Drawings by author unless otherwise specified; sources further discussed in Sources
0.1 Artifacts from Hallstatt salt mines on display in Natural History Museum, Vienna. Photo by author
0.2 Replica of Hallstatt twill, woven by author
0.3 Chart of archaeological eras
1.1 Woodcut: Johann Weichard Valvasor, Die ehre dess hertzogthums Crain (Laybach and Nürnberg, 1689), 321
1.2 Diagram of twist
1.3 Greek vase painting of woman spinning; British Museum
1.4 Diagram of plain weave
1.5 Diagram of shed and heddles on loom
2.1 Venus of Lespugue; Musée de l’Homme, Paris
2.2 Tree of Uralic languages
2.3 Triple cord from Lascaux Cave, France; after Glory
2.4 Map of area in which string skirts are attested in Palaeolithic and later times
2.5 Four Stone Age figurines with string skirts, from Gagarino, Šipintsi, Vinča, and Crnokalačka Bara
2.6 String skirt from Bronze Age burial, Egtved, Denmark. Photograph courtesy of the National Museum, Copenhagen
2.7 Burial of woman with string skirt, Ølby, Denmark. After 1880 etching reprinted in P. V. Glob, The Mound People (Ithaca, N.Y., 1974), 44, fig. 15
2.8 Four string skirts from ethnic costumes: Mordvin, Walachian, Macedonian, Albanian
2.9 Sash from Drenok, Yugoslav Macedonia. Collection of P. Hempstead
2.10 Tree of Indo-European languages
3.1 Map of Neolithic and other early sites
3.2 Neolithic relief of pregnant woman, Çatal Hüyük. After Mellaart
3.3 Neolithic figurine of woman giving birth, Çatal Hüyük
3.4 Neolithic figurine of reclining woman, Hal Saflieni, Malta
3.5 Wooden model of Egyptian weaving shop, tomb of Meketre. Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Photography by the Egyptian Expedition, 1919–1920; Metropolitan Museum of Art
3.6 Greek vase, ca. 560 B.C., showing women weaving on a warp-weighted loom. Attic lekythos, attributed to the Amasis Painter. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Fletcher Fund, 1931: no. 31.11.10
3.7 Reconstruction of Neolithic house, Tiszajenő, Hungary. After Tringham
3.8 Hallstatt-era urn with weaving scene, from Sopron. Drawing by A. Eibner-Persy; courtesy of Natural History Museum, Vienna
3.9 Hungarian village girls. After anonymous travel photo taken ca. 1950
3.10 Reweaving of Neolithic linen “brocade” from Irgenhausen. Photograph courtesy of the Swiss National Museum, Zurich (5752.P)
4.1 Cretan orchard and vineyard. Photo by author, 1962
4.2 Diagram of fiber-wetting bowl
4.3 Village of Mykonos. Drawing from photo by author, 1962
4.4 Minoan heart-spirals from tomb of Wahka II at Qau, and kilt in tomb of Menkheperraseneb at Thebes. After Petrie and Vercoutter
4.5 Clay figurine of Minoan woman, Petsofá, Crete. After Myres
4.6 Fresco of Minoan woman, Hagia Triada. F. Halbherr, “Resti dell’ Età Micenea: Scoperti ad Hagia Triada . . . ,” Monumenti Antichi 13 (1903), pl. 10
4.7 Fresco of Minoan women gathering saffron. Xesti 3, Akrotiri, Thera
4.8 Painted clay sarcophagus from Tanagra, Greece
5.1 Netted bag or hat from Naḥal Ḥemar, Israel. Drawing courtesy of Tamar Schick, “Naḥal Ḥemar Cave—Cordage, Basketry and Fabrics,” ’Atiqot XVIII (1988), fig. 12
5.2 Types of tunics
5.3 First Dynasty Egyptian shirt from Tarkhan (UC 28614B'). Photograph courtesy of the Petrie Museum, University College London
5.4 Types of women’s uncut overwraps
5.5 Bronze Age clay figurine from Cîrna, Romania, and recent Bulgarian folk costume of similar design
5.6 Man wearing kilt and shoes with turned-up toes, on bronze stand from Episkopi-Kourion, Cyprus; Mycenaean clay vessel in shape of shoe, from Voula, Attica (National Museum, Athens)
