Textiles and Dress

An understanding of the development of textile production in Etruria is crucial to any attempt to set textile technology in its social and economic context and to place textile production among other crafts, such as metal and pottery manufacture, in order to ensure a more balanced assessment of the Etruscan economy. Among the various sources of evidence available for the study of Etruscan textiles is archaeological material, consisting of textiles and tools, as well as iconographic sources. The extant textiles illustrate that the Etruscans were familiar with complex spinning, weaving, and dyeing techniques. The great quantity of surviving implements associated with textile manufacture, such as spindle whorls, loom weights, and spools, can be used to study the organization of textile production in Etruria. Iconographic sources provide important documentation of textile production processes and information about the appearance and function of Etruscan textiles. The accuracy of the latter is confirmed by the surviving textiles, in particular the almost complete garments recovered at Verucchio.