Bronze Age Textiles deals with strontium isotope analyses to trace possible trade in textiles/movements, as well as archaeological analysis of textile production technologies.
This project is divided into two subprojects:
- Bronze Age textiles and strontium isotopic analyses.
- Bronze Age textiles: production, use and exchange.
Bronze Age textiles and strontium analyses
This study aims at establishing provenience of Bronze Age textiles and skins from the well-preserved oak coffin burials in the Danish National Museum.
Strontium isotopic signatures are conveyed from eroding geological materials via soils through the food chain into the human and animals soft tissues, where strontium substitutes for calcium. Since the path of strontium isotopic ratio through the food chain is unfractionated, it is possible to apply the method also to animals and hence to their products, in this case fiber, and consequently, textiles.
Bronze Age textiles: production, use and exchange
The aim of this study is to investigate the evidence for textile production, use and exchange in Bronze Age. The study will analyze textile-related material culture, which can be divided into four broad categories: tools for textile manufacture, spin combinations and the development of tabby, twill etc., the spread of knowledge concerning the function of textile-related tools and their use, the relationship between the textile development and changes in fashion. The contribution to the project will be complete the picture of textile production in northern Europe and its connection with other parts if the continent.