5.7 Turned-up-toed shoes from the Balkans. From the author’s collection
6.1 Minoan fresco of woman wearing “sacred knot,” from Knossos
6.2 Egyptian linen chest painted to represent pavilion, tomb of Kha
6.3 Minoan statuette of young woman holding snakes, Knossos
6.4 Nineteenth-century Russian embroidery of Berehinia. After Stasov
7.0 Cuneiform letter from Kültepe. After Stevens
7.1 Map of ancient Near Eastern trade routes. Figures adapted from Sumerian mosaics from Ur and Mari
7.2 Mesopotamian woman with large headdress, from Ishtar temple at Mari
7.3 Neo-Hittite woman spinning, attended by scribe, on stele from Maraş
7.4 Mosaic of women spinning, from Mari
7.5 Scenes of spinning and weaving from Mesopotamian cylinder seals (from Susa, Choga Mish, and unknown sites)
7.6 Gold headdress of Sumerian queen of Ur
8.1 Map of Egypt and Palestine
8.2 Tempera copy (by Norman de Garis Davies) of Egyptian wall painting of a weaving shop, Twelfth Dynasty tomb of Khnemhotep, Beni Hasan. Photograph courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Rogers Fund, 1933: no. 33.8.16
8.3 Three Egyptian spindles
8.4 Scenes of textile work and acrobatics, from the tombs of Baqt and Khety, Beni Hasan. Percy Newberry, Beni Hasan II (London, 1894), pl. 4, 13
8.5 Sketch of Egyptian girl applying face paint, from papyrus in Turin Museum
8.6 Statues of Sit Snefru (Metropolitan Museum) and of a Sumerian woman found at Tell Asmar
8.7 Statuettes of Egyptian servingwomen carrying burdens and grinding grain. Metropolitan Museum and Archaeological Museum, Florence
9.1 Bronze Age burial of a woman with a silver spindle, Tomb L, Alaca Höyük, Turkey. After Koşay
9.2 Map of Greece, the Aegean, and western Anatolia
9.3 Linear B personnel tablet Ab 555. After Bennett
9.4 Scenes of spinning and weaving from Attic Greek vase of about 560 B.C., attributed to the Amasis Painter. Drawing courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Fletcher Fund, 1931: no. 31.11.10
9.5 Women making a warp, from Etruscan or Villanovan bronze pendant. After Govi
9.6 Friezes from a Greek story cloth found at Kertch, Crimea (now in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg)
10.1 Venus de Milo with arms restored in position for spinning. Drawing by Steven Escandon
10.2 Perfume flask from Corinth showing contest of Athena and Arachne. Gladys Davidson Weinberg and Saul S. Weinberg, “Arachne of Lydia at Corinth,” The Aegean and the Near East: Studies Presented to Hetty Goldman (New York, 1956), 262–67, fig. 1 (courtesy of G. Weinberg)
10.3 Greek loom weight with owl spinning wool
10.4 Vily (rusalki) from Slavic folk art
10.5 Aamu visitors to Egypt wearing “coats of many colors”; tomb of Khnemhotep, Beni Hasan. Percy E. Newberry, Beni Hasan I (London, 1893), pl. 31
11.1 Table of pharaohs of the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty
11.2 Theban townhouse of Thutnofer. Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Norman de Garis Davies, “The Townhouse in Ancient Egypt,” Metropolitan Museum Studies 1.2 (1928–29), 233–34, fig. 1
11.3 Weaving shop with vertical looms, tomb of Neferronpet, Thebes. After Davies
11.4 Tapestry coverlet, tomb of Kha, Thebes. After Schiaparelli
11.5 Egyptian Nine Bows and Captives design in tapestry. After Daressy
11.6 Young woman at her loom, accosted by suitors, on Greek vase. Q. Quagliati, “Pisticci: tombe lucane con ceramiche greche” Notizie degli Scavi di Antichità 1 (1904), 199, fig. 4
11.7 Young girl spinning, on Greek vase. Hugo Blümner, “Denkmäler-Nachlese zur Technologie,” Archäologische Zeitung 35 (1877), pl. 6