This volume provides an ambitious synopsis of the complex, colourful world of textiles in ancient Mediterranean iconography. A wealth of information on ancient textiles is available from depictions such as sculpture, vase painting, figurines, reliefs and mosaics. Commonly represented in clothing, textiles are also present in furnishings and through the processes of textile production. The challenge for anyone analysing ancient iconography is determining how we interpret what we see. As preserved textiles rarely survive in comparable forms, we must consider the extent to which representations of textiles reflect reality, and critically evaluate the sources. Images are not simple replicas or photographs of reality. Instead, iconography draws on select elements from the surrounding world that were recognisable to the ancient audience, and reveal the perceptions, ideologies, and ideas of the society in which they were produced. Through examining the durable evidence, this anthology reveals the ephemeral world of textiles and their integral role in the daily life, cult and economy of the ancient Mediterranean.

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Author biographies
• 1. Introduction: Approaching textiles in ancient Mediterranean iconography
• 2. Textile production in Aegean glyptic: Interpreting small-scale representations on seals and sealings from Bronze Age Greece
• 3. Textiles and iconography in the Bronze Age Aegean Scripts: TELA logogram and the ligatured endogram TE
• 4. Loom or lyre: A dual reading of iconography from the Iron Age II site of Kuntillet ‘Ajrud
• 5. Abundance and splendour: Textiles on Archaic Greek statues of young women (korai)
• 6. The colour of cult: Artemis Brauronia and the krokotos
• 7. Furniture textiles in Classical and Hellenistic iconography
• 8. Ideology, gender and textile production: The iconography of women in the Iberian culture
• 9. All that glitters is gold: Golden textiles in the ancient Mediterranean
• 10. Arachne revisited: Hubris and technology in the Forum Transitorium frieze, Rome
• 11. Fringed clothing in Roman iconography and written sources
• 12. Between realism and artistic convention: Woollen mantles in the iconography of Roman Palmyra
• 13. Reading dress and identity in the Roman mosaics of Carthage and Tabarka
• 14. Epilogue
• Glossary