Abstract

Textile production is one of the oldest specialized crafts and archaeological, iconographic and written evidence indicates that, in most ancient societies, spinning and weaving were practised primarily by women (Barber 1994). The reason for this is simple: it is an occupation compatible with childcare, because it can easily be carried out at home, interrupted and resumed again and throughout history women have been the primary child carers and remain so even in our highly industrialized societies (Brown 1970). Not only were women involved in textile production but it occupied an inordinate amount of their time. It is hardly surprising that, over millennia, textile craft became a symbol of the female sphere of life. In pre-Roman Italy, women’s contribution to the community as textile workers was illustrated in iconography and expressed by the deposition of their spinning and weaving tools in their burials.