Textile economy in the Veneto Region (North-Eastern Italy): A Textile Tools Oriented Spatial Approach

Textile economy, especially wool based, played a very important role in Roman Venetia (North-Eastern Italy), thanks to the natural environment (plains, alpine pastures, coastal salt works), as attested by ancient literary sources, including Varro and the Diocletian’s Edictum de pretiis. Over the last decades this topic was investigated by scholars of Padua University, starting from the literary and epigraphic sources to the routes of transhumance and the settlements specialized in sheep-breeding, and, more recently, recording the archaeological evidences of textile production. The paper will offer the results of the textile tools oriented spatial research in the Veneto Region (almost 2800 items), never extensively applied before to Roman contexts. The database, linked to a GIS, allows us to analyze the distribution of the different spindle whorl and loom-weight morphologies, highlighting the continuity with the pre-Roman tradition and the introduction of new type, probably to realize new products. A further stage of research has considered the distribution of the more significant parameters of spindle whorls (weight and diameter) and loom weights (weight and thickness) which influence the characteristics of yarns and fabrics, based on experimental tests (CRT, Copenhagen), showing a significant variation of values in urban or rural contexts: these values suggest a more differentiated and finer production in the city than in the country, thus destined to consumers or markets actually different. Although data are often troublesome, it is proving to be a useful approach for the reconstruction not only of the ancient textile techniques employed, but also to reach a wider economic-historical synthesis.