Conference in Aegean Archaeology! We invite you to join us online or in person at the University of Warsaw from June 19th to 20th for two days of exciting cutting-edge research from early career researchers working in a wide range of different specialisms within Aegean Archaeology, with a keynote le...

We are pleased to announce the Call for Papers for Sympozjum Egejskie: 9th Conference in Aegean Archaeology, which will take place in Warsaw and online on June 19th and 20th 2023! Please send your abstracts (in English, max. 250 words), your personal details (title, full name, affiliation, email address) and a short personal biography (max. 100 wo...

ympozjum Egejskie: Papers in Aegean Archaeology is a peer-reviewed sub-series of Warsaw Studies in Archaeology. It has been designed to fulfil the role of a platform for presenting and introducing a wide range of new research approaches and themes within the broad area of Aegean Archaeology. This is primarily achieved through showcasing the work of...

The diverse developments in textile research of the last decade, along with the increased recognition of the importance of textile studies in adjacent fields, now merit a dedicated, full-length publication entitled “Ancient Textile Production from an Interdisciplinary Perspective: Humanities and Natural Sciences Interwoven for our Understanding of...

Following the growth in textile studies over the past decade, we aim to present a comprehensive update of the state-of-the-art summarised in the seminal 2010 paper “Old Textiles – New Possibilities” by E. Andersson Strand, K. M. Frei, M. Gleba, U. Mannering, M.-L. Nosch and I. Skals. The diverse developments of the last decade, along with the incre...

The “Textiles and Seals” research project investigates the complex relationships between textile production and seals and sealing practices in Bronze Age Greece. These relationships can be tracked by analysing the combined evidence from seal-impressed textile tools, textile imprints on the undersides of seal-impressed clay lumps and textile product...

This paper explores textile production-related iconography on seals from Bronze Age Greece. Thirteen motifs related to textile production are recognised in the imagery. These range from the flax plant and the woolly animals to fibre combing, purple dyeing, spinning and weaving using loom weights, and perhaps the comb and rigid heddle, to finished t...

This contribution discusses the evidence of textile impressions preserved on the undersides of clay sealings from Bronze Age Greece. A collection of modern casts taken from these sealings, stored in the Corpus der minoischen und mykenischen Siegel in Heidelberg, is currently being analyzed by the author. The assumed reliability of textile impressio...

Europe through textiles: network for an integrated and interdisciplinary humanities – The first six months of the EuroWeb COST Action CA 19131 EuroWeb, conceived by the CTR, is a new network of scholars and stakeholders from academia, museums, conservation and cultural institutions, as well as creative industries, that already represent 31 Europe...

The abundant, yet largely ignored evidence from imprints of textiles, threads and cords that are preserved on the undersides of lumps of clay stamped by seals, provides unique information about the qualities of actual fabrics, as well as various uses of textiles in everyday life and administrative practices. The assemblage of silicone and plasticin...

The Workshop aims at examining and discussing a range of relationships between textile production and seals, and sealing practices in a wider geo-chronological perspective, and with a special focus on the following phenomena: 1) imprints of cords and textiles on the undersides of clay sealings as a source of textile knowledge and the evidence for ‘...

While the Late Bronze Age Linear B archives provide detailed information about gender and social status of textile workers controlled by the Mycenaean palaces, much less is known about the gendered division of labour in earlier periods and in other modes of production. Middle Bronze Age Crete (c.2100/2050–1700/1650 BCE) witnessed the formation and...

Flax and wool were the basic raw materials in textile production in Bronze Age Greece. Both fibres represent different physical and chemical properties, but if exploited together they provide an excellent choice in response to various needs. The cultivation and processing of flax and wool required different knowledge, organizational strategies and...

This paper explores the high complexity of textile skills and the diversity of kinaesthetic knowledge required by various textile labours with reference to textile technology in Bronze Age Greece. The tacit nature of textile skills, the subjective experience of textile labour, and the manners in which skills may have been transferred are discussed....

