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The Authors

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Short professional biographies of the Contributors: Dimitra Andrianou, Giacomo Bardelli, Magali An Berthon, Tina Boloti, Cecilie Brøns, Ana Cabrera-Lafuente, Francesca Coletti, Roxana Coman, Catarina Costeira, Cristina Cumbo, Camilla Cziffery Nielsen, Klara Dankova, Anna Maria Desiderio, Kerstin Droß-Krüpe, Arianna Esposito, Astrid Fendt, Nade Genevska Brachikj, Francisco B. Gomes, Judith Goris, Audrey Gouy, Karina Grömer, Morten Grymer-Hansen, Mary Harlow, Susanna Harris, Sophia Larissa Hayda, Angela Huang, Floor Huisman, Alina Iancu, Zofia Kaczmarek, Marisa Kerbizi, Meghan Korten, Tetiana Krupa, Karolina Anna Kulpa, Lena Larsson Lovén, Ronja Lau, Yuliia Lazorenko, Susanne Lervad, Petra Linscheid, Christina Margariti, Maria João Melo, Elena Miramontes Seijas, Leyre Morgado-Roncal, …

The Euroweb Textile And Clothing Terminology Network And The Digital Atlas Of European Textile Heritage: Some Reflections And Results, Louise Quillien, Alina Iancu, Meghan Korten, Susanne Lervad, Joana Sequeira, Catarina Costeira

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

One of the research areas of the EuroWeb project during the four years of the COST Action (November 2020 – October 2024) is the comparative study of textile and clothing terminologies in European languages across time. Inside the EuroWeb network, the research group on Textile and clothing terminologies has three topics of particular interest: 1. the specificities of these terminologies, and the strategies for naming textiles and garments; 2. the impact of European geography on textile and clothing terminologies, especially visible through textile terms formed after a toponym or through the circulation of loanwords; 3. the influence of textile and …

Exploring Dress, Gender, And Bodily Capital Through Pre- And Protohistoric Funerary Contexts: Case Studies From Southwestern Europe, Francisco B. Gomes, Catarina Costeira, Anna Maria Desiderio, Arianna Esposito, Giacomo Bardelli

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

While uneven in their scope and reach, studies of dress and dress complements (fibulae, belt buckles, buttons, etc.) have a significant tradition within the broader study of the pre- and protohistory of Mediterranean Europe. Many of these studies, however, have had a strong focus on the typology of the dress complements and ornaments themselves, either as chronological indicators, ethnic markers, or both. In more recent years, however, a shift in research agendas has ushered in the introduction of new perspectives and new ways of thinking about dress and bodily adornment.

This contribution explores one such perspective in particular — namely, …

Displaying And Experiencing Dress Identities In Museums: Case Studies From The Etruscan Period To Modern Times, Karina Grömer, Astrid Fendt, Morten Grymer-Hansen, Anna Zimmermann, Kayleigh Saunderson, Camilla Cziffery Nielsen, Francisco B. Gomes

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Dress, clothes, and accessories receive and give meaning through their nearness to the human body. As P. Stallybrass writes: “Bodies come and go: the clothes that have received those bodies survive.” It is through the close interaction between dress and person that they both receive their meaning. Clothes shape the human body, and we in return shape our clothes. Dress communicates class, gender, nationality, and marital status, and we leave behind parts of us in its smell, wrinkles, wear, and tear: “Clothes receive the human imprint.” Archaeological and historical dress — no matter how ancient — remain intrinsically linked to …

Red Dyes From West To East In Medieval Europe: From Portuguese Manuscript Illuminations To Romanian Textiles, Irina Petroviciu, Paula Nabais, Maria J. Melo

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Red is the color par excellence, its symbolism being linked with protection and magic through its primary attributes, fire and blood. It was the predominant color from the earliest times, certainly during the Greek and Roman periods and into Medieval Europe, until blue became a competitor around the 13th century. Mineral pigments, like iron oxides, were the first red sources, used to draw lines, dots, or spots on cave walls or stones. Later, other mineral red pigments were also exploited: Cinnabar, natural mercury sulfide, since the Neolithic, and realgar, arsenic trisulfide, in Ancient Egypt. Scientific investigation revealed that, although …

