Lo sviluppo delle fibre di lana nell'Italia preromana

Throughout antiquity, textile manufacture was practiced on all levels of society and was one of the most labour-intensive of all occupations. As such, it was an industry of great cultural and social importance, which should be factored into any balanced assessment of the ancient economy. Over the last two decades, textile research has demonstrated how much we can learn about the culture, society, technology and economy of the ancient world through archaeological textiles. Textile quality and appearance are dependent on the material of which the textile has been made, that is fibre. Fibre investigation, hence, is more than just identification of material source. By studying fibre on a microscopic level we can come closer to understanding issues of selective breeding/ cultivation, processing of fibres, and their wear. Textile fibre exploitation has had a great impact on subsistence strategies of past societies, which were transformed when plant fibre was largely replaced by animal fibre during Bronze Age. Investigation of textile fibre development is thus essential to the interpretation of much wider aspects of ancient societies, such as agriculture, animal husbandry, domestication and technology. This paper presents some preliminary results of the project FIBRE (textile Fibre in Italy Before Roman Empire, 2009-2011), which aims to deepen our understanding of the development of textile fibres in the Apennine peninsula (Italy) through a macroscopic, microscopic and molecular investigation of selected archaeological textiles from various Italian sites dated from prehistory to the Hellenistic period. The data collected will provide a much clearer and elaborate picture of the development of wool fibre used for textiles and its profound impact on technology, agriculture, animal husbandry and society in Italy from prehistory until Roman period.