“La donna è mobile. Biographies of mobile women in ancient European societies” Andersson Strand, Eva Birgitta; Frei, Karin Margarita; Mannering, Ulla; Nosch, Marie Louise Bech Published in: Vetus textrinum: Textiles in the Ancient World. Studies in Honour of Carmen Alfaro Publication date: 2018 Document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Citation for published version (APA): Andersson Strand, E. B., Frei, K. M., Mannering, U., & Nosch, M. L. B. (2018). “La donna è mobile. Biographies of mobile women in ancient European societies”. In M. Gleba, & M. García-Sánchez (Eds.), Vetus textrinum: Textiles in the Ancient World. Studies in Honour of Carmen Alfaro (pp. 225-234). Publicacions i Edicions Universitat de Barcelona. Download date: 24. sep.. 2021 Carmen Alfaro Giner Índice general Prefacio. 11 (Manel García Sánchez) Carmen Alfaro Giner: Curriculum. 15 Carmen Alfaro Giner in textile archaeology and history: an Appreciation. 27 (John Peter Wild) Sobre vestimenta e identidad en el Imperio romano: el proyecto DressID y su proyección en la investigación europea. 31 (Michael Tellenbach) Near East Food and Clothing: a Mesopotamian and Indo-European Formula. 45 (Miguel Ángel Andrés-Toledo) κατά περ Πέρσαι ἐσκευάδατο – the function of ‘Persian’ dress in Herodotus’ catalogue of Xerxes’ forces (7, 61–90). 55 (Kerstin Droß-Krüpe) Egypt Yaciendo bajo el cielo que se extingue: la tienda cósmica de la tumba de Tutanjamón. 65 (Jónatan Ortiz-García) Indumentaria en el Egipto de la Antigüedad tardía y Edad media temprana conservada en la colección del antiguo Museu Tèxtil i d’Indumèntaria de Barcelona. 79 (Ana Cabrera Lafuente) Kostümgeschichtliche Zeichnungen spätantiker Kleidung aus ägypten im Museum für byzantinische Kunst, Berlin – eine Spurensuch. 97 (Cäcilia Fluck) Aegean Textiles and Culture: the flounced skirt in Aegean Bronze Age art. 119 (Dora Constantinidis & Lilian Karali) Women’s dress in Early Greek art: types, patterns and regional development. 129 (Isabella Benda-Weber) “Beau comme Crésus!” Some remarks about Lydian textiles and fashion viewed from Greece. 143 (Stella Spantidaki & Iris Tzachili) Italy and Rome La produzione tessile nell’Italia meridionale preromana. 153 (Francesco Meo) Archeologia tessile nella Venetia romana tra storia e archeologia: I casi di Altino, Padova e Verona. 165 (Maria Stella Busana & Annarosa Tricomi) Vestis virum facit. Male clothing and social status. 177 (Lena Larsson Lovén) Satirically Sartorial: colours and togas in Roman satire. 185 (Mary Harlow) “Seamingly” customized – Tassels as decorative elements on statuary depictions of the toga in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. 197 (Berit Hildebrandt & Ida Demant) Continental Europe Visuality – Movement – Performance. The costume of a rich woman from Franzhausen in Austria, c. 2000 BC. 211 (Karina Grömer & Lise Bender Jørgensen) La donna è mobile. Biographies of mobile women in ancient European societies. 225 (Eva Andersson Strand, Karin Margarita Frei, Ulla Mannering & Marie-Louise Nosch) Purple Imitaciones, adulteraciones y sucedáneos de la púrpura marina: las noticias de las fuentes y los restos textiles. 235 (Julia Martínez García) Captura y Gestión de Recursos Malacológicos en Algunos Talleres Productores de Púrpura de la Isla de Ibiza. 253 (Benjamín Costa) La donna è mobile. Biographies of mobile women in ancient European societies Eva Andersson Strand, CTR – University of Copenhagen Karin Margarita Frei, CTR –National Museum of Denmark Ulla Mannering, CTR – National Museum of Denmark Marie-Louise Nosch, CTR – University of Copenhagen1 Querida Carmen, con este título de la famosa ópera de Verdi, y con el este árticulo queremos hacerte honor a tu increíble obra de trabajo dentro de la investigación de los textiles. Ya antes de tu llegada al CTR, Centre for Textile Research, estabas en nuestros pensamientos y en nuestros planes. Durante tu estadía en el 2007 en el CTR como uno de nuestros primeros profesores invitados, compartistes tus grandes conocimientos y tu alta experiencia con todos nosotros (Fig. 1). Tú Carmen, nos has inspirado para dedicarnos a nuevos campos de investigación como el Murex, textiles militares, la escultura y Catulo. Más tarde colaboramos en projectos europeos como el DressID, el cual jugó un papel muy importante en las colaboraciónes científicas en toda Europa. A su vez, a través de otra dama –que al igual que tú también esta siempre muy bien vestida- la dama de Basra, te dedicadaste y colaboraste con la arqueología experimental en Dinamarca, y de esta manera te convertiste en el vínculo prinicipal entre las tradiciones de investigación de Europa del norte y del sur. Tú Carmen, eres una verdadera europea, quién siempre ha insistido en construir y participar en redes internacionales donde tú representas a España y divulgas de esta manera tus conociemntos al pueblo español. En Valencia tú te has dedicado a apoyar y a crear una nueva generación de jóvenes científicos en el mundo textil. Carmen es, sin duda alguna, sinónimo de la investigación textil en España, y para nosotros en Dinamarca es también sinónimo de colaboración, inspiración y sabiduría. Escrito en tu honor, querida Carmen, 8 de marzo del 2016. 