Searching For The Exotic: Textiles, Orientalism, And Identities, Ana Cabrera, Roxana Coman, Karolina A. Kulpa, Tim Parry-Williams

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Textiles, with their economic, sartorial, and identity-constructing functions, have long been at the center of cultural discourses, whether narrative or visual. Objects of desire, but also objects of curiosity, textiles have been the topic of costume books, offered in diplomatic exchanges, collected by private collectors and museums alike, and have traveled, sometimes as sample books. Their Othering function did not only differentiate between members of different civilizations, but also the members of the same society, where clothing was used to signal rank and function. The case studies presented intend to elaborate further on the role and symbolism associated with textiles, …

Clothing In Transition: Social, Symbolic, And Legal Aspects Of Garments From Prehistory To The Early Byzantine Period, Tina Boloti, Francesca Scotti, Cristina Cumbo, Petra Linscheid

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Since ancient times, garments served a wide range of purposes: Either functional, providing protection by covering the body, or symbolic, as an element of non-verbal communication and marker of identity. In particular, this stimulates the development of specific characteristics in shape, decoration, or material composition, which generate distinctions among garments, as acknowledged by Roman jurists too.

These distinctions are determined by various factors. One important factor is the social meaning of clothing: There are garments for public life, garments expressing rank, garments suited for special professions, or garments intended for sacred/priestly rites reflecting particular religious symbols. And, of course, clothes …

Assessment Of The Tourism Experience In The Castles Of Ajloun And Alkarak In Jordan On The Electronic Websites, Aseel Dbaisi, Nidal Alzbuon

An-Najah University Journal for Research - B (Humanities)

The aim of this study is to determine the destination image of Al karak and Ajloun castles according to visitors’ reviews on TraipAdvisor and to compare between them. The study used the qualitative approach to reveal the opinions of tourists on their visit to Al karak castle and Ajloun castle, using the content analysis method by analyzing visitor comments that were written on TripAdvisor, which allows visitors to express their tourism experience by writing comments and presenting it to million users of this site. The data was analyzed through the MAXQDA software, which allows us to import, analyze and encode …

Beyond Poverty: Exploring The Spatial Variability And Healthcare Determinants Of Opioid Mortality In West Virginia, Opeyemi Ojo

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This study aims to investigate the multifaceted factors contributing to opioid-related deaths in West Virginia, focusing on healthcare determinants and regional disparities. Opioid mortality has become a critical public health issue in the United States, particularly in states like West Virginia, where rates of opioid-related deaths are disproportionately high compared to national averages. This thesis tends to investigate the impact of healthcare determinants on opioid mortality rates and explore the spatial variability of opioid-related deaths in West Virginia. To achieve these objectives, data was collected from secondary sources such as the West Virginia Health Statistics Center, the National Center for …

Streets For The People: Rethinking Urban Mobility, Mariya A. Vahanvaty

ENGS 15.11: Design and Education

This lesson embarks on an exploration of how America’s deep-rooted car culture emerged and its lasting impact on modern life. Students will understand the decline of early public transportation systems and how World War II catalyzed rapid technological advancements, leading to a shift in infrastructure and business priorities. They'll analyze how post-war economic prosperity fueled mass motorization, with cars becoming a status symbol for Americans. Three key drivers—post-WWII technological advancements, urban sprawl, and the rise of car culture—serve as a framework for understanding the U.S.'s car reliance. Through evidence-based analysis, students will then apply these concepts to case studies, deducing …

Understanding Gold Textiles: Case Studies Of Gold Threads From The Bronze Age And Antiquity In Europe, Karina Grömer, Francesca Coletti, Francisco B. Gomes, Kayleigh Saunderson

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

The production of textiles, in terms of weaving techniques, has a long history in Europe, and dates back to the Stone Age, the time during which the first farming communities arrived in the Mediterranean and Central Europe, in the 7th/6th millennium BC. The first evidence of textile tools, like spindle whorls and loom weights, demonstrate that people made an important step forward in mechanizing this craft, not only twisting fibers and interlacing strands purely by hand, but also inventing tools to increase efficiency. Through the development of textile techniques, we see the unleashing of enormous creative power that stimulated even …

“What’S In A Name?” Toponyms And Loanwords In European Textile Cultures, Dimitra Andrianou, Klara Dankova, Nade Genevska Brachikj, Angela Huang, Meghan Korten, Elena Miramontes, Jasemin Nazim, Marie-Alice Rebours, Joana Sequeira

