Dotawo/content/article/yvanez.md

---
title: "Textiles Activities in Context. An Example of Craft Organization in
Meroitic Sudan"
authors: ["elsayvanez.md"]
abstract: In Sudan and Nubia, textile implements such as spindle whorls and loom
weights are common finds, especially in the excavations of both rural
and urban Meroitic settlements. This paper will focus on restoring the
textile implements to their archeological locations in order to identify
and understand the context of textile activities within the two
settlements of Tila Island and Meroe-city. The two sites -- a small
rural settlement on one hand and the royal capital city on the other
hand -- offer various examples of how craft production was integrated
amidst the Meroitic urban landscape. From domestic production inside
living quarters to the creation of multi-tasking industrial areas, the
making of textiles was tightly woven into the economic fabric of the
Meroitic kingdom.
keywords: ["Meroitic settlements", "craft organization", "textile production"]
---


**Introduction** [^1]

The past two decades have seen the significant development of settlement
excavations in Sudan, especially in the Meroitic heartland, in a region
encompassing the capital city of Meroe, the surrounding riverine areas,
and the Butana hinterlands. Along the eastern bank of the Nile, the
Meroitic urban landscape is now defined by a chain of cities regularly
spaced every *c.*10 km, from Dangeil in the North to Wad ben Naga in the
South.[^2] Recent discoveries in Central Sudan and the Gebel Barkal
region, as well as renewed studies of previous excavation results from
Nubia and the city of Meroe, have noticeably increased our knowledge of
the Meroitic urban life.[^3] Meroitic town structure and organization
are also better understood, thanks to the excavation of various
settlements such as el-Hassa,[^4] Damboya,[^5] Hamadab,[^6] or
Muweis.[^7] These settlements show a consistent urban model built around
a monumental center -- consisting of a temple, a palace, and/or an
administrative building -- incorporated into residential quarters with
domestic and industrial functions. The study of the material unearthed
in these settlements has prompted a renewed interest in crafts and their
integration in the economy of the Meroitic kingdom.[^8] Among the
various crafts represented, textile activities are certainly ubiquitous:
textile implements are common finds, mainly characterized by a large
number of spindle whorls and loom weights.[^9] This body of evidence
offers particularly interesting counterpoints to other textile
implements discovered in Lower Nubia, which tend to come more often from
funerary contexts. The sum of this material, added to the thousands of
well-preserved textile fragments from the Meroitic and Postmeroitic
periods, paint a vivid image of textile production and uses in ancient
Sudan and Nubia.

The spectrum of data coming from the entire geographical span of the
Meroitic kingdom presents the rare opportunity to proceed to a
modern-standard post-excavation analysis of textile production. We now
have at our disposal a vast number of sources recording textile
manufacturing and uses: raw material (textile fibers and
archaeobotanical remains), textile production implements, finished
fabrics, pieces of both clothing and furnishing textiles, archaeological
information on the contexts of textile use and reuse, and iconographic
representations of people wearing different types of garments.[^10] In
fact, the only "missing" sources are iconographic representations of the
craft itself (scenes showing the process of spinning and weaving for
example) and textual data such as written accounts or literary
sources.[^11]

The study of these different archaeological sources can lead to a
comprehensive overview of textile production, which shows that textiles
were deeply embedded in the social fabric of Meroitic life. This
Meroitic "textile network" encompassed various spheres of the society,
from agriculture and fiber collection to the cloth's manufacturing
*chaîne opératoire*, all the way through the multiple every day uses and
reuses of the fabrics to their final internment with the deceased. The
sources and their relations can be summarized in a diagram displaying
the interdependence between textiles and their production context
(Fig.1).

Despite the inherent limitations of such theoretical models, this
diagram successfully illustrates the textile artefacts within their own
production environment. It highlights the results of a complex *chaîne
opératoire* based on the interactions between resources (both raw
materials and human resources), technology, and society. This outlook
has been the underlying theme of recent research in ancient textile
studies, which has led to noticeable advances in our understanding of
past economies.[^12] However, its application in the Nile valley remains
restricted, with the exception of Barry Kemp and Gillian
Vogelsang-Eastwood's study on the New Kingdom textile industries of
Amarna.[^13]

At the crossroads between Meroitic archaeology and ancient textile
studies, this paper aims to explore the relationship between textile
activities and the economy by focusing on the organization of textile
production, especially on its integration into the living environment of
the Meroitic population. Tila Island and the city of Meroe will provide
two helpful case studies: by replacing textile implements in their
archaeological locations -- within houses and settlements -- the present
author hopes to identify the different types and scales of textile
production occurring in Sudan.

