TEXTILES AND DRESS IN GREECE AND THE ROMAN EAST

If one attempts to treat weaving and dress as discernible subjects during the Roman period in Greece, centered on the Aegean, they appear difficult issues to examine. The limits are hard to set: they can be defined neither geographically, given the constant fluctuation and shifting even during the period in question, nor thematically, as to what exactly the terms “weaving” and “dress” comprise and signify. The content of these terms, or rather their field of signification, is also easily extensible, since the making of clothing and textiles encroaches on various sectors which do not strictly form part of the main fields of weaving and dress (the construction of the social and personal aspect, the display of belonging and so on). This content is also interlinked with various sectors of production, from farming and animal husbandry to dyeing, architecture and the economy. (From the Introduction)