Series: Ancient Textiles Series

Global Textile Encounters is a fascinating journey into three significant textiles and clothing cultures: China, India and Europe. The common thread is how fashions and traditions have travelled through space and time. In this richly illustrated anthology, with its 242 images, written both by textile researchers and practitioners as well as scholars from other fields across the globe, we hear of various types of encounters that bring to life a world of interactions and consequences as colourful as the textiles themselves. Among the 33 contributions we learn of an historian of ancient Roman textiles who has an intellectual epiphany in the streets of modern Iran; of 17th-century European Jesuits spreading the Gospel in Asia who attire themselves in the clothing suitable to their host countries; a visiting Siamese delegation that unwittingly creates fashion in 18th-century France;; how Chinese textile technology changed as a result of encountering textile patterns along the silk road; how political messages are conveyed in the sari; how Maharajahs inspired global pop culture; and the value we ascribe to old clothing. Recurrent themes include how religious praxis is informed by textile encounters; how travelling textiles enable patterns and symbols to be copied onto stone and metals; and textile motifs that acquire other symbolic meanings in their travels and encounters with different societies. <BR><BR>This sensibly priced, highly readable paperback, edited by three eminent textile scholars from Europe, China and India, is aimed at the interested general public and students. A Chinese version will be published by Donghua University Press in China.</SPAN>

This richly illustrated book presents a selection of the rich and varied iconographic material from the Scandinavian Late Iron Age (AD 400-1050) depicting clothed human figures, from an archaeological textile and clothing perspective. The source material consists of five object categories: gold foils, gold bracteates, helmet plaques, jewellery, and textile tapestries and comprises over 1000 different images of male and female costumes which are then systematically examined in conjunction with our present knowledge of archaeological textiles. In particular, the study explores the question of whether the selected images complement the archaeological clothing sources, through a new analytical tool which enables us to compare and contrast the object categories in regard to material, function, chronology, context and interpretation. The tool is used to record and analyze the numerous details of the iconographic costumes, and to facilitate a clear and easy description. This deliberate use of explicit costume shapes enhances our interpretation and understanding of the Late Iron Age clothing tradition. Thus, the majority of the costumes depicted are identified in the Scandinavian archaeological textile record, demonstrating that the depictions are a reliable source of research for both iconographical costume and archaeological clothing. The book contributes with new information on social, regional and chronological differences in clothing traditions from ca. AD 400 to the Viking Age.

Archaeologists and textile historians bring together 16 papers to investigate the production, trade and consumption of textiles in Scandinavia and across parts of northern and Mediterranean Europe throughout the medieval period. Archaeological evidence is used to demonstrate the existence or otherwise of international trade and to examine the physical characteristics of textiles and their distribution in order to understand who was producing, using and trading them and what they were being used for. Historical evidence, mainly textual, is employed to link textile names to places, numbers and prices and thus provide an appreciation of changing economics, patterns of distribution and the organisation of trade. Different types and qualities of cloths are discussed and the social implications of their production and import/export considered against a developing background of urbanism and increasing commercial wealth.</SPAN>