1.  ***Sources Documenting Textile Production in Meroitic Settlements***

Spinning tools are by far the most prominent material source, especially
the spindle whorls, which survived in the archaeological record in a
much greater number than other wooden or metallic spindle pieces. Found
at Ballana in grave B58, a complete spindle[^14] provides a reliable
example of this type of tools, its construction and use (Fig. 2). This
simple tool is composed of a spindle shaft and a whorl, placed at the
top and secured by the insertion of a metal hook that was used to attach
the newly formed yarn. In the hand or suspended and then set in motion,
the tool rotates to twist the fibers together and form the thread.
Regardless of the specific spinning technique, the spindle whorl acts as
a flywheel, which increases the momentum of the spindle and maintains a
longer and faster rotation. In Meroitic Sudan, spindle whorls were made
of various materials such as ceramic, unbaked clay, wood, bone, stone,
or pierced potsherds.[^15] Despite this apparent material diversity,
there is an interesting dichotomy between the artefacts recovered in
Nubia, which favored turned wooden whorls, and those from Central Sudan,
where decorated ceramic was clearly preferred (see Figs. 3, 5, 8).

Other types of implements -- used for weaving this time -- contribute
additional material evidence of textile production. Due to the rare
preservation of organic material on settlement sites, it has proved
impossible to recognize with any certainty the wooden beams that made up
ancient looms. However, frequent discoveries of pear-shaped weights
indicate that, in Meroitic Sudan and Nubia, most weaving was done on a
vertical loom called the "warp-weighted loom", in which the warp threads
were drawn tight by a series of loom weights.[^16] Often found in sets,
loom weights could be made of stone or more commonly unbaked clay (see
Figs. 4, 7). Small picks or spatulas made of bone or wood (see Fig. 5)
have also frequently been associated with weaving, but their exact use
remains unclear and open to debate.[^17] They may have been used to pack
the threads down on small and delicate areas of the weave or to correct
mistakes and seem particularly useful for tapestry weaving.

During settlement excavations, spindle whorls, loom weights, and weaving
picks are generally found in the filling of rooms and passageways, or in
refuse deposits. They are seldom clearly associated with one specific
context of floor level preserved *in situ*. This situation is
particularly true in dense habitation quarters and long-lived towns,
where many centuries of continued occupation and blowing sands have
obscured the stratigraphy. For example, at Qasr Ibrim, hundreds of
spindle whorls, as well as many loom weights and several comb beaters
were found in the refuse deposits and the storage pits that filled the
houses along "Tavern Street" and the alley itself.[^18] Nevertheless,
the careful study of selected contexts of discovery at Tila and Meroe,
both well preserved and documented, can be combined with knowledge on
the Meroitic textile *chaîne opératoire* to offer engaging elements of
interpretation.

2.  ***Textile Activities on Tila Island***

The rocky island of Tila was located between the Semna and Attiri
rapids, offering a small and protected bay where it was possible to
anchor boats during the crossing of the Batn el-Haggar cataract. This
enviable situation led researchers to identify Tila as a station on the
Nilotic trading route to the Aniba basin and then towards Egypt.[^19]
Facing the bay, this small Meroitic settlement was located on a rocky
outcrop. It was excavated by A.J. Mills and J. Knustad between 1966 and
1968, as part as the UNESCO-Sudan Antiquities Service survey, and then
extensively studied by D.N. Edwards.[^20] The excavation revealed a
settlement surrounded by a substantial enclosure wall covering a surface
of about 2.25 hectares. It contains 11 buildings or building complexes
dated from the 1st century to the end of the 3rd century C.E.
According to estimations, Tila's population remained quite limited,
totaling between 56 and 102 people at a time, divided into about 20
households. Despite the small scale of Tila's settlement, an important
number of textile implements were discovered scattered in the different
buildings. The cross-study of excavation dairies, object inventories,
and available drawings and plans, led to the localization of most of the
tools and the reconstitution of their original context of use and
discovery. This article will focus on four significant examples: houses
VI, V, II and I.