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Textiles as man-made products have been exchanged over distances for millennia. They can and have been produced almost anywhere; they are also, as a product, highly differentiated and quickly adjustable to changing demands. This brings with it naming practices to communicate about the goods in question. Textiles are labeled so that people can form expectations about them and rely on the reputation tied to the product’s identity. The terminology of textiles and textile items arises and develops in unison with technical innovations, discoveries, fashions, and trade patterns. Although the occurrence of toponyms e.g., in preindustrial trade (10th to 18th century …

The Terminology Of Soft Furnishings In Ancient Babylonia, Greece, And Rome: A Comparative Approach, Dimitra Andrianou, Elena Miramontes, Louise Quillien

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Various kinds of textiles were used to furnish domestic spaces in Antiquity, such as curtains, covers, hangings, pillows, cushions, mattresses, rugs, tapestries, tablecloths, and towels. These objects have practical and everyday functions, they embellish and add to daily comfort in the house and speak to the owner’s prosperity. Being made of perishable materials, furnishings have, on the whole, not survived in ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome. Apart from a few excavated pieces of textiles found in tombs, our information comes primarily from written testimonia and iconography.

It is thus essential to consider soft furnishings in their own right, in order …

Textiles, Dress And Politics: A Diachronic Perspective Through The Case Studies Of Ancient Rome And Medieval Iceland, Meghan Korten, Zofia Kaczmarek

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

People dress for more than just aesthetic reasons. Over the centuries, dress became a sign of human civilization, allowing us to identify the origin, gender, and status of the wearer. Textiles and clothing influence our body, posture, movements, and the way we are perceived by society. Textiles are also a tool used by people to further their agenda, that is why they found their place in the political life of many ancient and modern societies.

According to Michel Foucault, power can be understood as a set of activities influencing the life of the other: It provokes, forbids, or permits, but …

A Study Of Multimodal Accessibility Equity And Spatio-Temporal Relationships Between Transit, Job Density And Modal Split, Seyedsoheil Sharifiasl

Planning Dissertations - Archive

In North American cities, the land use and transportation systems are associated with low-density, suburban-type urban development, where the built environment contributes to a mobility pattern that is extremely reliant on automobiles. Several studies in the past decades have documented noticeable and concerning patterns of unjust and unsustainable transportation in this context. As a result, for those population groups with limited access to private transportation, this form of urban structure is equivalent to limited access to opportunities, leading to various environmental and social problems. These problems exacerbate inequities in access to transportation, disproportionately affecting marginalized communities. From a sustainable development …

Two Perspectives On Immigrants In The Labor Market: The Immigration Act Of 1990, Shria Holla

Gaines Fellow Senior Theses

When evaluating the impact of immigration, extant economic literature has overwhelmingly focused on natives and men. The widely accepted methodology in the literature usually segments by education and by experience. Segmenting by education has been found to not be viable for immigrants due to immigrant downgrading, and experience is not conducive for women since it is calculated based on age. Through both an empirical analysis and an ethnography, this study takes the initial steps to include existent immigrants and women in the discussion. The economic empirical analysis evaluates the impact of immigration on existent immigrants, a growing portion of the …

Flood Resiliency Planning: Historical Analysis And Youth Participation In Monongalia County, Wv, Josephine Q. Kemp-Rye, Jack P. Van Dusen, Kennedy Lawson

Undergraduate Scholarship

Flooding is a prevalent threat to community wellbeing, particularly in West Virginia where the mountainous topography and narrow valleys create perfect conditions for flood water to accumulate. To more deeply understand how hazards, such as flood events, become disastrous, we must consider not only the environmental/physical aspects, but also political, economic, and social dimensions. Thinking holistically about flood vulnerability acknowledges the influence of economic positioning, inadequate policies, industrial legacies, etc. which result in varied vulnerabilities to hazards within communities. The insights, knowledge, and experiences of local individuals and communities remain absent from domain top-down approaches to flood preparation. In an …

Digital Footprints: Freedom On The Move At The University Of Kentucky, Vanessa Holden, Reinette F. Jones, Jennifer A. Bartlett, Kopana Terry