1 [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]‎‎ 225 This paper is offered to a highly mobile lady, Carmen Alfaro Giner. It builds on the authors’ long-term collaboration since 2006 and combines the archaeology of the Aegean, north European prehistory, and the Viking Age, along with philology, epigraphy, and geo-chemistry in order to deepen the understanding of the mobility of women and their textiles and textile technologies.2 This is done via four biographies of women of the past, written by four women of the present. Figure 1. Carmen Alfaro Giner among the CTR researchers in 2007 (Photo: CTR). 1. Highly Mobile Girl Buried in Egtved Recent ground-breaking research in prehistory made headlines worldwide when it was published that the Egtved Girl, buried in an oak-coffin in Jutland, Denmark, originated from an area many hundreds of kilometres away from where she was buried (Fig. 2).3 Geochemical analyses of samples of her body tissues, moreover, suggest that she had been highly mobile in the two years prior to her death. Likewise, her clothes were made of non-local wool showing that wool production and perhaps cloth making, too, were part of the long-distance trade system in the Nordic Bronze Age. The Egtved case suggests that women in the Nordic Early Bronze Age (1700-1100 BCE) also participated in the long-distance exchange and social networks. The Egtved Girl, aged 16-18, was 2 K. Frei, R. Frei, U. Mannering, M. Gleba, H. Lyngstrøm, M.-L. Nosch, Provenance of Textiles – a pilot study evaluating the Sr isotope system in wool, Archaeometry 51:2, 2009a, 252-276. E. Andersson Strand, K. M. Frei, M. Gleba, U. Mannering, M.-L. Nosch, I. Skals, Old Textiles – New Possibilities, European Journal of Archaeology 13,2, 2010, 149- 173. M.-L. Nosch, U. Mannering, E. Andersson Strand, K. Frei, Travels, Transmissions, and Transformations – and Textiles, in: S. Sabatini, S. Bergerbrant (eds.), Counterpoint: Essays in Archaeology and heritage Studies in Honour of Professor Kristian Kristiansen (BAR International Series 2508), Oxford - New York 2013, 469-476. 3 K. M. Frei, U. Mannering, K. Kristiansen, M. E. Allentoft, A. S. Wilson, I. Skals, S. Tridico, M.-L. Nosch, E. Willerslev, L. Clarke, R. Frei, Tracing the dynamic life story of a Bronze Age Female, Scientific Reports 5:10431 DOI: 10.1038/srep10431, 2015a, 1-7. 226 buried in an oak coffin dendrochronologically dated to the year 1370 BC.4 Approximately one and a half years before her death, when she was 14-16 years old, she embarked on a long journey, probably to Scandinavia. Was she alone or did she travel with family or peers? What was the purpose of the journey? Scholars have primarily envisioned that such a journey was for marriage or diplomatic motives.5 Figure 2. The oak coffin belonging to the Egtved Girl containing her clothing and grave goods (Photo: National Museum of Denmark). The strontium isotope analyses performed on her teeth demonstrate that she grew up in an area far away from the place where she was buried and where it was previously thought she would have lived all her life. Furthermore, these isotopic analyses show that she grew up in an area with a strontium isotopic baseline range different from the signature which delineates the area covered by Denmark today (Bornholm excluded). All together her grave goods and the geochemical signature of her complex textile assemblage suggest that the most likely place of her origin was the area of present-day southern Germany. Artefacts and raw materials circulated widely in Early Bronze Age Scandinavia. Into Scandinavia came gold, bronze, copper, tin and glass beads,6 and from Scandinavia amber travelled southwards. Moreover, scholars also believe that other commodities were part of the trade/exchange networks, such as cattle going south.7 Nevertheless, the Egtved find demonstrates that wool must now be added to the list of exchanged goods. In general, the Egtved Girl’s clothing is of a typical Nordic design, comparable to textiles found in other rich female graves dated to the Early Bronze 4 K. Christensen, Dendrochronological Dating of Bronze Age Oak Coffins from Denmark & Schleswig, Acta Archaeologica 77, 2006, 163-246. 5 S. Bergerbrant, Bronze Age Identities: Costume, Conflict and Contact in Northern Europe, 1600-1300 BC, Lindome 2007, 118-124. 6 J. Ling, et al., Moving metals II: provenancing Scandinavian Bronze Age artefacts by lead isotope and elemental analyses, Journal of Archaeological Science 41, 2014, 106-132; J. Varberg, B. Gratuze, F. Kaul, Between Egypt, Mesopotamia and Scandinavia: Late Bronze Age glass beads found in Denmark, Journal of Archaeological Science 54, 2015, 168-181. 7 K. Kristiansen, Decentralized Complexity: the Case of Bronze Age Northern Europe, in T.D. Price, G.M.