Susan Pollock

Wolfram Schier

The central issues discussed in this new collected work in the highly successful ancient textiles series are the relationships between fiber resources and availability on the one hand and the ways those resources were exploited to produce textiles on the other. Technological and economic practices - for example, the strategies by which raw materials were acquired and prepared - in the production of textiles play a major role in the papers collected here. Contributions investigate the beginnings of wool use in western Asia and southeastern Europe. The importance of wool in considerations of early textiles is due to at least two factors. First, both wild as well as some domesticated sheep are characterized by a hairy rather than a woolly coat. This raises the question of when and where woolly sheep emerged, a question that has not up to now been resolvable by genetic or other biological analyses. Second, wool as a fiber has played a major role both economically and socially in both western Asian and European societies from as early as the 3rd millennium BCE in Mesopotamia, and it continues to do so, in different ways, up to the modern day. Despite the importance of wool as a fiber resource contributors demonstrate clearly that its development and use can only be properly addressed in the context of a consideration of other fibers, both plant and animal. Only within a framework that takes into account historically and regionally variable strategies of procurement, processing, and the products of different types of fibers is it possible to gain real insights into the changing roles played by fibers and textiles in the lives of people in different places and times in the past. With relatively rare, albeit sometimes spectacular exceptions, archaeological contexts offer only poor conditions of preservation for textiles. As a result, archaeologists are dependent on indirect or proxy indicators such as textile tools (e.g., loom weights, spindle whorls) and the analysis of faunal remains to explore a range of such proxies and methods by which they may be analyzed and evaluated in order to contribute to an understanding of fiber and textile production and use in the past.

Early Textile Production in Western Asia, South-east and Central Europe (10,000-500BCE)

The Competition of Fibres

Pollock Susan

Innovative study of the early state and urban societies in Mesopotamia, c. 5000 to 2100 BC.

Ancient Mesopotamia

Reinhard Bernbeck

Archaeologies of the Middle East provides an innovative introduction to the archaeology of this fascinating region and a window on both its past and present. Written by some of the top archaeologists of the Middle East: scholars from diverse backgrounds with a wide range of interests and intellectual approaches Coverage spans 100,000 years: from the Paleolithic to Hellenistic times Explores the connections between modern-day politics and the social context of archaeological practice and various underutilized approaches to archaeological interpretation Designed for student use

Critical Perspectives

Archaeologies of the Middle East

Kamyar Abdi

Foreword by the Series Editor; Preface: The genesis of the Fars Archaeology Project, by Kamyar Abdi; Goals of the excavations, by Susan Pollock, Reinhard Bernbeck, and Kamyar Abd; Notes on the physical and human geography of the Eastern Ramjerd Plain, by Saman Heydari and Reinhard Bernbeck; Surface survey at Tol-e Bai, by Reinhard Bernbeck; Excavation and site stratigraphy, by Susan Pollock; The Neolithic pottery, by Reinhard Bernbeck; Bakun pottery, by Reinhard Bernbeck, Hamid Fahimi and Nassim Janmaleki; Chipped stone artifacts, by Elham Ghasidian, Ahmad Azadi and Susan Pollock; A microwear study of chipped stone tools, by Melody Pope; Miniature cylindrical objects, by Susan Pollock; Small finds, by Mohsen Javeri, Kamyar Abdi and Reinhard Bernbeck; Grinding and pounding implements, by Fariba Saeedi and Susan Pollock; Burnt clay, by Reinhard Bernbeck and Michael Gregg; Burnt stone, by Susan Pollock and Saman Heydari; Animal bones, by Marjan Mashkour, with contributions of Salvador Bailon; Macrobotanical remains, by Masoumeh Kimiaie; Phytolith analysis, by Anies Hassan; Microdebris analysis, by Sepideh Saeedi; Organic residue analysis, by Michael Gregg; Radiocarbon dates, by Susan Pollock; A survey of rockshelters near Tol-e Bai, by Saman Heydari; Ethnoarchaeological observations at Ahmadabad in the south-central Zagros mountains, by Ahmad Azadi; Neolithic Worlds at Tol-e Bai, by Susan Pollock and Reinhard Bernbeck; Summary; Bibliography; Persian summary.

Susan Pollock

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