Prähistorische Textilkunst in Mitteleuropa

The roots of our history as well as the history of the textile craft reach back to the "dark ages" without written sources, the millennia before the ancient civilisations. Textiles, textile production and clothing were essentials of living in prehistory, locked into the system of society at every level - social, economic and even religious. In Roman Period written sources allow us to draw a colourful picture of textiles and their producers - about work and identity. For prehistory the mearge evidences from archaeological excavations has to be puzzled together. It is a delightful challenge, to create a hypothesis about "the people behind", about textile producers, about the history of clothing. This book is dedicated to historians, costume designers, archaeologists und all persons, who are interested in handcraft and artisanship. We deal with the prehistory in Central Europe, with a special focus on Austrian sites and finds as well as the surrounding countries. Our knowledge for textile production in pre-Roman Europe comes from various sources such as surviving textiles, grave finds, textile tools, archaeological evidences from settlements and depictions of crafts people and their products. From the last centuries before Christ, at the end of Iron Age, we also have sparse written sources. The title of this book "Prehistoric Textile Art" was chosen to point on the skill of prehistoric people to use different patterning techniques. Commonly prehistoric textiles from Europe before the ancient civilisations are thought to be very simple and primitive. The aim of this book is to show the variety of working processes and techniques. It is a fact, that the most important techniques in textile handicraft and art, which we use even in the 21th century, have their roots in prehistoric times. They even reach back to Stone and Bronze Age. During this time human beings created the most important weaving and sewing techniques, weave and pattern types. Especially the Bronze Age innovations, like weaving twill, dyeing textiles or special pattern systems are surprising. There is a well development of textile techniques towards Iron Age. The textile qualities in Hallstatt Period are finer and multifaceted than in the preceding periods. They are rich in colour, as well as in different weave-types, patterns and decorations. There are different styles of band weaves. Usually decorative techniques used in prehistoric times were introduced during weaving. Therefore typical design

Year

2010

Language

German

Publisher

Naturhistorisches Museum Wien

Editions

1

Pages

482

ISBN

9783902421500

Data source: Wikidata