Library Presentations

During the late 18th through the mid-19th centuries, the Commonwealth of Kentucky saw significant movement of self-emancipated people seeking freedom from bondage. Often referred to as “runaways” or “fugitive slaves,” in historical texts, self-emancipated people defined freedom in many ways. These migrations were widely documented in newspaper advertisements known as fugitive slave advertisements and runaway ads in local newspapers published throughout the state. Access to these materials (often buried in databases or on microform) has been problematic at best. Enter the Self Emancipated and Enslaved People in Kentucky (SEEK) Project, a partnership between faculty in the University of Kentucky Libraries …

Making Freedom A Place: Geographies Of Social Movement Activism And Repression In Oakland, California, Sophie Mcclain

Pitzer Senior Theses

This senior thesis explores the ways in which people in Oakland, California make place and spaces through their activism and subsequently how these places and spaces are policed by the state. Building off of the works of Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Robin D.G. Kelley, David Harvey, and Henri Lefebvre, McClain examines the ways in which activists create abolition geographies while engaging in their right to the city through social movement activism with a particular focus on the Black Panther Party and Occupy Wall Street Movement in Oakland. Through these examples, McClain shows how abolition geographies often exist in a dialectical relationship …

Inter- And Intra-Observer Error In Forensic Anthropology: Based Upon Langley Et Al. 2016 Data Collection Procedures For Forensic Skeletal Material 2.0 For The Cranium And Femur, Maggie M. Klemm, Dakota L. Taylor

Nebraska Anthropologist

Following the Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals (1993) ruling three decades ago, guidelines were established for determining the reliability and validity of expert testimony in court. These guidelines include considerations of whether the theory and methodologies employed have been tested, the establishment of potential or known error rates, and the existence and maintenance of the standards (Christensen, 2004). Testifying in court as an expert witness has become a critical role as a forensic anthropologist. As such, the methodologies, techniques, and standards utilized by forensic anthropologists must be carefully considered and adhere to the Daubert guidelines within the court system. One …

Digital (Re)Production: Spatial Mediations Through Augmented Reality Landscapes In ‘Pokemon Go’, Brigitte Pulminar Perkins

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

Since 2016, the mobile augmented reality game Pokémon GO has renewed interest within communities by mediating spatial engagement using in-game markers that must be engaged with throughout physical urban landscapes. This thesis identifies factors that influence the spatial distribution of digital markers used by this game to help inform analyses of urban gamification, urban spatial distribution, and cultural knowledge production processes. Drawing specifically on theories of urban spatialization and digital media studies, I highlight features of physical and digital legacies of redlining within Lexington, KY that are reproduced via Pokémon GO. I argue that the urban racialized landscape of Lexington …

State Governance And Less-Skilled Migrant Workers In South Korea, Weejun Park

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This dissertation examines the migration governance of South Korea with a focus on the immigration of less-skilled migrant workers. While geographers and broader social scientists have explored this topic, previous studies have two main foci: 1) individual immigrants and their activities; and 2) migration policy development. Despite these studies’ contribution to the scholarship, there seems to be a relative lack of interest in the South Korean state as a potentially crucial actor in governing less-skilled migrant workers. To address this gap, this dissertation draws upon (political) geography, related social sciences, and interdisciplinary fields such as border studies, migration studies, and …

Presenting Past People: Storytelling Through Prehistoric Garment Reconstructions, Floor Huisman, Anna Zimmermann, Ronja Lau, Karina Grömer

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

This paper argues that we need to focus on past people (rather than just objects) in our narratives and museum displays to engage museum visitors more effectively. It will demonstrate that we can use a combination of well-researched physical and digital prehistoric garment reconstructions to implement more people-centered approaches also used in living history, which bring the past to life and allow visitors to literally come face-to-face with long-dead people. In this way, visitors can relate to past people on an emotional level, which helps them to learn much more about past life than many traditional displays. After outlining how …

Frontmatter For Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, And Culture Across Millennia, Kerstin Droß-Krüpe, Louise Quillien, Kalliope Sarri

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Title and copyright pages, Acknowledgments, Contents, Prefaces.

We believe this volume has the potential to contribute to the advancement of European scientific excellence and competitiveness, fostering a deeper understanding of the cultural, technological, and societal significance of textiles and clothing in shaping European identity and heritage through the millenia. We hope that the anthology will find a wide and interested readership, and that it will inspire many new research projects in the field of textile history.