*House VI* (Fig. 3)

House VI is formed by several living units and presents the same
standardized house plan visible in other houses at Tila: a series of
small rooms distributed around a central courtyard and directly opened
to this outdoor space.[^21] This architectural model, well suited to the
Nubian climate, was coined by the excavators "house with loggia". A
total of four bone picks were discovered in House VI: one in an open
courtyard (room 9) and three scattered across the building. Two spindle
whorls and two loom weights were also found in the filling. The
excavation of House VI revealed several floor layers preserved *in
situ*. In the northern house unit, level 1 gave us one spindle whorl and
a set of three loom weights in a "loggia" type of room (room 3), open to
the courtyard (room 4), while another set was found in an adjacent
storage room (room 1). Level 2 gave us a second set of three loom
weights, also found in a room open to the central courtyard (room 5).

*House V*

House V[^22] continues to illustrate the use of the central courtyard
for light textile work such as sewing. A long copper alloy needle was
discovered in the large open space. In a small room, a bone pick was
found inside a jar half-buried in the floor and containing small
nail-like metal objects and a pin. This vessel was clearly used as a
storage container for small, pointed objects, which could all have
fulfilled similar functions.

*House I* (Fig. 4)

The first occupation level in House I was relatively well preserved
under brick rubble.[^23] The structure consists of a roughly rectangular
building centered around a courtyard, with a series of three utilitarian
rooms along the west side for storage and cooking activities, one room
on the north side, a large single room on the east side, and a possible
staircase to the roof. The eastern room -- the "loggia" -- was most
likely opened at least partially to the courtyard. An interesting group
of varied textile implements was found in House I, directly *in situ* or
inside the fill layers above the floors:

House exterior, directly along the southern wall: two sets of
respectively 3 and 20 loom weights.

Central courtyard (room 8): 1 loom weight and 1 bone pick.

Kitchen area (room 3): 1 loom weight.

Storage area (room 5): 1 set of 3 loom weights.

"Loggia" (rooms 12-13): 3 loom weights and another "large group of loom
weights" (excavation diaries, number unspecified).

It is unfortunate not to have a precise number for the "large group of
loom weights" found in the "loggia", as this information could have
helped us determine the number and size of the looms that could have
been working at the same time in this building. However, it is clear
that the "loggia", with its protected but well-lit space, would have
been perfectly suited to weaving activities. The concentration of these
different types of textile tools and the possible presence of several
looms in the loggia are rather striking for a small structure such as
House I.

*House II* (Figs. 5-6-7)

House II is a building complex formed by at least nine different housing
units.[^24] Textile tools were found dispersed without distinction
throughout many rooms and occupation levels. The inventories
specifically list seven bone picks (Fig. 5), two spindle whorls, and one
needle. The various locations of their discovery offer another
illustration of the different kinds of storage and/or refuse contexts
where textile implements can be found. In the case of House II, they
appeared in the kitchen area, in a small, vaulted storage chamber, and
in a storage area with jars. A group of two spindle whorls and one bone
pick was also discovered discarded in a small cellar, which appears to
have been used as a latrine (Fig. 6).

Beside the tools listed in the inventories, the archives also provided a
very useful excavation photograph that comes to complete the object list
from House II. The image (Fig. 7) shows about 350 loom weights, all
pear-shaped and made of unbaked clay, neatly arranged in small groups of
about ten specimens on a sandy surface overlooking the building remains.
Taken shortly after the excavation of the complex in March 1968, the
photograph (ref. F/445: 6) is captioned "House II collection of loom
weights". In the present state of the documentation, it is difficult to
be absolutely sure that all loom weights shown on the photograph were
indeed found in House II, or if they correspond to different groups
unearthed on the site since the previous year excavations (such as the
"large group of loom weights found in House I?) and only collected
there. The caption seems however to point towards a sole discovery in
House II. In any case, it seems that a very big group of loom weights
was indeed found in this large complex, possibly spread around different
rooms and/or occupation layers.

If we attempt to summarize the data relative to loom weights, we reach a
total of at least 389 specimens, which doesn't include the groups of
unspecified number found in Houses I and VI. To our knowledge, it is the
largest group of such implements ever discovered in Sudan and Nubia.

Table 1. Summary count of loom weights per structure at Tila Island.

