The textile culture at Pompeii project

There are various indications for textile production in the ancient city of Pompeii and its vicinity, but archaeological research has been mainly focused on the features of the urban structures. In this regard, the textiles from Pompeii have only received limited attention. The same applies to the elements of dress preserved as impressions on the plaster casts of human bodies, so-called calchi. This apparent lack of attention is remarkable, because the textile evidence from the Vesuvian area can be precisely dated, and because it provides the possibility of comparison between specimens of the same material in different types of preservation. In order to fill this lacuna, the research project Textile Culture at Pompeii was initiated. The aim of this multidisciplinary project is to provide new input to the ongoing debate on the significance of the textile economy in the Vesuvian area in antiquity by considering textile culture as a whole. Archaeological investigations on contexts as well as archaeometric analyses on textile micro-samples reveal new information about the ‘textile topography’ of Pompeii, the local and imported goods as well as the standardised or high-quality textile products.