Technical And Technological Analyses Of Excavated Textiles, Christina Margariti, Judith Goris, Petra Linscheid, Agata Ulanowska

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Textiles are particularly complex and labor-intensive structures, thus their constructive elements, such as fibers and yarns, as well as the final textile products (e.g., threads, cords, fabrics, and applied decoration) reveal a range of important technical, technological, and sociocultural information. In this paper, we discuss the analysis of excavated textiles at two levels:

1) Technical analysis that offers basic information about the qualities of examined textile samples.

2) Technological analysis that provides insights into technology, social relations of production, and the level of craft specialization or production modes.

Both analyses offer new evidence for environmental resources, sustainability, trade, and exchange, …

Investigating Organic Colorants Across Time: Interdisciplinary Insights Into The Use Of Madder, Indigo/Woad, And Weld In Historical Written Sources, Archaeological Textiles, And Ancient Polychromy, Paula Nabais, Cecilie Brøns, Magdalena M. Wozniak

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Organic dyes have been used from the earliest times to provide color primarily to textiles, but also as a colorant in painting. Such organic dyes could create a wealth of colors, depending on the availability and know-how of resources. These dyes are usually organic in nature, and primarily obtained from different plant sources. Unfortunately, the characterization of natural organic colorants in textiles and artworks is still a challenge. The difficulty of analyzing these materials is sometimes allied to the frequent impossibility of micro-sampling, and the frailty of the objects. Many techniques, such as HPLC (High-Performance Liquid Chromatography) and SERS (Surface-Enhanced …

Towards Textile Narratives: A Cross-Over Perspective On Textile Imagery In Statuary, Iconography, And Literature, Leyre Morgado-Roncal, Juliane Müller, Marisa Kerbizi

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

Textiles and clothing constitute a fundamental element of our cultural past, present, and future. Therefore, they were also represented in many mediums, such as iconographic depictions and literature. Images are a source of visual and mental illustration and are often dependent on the viewer’s perspective. As a result, the representations of textiles convey social constructions and their cultural perception. Their study is the focal point of this article: The ways in which textiles and clothing are described by the imagery shown in Greek and Roman statuary and iconography, as well as in contemporary Albanian literature and mythology.

Representations illustrate the …

Young Romans: Status, Dress, And Gender, Mary Harlow, Lena Larsson Lovén

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

The demographics of the Roman world suggest that it was a world full of children. Demographers argue that in order simply to maintain population levels in a period where life expectancy was very short by modern standards, and infant mortality high, a woman should, on average, have six children, on the assumption that not all would live to adulthood. Despite much research in the last fifty years, children still remain partly invisible in the Roman world. This is primarily because they leave little evidence produced by themselves and are seen through the prism of adult eyes. Inevitably, given the nature …

Narrative And Material Tools Of Resistance: Mobilizing Textile Crafts, Heritage, And Fashion In The Context Of The Invasion Of Ukraine (2022–2023), Magali-An Berthon, Sophia Hayda, Tetiana Krupa, Yuliia Lazorenko, Marie-Louise Nosch

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

In 2022–2024, textile and fashion scholars came together to write an anthology sharing a new vision of European history as seen through textiles, in the COST Action EuroWeb. During this period, the continent was still dealing with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and was then faced with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Contemporary European history will be markedly defined by the ongoing war in Ukraine. One remarkable aspect of this conflict is the way textiles and dress appear daily in a variety of media outlets, mobilized as visual and semiotic means to communicate issues of war …

A Sensory Perspective On High-Ranked Women’S Dress In The 8th To 4th Century Bc In The Mediterranean And Central Europe, Karina Grömer, Susanna Harris, Audrey Gouy, Cecilie Brøns

Textile Crossroads: Exploring European Clothing, Identity, and Culture across Millennia

In the late 20th century, the study of western science was dominated by a philosophical approach to evidence as text and meaning. In archaeology, material culture was treated like text, to be read through systems of signs, symbols, and indices put together in syntax. For studies of dress, this was influential in understanding dress as a cognitive system compiled to create identities and meaning. In this approach, textiles, fastenings, hairstyles, and gestures are presented as signs and symbols used to form a statement about identity, to be read by others. There was a focus on the visuality of dress and …