As a whole, information related to textile production at Tila shows that
spinning, weaving, and sewing were all practiced together within the
same domestic structures. Spinning was carried out everywhere in the
house, probably at the same time as other domestic activities such as
food preparation. On the other hand, weaving is much more reliant on
adequate positioning of the loom, sufficient space, and optimal lighting
conditions. At Tila, it occurred within well-lit spaces, in the open or
semi-open rooms leading to the courtyard (e.g. the "loggias") or on one
occasion directly alongside the house perimeter, thereby taking
advantage of the Nubian climate and domestic architecture. The looms
were most likely leaning against the wall, protected from direct
sunlight by the "loggia's" roof or a light structure such as an awning.
When not in use, textile implements could be placed in storage and
service areas often associated with culinary functions. Attested in both
Sudan and other geo-historical areas, the frequent association of
textile implements with remains of other household tasks, such as food
preparation, led some researchers to believe that textile making must
have been a primarily female activity[^25] and linked it to the basic
sustenance strategy of the household.

However, the number of textile implements at Tila, especially associated
to weaving, seems to tell a rather different story. On one hand, Houses
V and VI, with their rather limited corpus, could point towards a
domestic production with no specialization of space or person. There,
the scale of the production seems to have been limited, the data clearly
indicating a local manufacture and consumption. On the other hand, the
large groups of loom weights found in House II and presumably House I
could have supplied the installation of several looms, conjointly
operated by a small group of weavers working on different pieces of
fabric at the same time. The production output would have increased
significantly, becoming easily superior to the households' needs. The
sum of this data clearly shows the importance of textile activities on
Tila Island, which is particularly noticeable and surprising for such a
small settlement.

3.  ***Textile Activities at Meroe***

Textile activities are well represented in the capital city of Meroe.
The objects were mainly discovered between 1965 and 1984 during P.L.
Shinnie's excavations[^26] and, to a lesser extent, during earlier works
conducted by J. Garstang in the Amun temple,[^27] as well as recent
excavations.[^28] Most of the textile implements, predominantly spindle
whorls, were sent to the Sudan National Museum while a smaller group
joined the collections of the Petrie Museum in London. Research in those
two museums, as well as through the publications and object inventories,
have led to the identification of 238 spindle whorls, 110 loom weights,
1 needle, and 1 spool with cotton threads still attached.[^29] This
corpus of material forms the second largest group of textile-related
tools in Sudan. Its quantity is significant but by no means very large;
by comparison, the biggest corpus is estimated at about 3000 spindle
whorls and comes from the southern site of Abu Geili.[^30] Outside of a
small group of spindle whorls and loom weights without context
information, it was possible to locate most of the artefacts discovered
during excavations, mainly along trenches and test pits:

Table 2. Summary of textile tools per context, Meroe.

The Meroe spindle whorls form a homogeneous group made of well-burnished
ceramic in conical or biconical shapes, with the upper surface almost
always decorated by incised or impressed patterns (Fig. 8). The
specimens from the oven area (M260) were likely found within their
manufacturing context, as they were accompanied by several other small
faience and ceramic objects produced within the temple's temenos.

*Mound H*

The seven spindle whorls and two loom weights from Mound H belong to
domestic occupation levels, built on top of several layers of iron
scories, wind-blown sand, and domestic refuse. The mudbrick structures
offered a number of small rooms equipped with cooking installations. In
this case, this test pit seems to reveal a small-scale textile
production, probably linked to domestic activities, and integrated in a
residential reoccupation level.

*Trench TT6*

A similar production profile emerges from the trench TT6 (Fig. 9). The
majority of the tools found *in situ* belong to the oldest occupation
level in two or three house buildings dated to the Early Meroitic
period.[^31] Scattered throughout the buildings were sixteen spindle
whorls, five loom weights, and one needle, thereby attesting three of
the main stages of the textile *chaîne opératoire*. For example, the
house located in the I/J50 square contained six spindle whorls and two
loom weights, while the neighboring building in the H/G50 square had
three whorls and one weight. The other artefacts came from small
residential refuse deposits, often placed in pits, or abandoned
buildings, which the excavator dated to the Classic and Late Meroitic
periods. These houses included many rooms and covered a significant
surface that probably accommodated numerous people. It is therefore not
surprising to find within their walls a great number of textile tools,
accumulated by several generations. The context of textile production is
still domestic, here distributed along a residential street of Meroe.