Looms in spaces. The warp-weighted loom in the Aegean Bronze Age and the modern experience of weaving, Bulletin APRAB no 18, 2020, 146–152

A unique bone object was recently found in Cave 32 in Wadi Seiyal (Nahal Ze’elim) in the Judean Desert region of Israel. It was radiometrically and typologically dated to the Chalcolithic period. The object has a series of three slots on each side, flanking a central elevated area in which a perforation was shaped. Thanks to the extremely dry and r...

Textile production with its complex technology and high socio-cultural significance has been the key craft in past societies in Europe, Mediterranean and the Middle East. However, despite its complexities and social and economic importance textile manufacture has often been considered a household-scale production performed and maintained predominan...

This paper aims at recognising potential innovations in weaving technology that may have occurred in Bronze Age Greece. It discusses whether these assumed developments may be examined diachronically. This discussion is based on archaeological evidence of textile implements, such as loom weights and presumed traces of warp-weighted looms, as well as...

http://rcin.org.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=67578&from=publication Textile production has been a key craft in societies of the past in Europe and the Mediterranean. Continually increasing interest in textile studies has focused on scientific examination of archaeological and historical textiles and fibres, tools and working places, written sources an...

Intensively investigated in regards to socio-economic issues, textile production in Bronze Age Greece (3rd–2nd millennia BCE), especially the changes in the economics of textiles and in textile manufacture are still not fully understood and need further discussions. This paper examines textile production and economy in relation to the archaeologica...

Textile production and the manufacture of clothing was one of the most essential daily activities in prehistory. Textiles were significant objects of practical use, and at the same time had cultural, social and symbolic meaning, crucial for displaying the identity, gender, social rank and status, or wealth of their users. However, evidence of ancie...

From Introduction: <<This book is one of the results of the collaborative research project ‘First Textiles. The Beginnings of Textile Manufacture in Europe and the Mediterranean’, implemented in 2013– 2017 at the University of Copenhagen. The project was designed to elucidate the beginnings of textile manufacture, tools and techniques in the Epipal...

To download the volume please visit: http://swiatowitwuw.pl/resources/html/articlesList?issueId=11858 The papers collected in the present volume of the ‘Światowit’ journal examine developments in textile production in Bronze and Iron Age Europe and the Mediterranean by tracing both traditional and innovative elements in textile technology. The iss...

Open access: http://swiatowitwuw.pl/resources/html/article/details?id=184209 The papers collected in the present volume of the 'Światowit' journal examine developments in textile production in Bronze and Iron Age Europe and the Mediterranean by tracing both traditional and innovative elements in textile technology. The issue comprises 11 original...

18 In search of 'invisible' textile tools and techniques of band weaving in the Bronze Age

This paper scrutinises the iconography of patterned textiles in Bronze Age Greece as a potential source of technical knowledge of the patterning and weaving techniques. The variety of patterns on costumes depicted in Xeste 3, Akrotiri, Thera is a case study, examined in close relation to the textile technology available at the time, evidence of arc...

TEA 51 (2017) 14-15

Archaeological Textiles Review 59 (2017) 93-95

Abstract: Textile production with its complex technology and high socio-cultural significance has been a key craft in past societies in Europe and the Mediterranean. However, despite its complexities and social and economic importance textile manufacture has been often considered a household-scale production performed and maintained predominantly...

A short weaving experiment took place at the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb in order to test the functional nature of the published astragali from Gomolava site as well as to determine and discuss their potential for use as loom-weights. Authors managed to borrow a set of 15 astragali from the Institute for Quaternary Paleontology and Geology in Z...

Experimental archaeology is commonly employed in the research on textiles and textile production in prehistory, in order to explain the operational aspects of textile manufacturing and the functionality of textile tools, to investigate fabric wear and decomposition processes, and to reconstruct ancient textiles and costumes. ‘Experience textile arc...

Clay spool-shaped objects, known in the literature also as spools, cylinders, reels or bobbins, are commonly found on prehistoric and ancient sites. They seem to have been universal and multifunctional tools applied in textile production activities. At times they are discovered in sets in settlements which may suggest their specific use as weights...

The European Archaeologist 43 (2015) 41-44