On 20-21 February 2025 we held the international workshop From local to global: Archaeology, Archaeometry, and Digitalisation of Roman Textiles - Towards a Roman Textile Database. The event was hosted at the University of Padua and the first day was streamed online.
Our expert speakers presented textiles from different parts of the Roman Empire, including Egypt (Lise Bender Jørgensen, John Peter Wild and Felicity Wild, Sarah Hitchens), the Levant (Hero Granger Taylor), Austria (Karina Grömer), Germany (Petra Linscheid), and Italy, particularly Pompeii and the Vesuvian area (Francesca Coletti). Kerstin Droß-Krüpe provided the invaluable perspective of an economic historian on the archaeological data.
The second day was dedicated to team presentations on the database, with feedback from participants and a discussion on Roman textiles, covering a broad range of questions:
- What is a Roman textile (in your region of expertise)?
- Do we see evidence of standardisation and professionalisation in textile production and economy in relation to the Roman empire?
- Based on our knowledge of pre-Roman textile cultures and technologies, what possible innovations, emerging practices and technologies were introduced or developed under Roman rule or during the Roman period?
- Are there common features that identify Roman innovation and changes at the limes of the Empire?
- How do we recognise what is are ‘local’ or ‘regional’ and what are ‘global’ textile products?
- Can we discern between mass production and made-to-order local items?
- Can we recognise any particular types of ‘branded’ goods, like those that appear in written sources?
- What do you think are the necessary steps, approaches and infrastructure to move Roman textiles studies forward?
- How does the study of archaeological textiles change what we already know about the Roman textile economy from the written record?
The workshop is funded by the PRIN project ADigTex. Archaeology, Archaeometry, and Digitalisation of Ancient Textiles. From Pompeii to the Roman Empire and organized by Margarita Gleba and Bela Dimova of the DBC, University of Padua in collaboration with Francesca Coletti and Marco Galli of Sapienza University of Rome.