*North mound*

The northern part of the North mound was explored by three main trenches
that revealed a dense settlement, organized into several building units
separated by narrow alleys. The numerous textile implements (128 spindle
whorls and 79 loom weights listed) were discovered scattered over the
different structures as well as inside intrusive layers of abandonment
and refuse deposits. The results of the first excavation campaigns,
along the trench 79/80, provide us with the best contextual information.
While many of the tools come from multifunctional areas linked to
cooking and food storage, several groups of tools are associated to
specific spaces.

For example, an interesting group of approximately thirty spindle whorls
was discovered in a large open-air space in front of buildings II.A and
II.B. Other crafts such as faience manufacturing and minor metallurgy
work were also carried out on the same terrace. This particular location
seems to have been used as a multifunctional public space, where Meroe's
inhabitants could practice small crafts and industries. Spinning, a very
portable activity, would have obviously been perfectly suited to this
type of multifunctional open space. It also reminds us of the
fundamental social dimension of spinning: it is long and fastidious
work, but it does not continuously engage one's attention, so it becomes
easy and much more agreeable to accomplish this task while chatting or
sharing small chores with other members of the community. Often
interpreted as a female activity, this "courtyard sisterhood" can be
observed in many populations, both ancient and modern.[^32] In African
cotton-producing countries, such as Mali for example, sorting cotton
balls, fiber preparation, and spinning traditionally take place in
courtyards and communal spaces where women gather to share the work and
exchange words.[^33]

Another group of textile implements came from building I.A, in squares
O79/80 and N79/80, a large structure distinguished by its peculiar
internal organization (Fig. 10).[^34] The building possesses an
important number of small rooms, probably storage rooms, and a large
L-shaped open courtyard where two spindle whorls were found. Its main
feature was the construction of a hydraulic system, west of the
courtyard. The structure started by a very deep well, which fed two
succeeding basins connected between each other by a narrow slopping
ramp, covered with waterproof plaster. Its exact function remains
unknown but its sole presence indicates the industrial character of the
building. A total of eighteen spindle whorls, three loom weights, and
one needle was found scattered throughout the rooms, to which we can
tentatively add a grinding stone fragment reused as a weight. It is very
tempting to link this group of textile implements to the hydraulic
artisanal installation and postulate the presence of a textile workshop
with decantation vats for dyeing. Unfortunately, the stratigraphic
evidence is not sufficient to pursue this attractive hypothesis any
further. No traces of dyes, pigments or hearth have been reported for
this specific space, therefore its use for dye preparation or leather
work remains one theory amidst others. It seems clear however, that
textile activities were an important aspect of the life of this
building, and that they were inserted within a mixed domestic and
industrial urban environment.

**Discussion**

Despite the geographic distance between Tila and Meroe and their
fundamental difference in nature, the two settlements present a coherent
image of textile production in two regions of the Meroitic kingdom. As
in Tila, spinning, weaving, and sewing were all practiced together at
Meroe, within the same spaces and structures, resulting in tools
scattered amongst the buildings and public areas. Spinning is
particularly well attested in open-air spaces (such as courtyards,
streets, and alleys). As a whole, spinning and weaving were present in
both domestic and industrial or semi-industrial areas.

The data from Meroe is difficult to interpret with any certainty, as the
excavation campaigns differed in scale and methods. Trenches, squares,
and test pits provided windows into occupation phases that are now
difficult to reconcile. Building an overall understanding of each
structure remains elusive to this day. On such shaky grounds, one can
only propose a preliminary hypothesis stating the existence, at Meroe,
of two types of textile production. First, a limited production would
have occurred in domestic residential areas to fulfill the household's
needs, most probably without involving special workers or locations. The
second type of textile manufacturing appears to be a small-scale
industrial production taking place on the North mound, still in domestic
settings or semi-industrial areas embedded in a residential
neighborhood. The number of tools alone indicates a larger output of
textile production, maybe a limited surplus, which may have answered the
demands of the local administrative and religious elite. However, as far
as we know from the available data, textile making occurred in
multifunctional areas used for various crafts.

