Grasping the Ephemeral: Methods for Extracting Cultural Data from Archaeological Textiles

Venue: Theatre 1, 221 Bouverie Street, Theatre 1

Presenters: Dr Catherine Smith

The textile industry is older than pottery, older than agriculture and domestication of animals, and probably consumed more labour in European prehistory than pottery and food production combined (Barber, 1994). The ability to make cordage, or string, from plant fibres is considered a fundamental, cross-cultural aspect of human technology, impacting on human capabilities to adapt to specific environments exponentially (Barber, 1994; Good, 2001; Hardy, 2008). Because of the centrality of textiles to all cultures, archaeological textiles are seen as important sources of cultural information, and their scientific analysis can provide important cultural information relating social boundary, trade relationships, and technological complexity. This presentation will illustrate how the analysis of Māori textiles from New Zealand provides insight into pre-contact lifeways, and the value of using textile artefacts as a source of cultural data.

Dr Catherine Smith is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Materials Science and Technology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand where she teaches cultural aspects of textiles.

from
https://events.unimelb.edu.au/events/7666-grasping-the-ephemeral-methods-for-extracting-cultural-data-from-archaeological