We have tried in this paper to describe the artefacts related to textile
production and to assign them to clear *loci* in the Meroitic urban
environment. We have also attempted to replace this production in the
larger textile economy. However, it is crucial to realize that this
evidence cannot be a true indicator of the scale of production in any
absolute terms.[^35] If tools can help us trace different stages of the
manufacturing process, many aspects of the Meroitic "textile market"
remains little known, such as the question of maintenance and reuse,
centralization of the production, or trade and exchange.[^36] A general
panorama can be drawn in broad strokes, merging different sources. It
seems that textile making was organized as either a domestic activity or
a small-scale industry, with a seemingly limited production output. No
true textile workshop has been identified yet in Meroitic Sudan. The
only location where such a production type was hypothesized is the Isis
temple at Qasr Ibrim, in levels dated to the very end of the
Postmeroitic era.[^37] The question of how to define a textile workshop
in a Meroitic context is difficult to answer, as the current theoretical
models do not apply to this type of region and socio-economic
organization.[^38] In the case of the Isis temple, the building did not
offer a specialized space or installation, and the production was
probably restricted to the temple's needs. In this framework, the
involvement of the central power and religious administration in the
control of textile production very much is still an open topic.
Nonetheless, the creation of a cohesive and distinct Meroitic tradition
(or "style") shows that textile production still obeyed a certain degree
of standardization, which agents and dynamics remain unknown. This small
industry was no doubt an important one, producing luxury fabrics in
cotton with blue decorations in tapestry and embroideries for the
confection of elite and royal clothing.[^39]

At first glance, this seems difficult to fit with the archaeological
context of tools found principally in domestic contexts. In many ways,
the data presented in this paper illustrates how deeply embedded textile
production was in the everyday life of the Meroites. Spinning and
weaving appear fully integrated in domestic spaces, either in share
public areas or in the house itself, regardless of the structure's size.
This proves to hold for both densely populated settlements such as Meroe
or spread around compounds in more rural settings such as Tila.
Furthermore, textile activities were not separated from other daily
tasks, but mixed with food production and other small crafts. We can
therefore infer that, whatever the size or economic weight of the
Meroitic textile industry, it rested principally on the domestic sphere
with a household-based workforce (either direct members of the family or
associated retainers).

How did textile activities affect the daily life of people living in
these settlements? In the absence of written account, we need to rely on
our knowledge of the textile *chaîne opératoire* and Meroitic settlement
organization to get a glimpse of the life experiences of textile craft
people. The number of tools from places such as Tila, Meroe's North
Mound, or Abu Geili certainly indicates that many people dedicated a
vast amount of time to process fibres and threads.[^40] Because spindle
whorls appear in varied contexts across settlements and because spinning
is a portable and time-consuming activity, we can imagine that several
individuals could be seen spinning in streets and other communal spaces
on a very regular basis. During the harvest season, we can also picture
a heighten activity involving more people and more time, as well as
installations to store the unprocessed fibres. Weaving on the other hand
seems to have been attached more often to a specific domestic structure,
especially to spaces open or semi-open to light and air. These
courtyards or "loggias" provided an ideal environment to weave in
relatively protected conditions, while still being able to interrupt
one's work and tend to other tasks, such as food processing or child
rearing.[^41] They are also vast enough to build looms accommodating
several weavers, if needed, and provided just enough space to keep a
loom active while not being in the way of other people or activities.
Thus, the rhythmic sounds of the loom weights and the shuttle can be
added to our sensory reconstruction of the Meroitic courtyards.

However, to precise this picture and truly understand the socio-economic
dimensions of textile activities, we need to learn more about who was
making textiles and what output could they possibly produce. We
therefore hope that new data coming from recent settlement excavations
and archival work will further enhance our understanding of textile and
craft activities, and the Meroitic domestic and economic landscapes.

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[^1]: This paper is the updated publication of a talk given at the
    12th International Conference for Meroitic Studies, organized by
    Pavel Onderka at Prague in September 2016, and reworked in 2022 as
    part of the *Fashioning Sudan* project (ERC 101039416), funded by
    the European Union. I thank the organizers of both the conference
    and the present volume for their support.

[^2]: Baud, "Méroé, un monde urbain"; Wolf and Nowotnick, "The Meroitic
    Heartland"; Grzymski[, "]{.smallcaps}The city of Meroe".

[^3]: Wolf, Nowotnick, and Edwards, \"Settlement in the Meroitic
    Kingdom\". 

[^4]: Rondot, "El-Hassa: un temple à Amon dans l'île de Méroé".

[^5]: Maillot, "The archaeological site of Damboya"; Choimet, "The
    Meroitic settlement at Damboya".

[^6]: Wolf and Nowotnick, "Hamadab -- A Meroitic Urban Settlement";
    Nowotnick[,]{.smallcaps} *Ceramic Technology, Production and Use,
    passim.*

[^7]: Baud, "The Meroitic royal city of Muweis". Millet, "Mouweis, une
    ville de l'Empire de Méroé".

[^8]: This volume is a perfect incarnation of this renewed interest, as
    well as ongoing research projects such as the one on metallurgy led
    by Jane Humphris (UCL Qatar) or G. Choimet's doctoral work, see
    Choimet, "Habitat et urbanisme méroïtiques en Nubie et au Soudan
    central". Reappraisal of archival documentation from the Nubian
    campaign are also bringing new light on craft activities, notably
    textiles (see Mann and van den Bercken, "Shokan. Revival of a
    forgotten village". A similar dynamic was also at the root of the
    Meroe Archival Project, reexamining the excavation archives of Peter
    L. Shinnie from his work in settlement areas at Meroe.

[^9]: For a description of textile implements and activities in a
    Meroitic and Postmeroitic context, see for example Adams and Adams,
    *Qasr Ibrim: The Ballana Phase*, pp. 97-8., Yvanez, "De fil en
    aiguille : aspects de l'artisanat textile méroïtique".

[^10]: Yvanez, "Clothing the elite? Patterns of textile production and
    consumption".

[^11]: These sources are however well known for textile production in
    pharaonic Egypt (e.g. Vogelsang-Eastwood, "Textiles") or the Ancient
    Near East (Nosch[,]{.smallcaps} Koefoed and Andersson Strand.
    *Textile Production and consumption in the Ancient Near East*).

[^12]: The aims and methods of recent textile research are usefully
    exposed in Andersson Strand *et al*., "Old Textiles -- New
    Possibilities" and Harlow and Nosch, "Weaving the Threads:
    methodologies in textile and dress research".

[^13]: Kemp and Vogelsand-Eastwood. *The Ancient Textile Industry in
    Amarna*. Studies developing a similar scope are however blossoming,
    see e.g. the Marie Skłodowska Curie project EgYarn, led by C.
    Spinazzi-Lucchesi (MSCA 890144. *Unravelling the thread: textile
    production in New Kingdom Egypt*, Centre for Textile Research, Saxo
    institute, University of Copenhagen, 2021-2022). Many Egyptian urban
    sites continue to bring evidence of an extensive textile production,
    contemporary with the Meroitic period in Sudan. See for example the
    cases of Karanis (Thomas, *Textiles from Karanis*), Kellis (Bowen,
    "A study of the textile industry at ancient Kellis"), or the
    Roman-period forts of the Eastern desert (for a comprehensive
    bibliography, see Bender Jørgensen, "Textiles from Mons Claudianus,
    'Abu Sha'ar and other Roman sites").

[^14]: Williams, *Meroitic Remains from Qustul and Ballana*, vol. 1, p.
    159, fig. 61e.

[^15]: Yvanez, "Spinning in Meroitic Sudan".

[^16]: For a description of the warp-weighted loom and its use, see
    Barber, *Prehistoric Textiles*, pp. 91-113.

[^17]: [Kemp]{.smallcaps} and Vogelsand-Eastwood. *The Ancient Textile
    Industry in Amarna*, pp. 358-73. See also Spinazzi-Lucchesi, *The
    Unwound Thread*, pp. 91-3.

[^18]: Adams and Adams, *Qasr Ibrim: The Ballaña Phase*, p. 98.

[^19]: Edwards, "Appendix 3. The Meroitic settlement on Tila Island".

[^20]: Full publication of the archives forthcoming. I would like to
    express all my gratitude to David N. Edwards who accepted to share
    with me all the archival data pertaining to textile manufacture on
    the site, and to dissect the archives to understand the exact
    conditions of the tools' discovery.

[^21]: Edwards, "Appendix 3. The Meroitic settlement on Tila Island",
    pp. 112-3.

[^22]: Edwards, "Appendix 3. The Meroitic settlement on Tila Island", p.
    112, fig. 35.

[^23]: Edwards, "Appendix 3. The Meroitic settlement on Tila Island", p.
    106, fig. 30.

[^24]: Edwards, "Appendix 3. The Meroitic settlement on Tila Island", p.
    108-11, figs. 31, 32.

[^25]: Gender studies have always been an important part of ancient
    textiles research (see for example "Women's Work", *in*
    Barber[,]{.smallcaps} *Prehistoric Textiles*, pp. 283-98.). For a
    modern scholarly perspective and references, see Harlow and Nosch
    ["]{.smallcaps}Weaving the Threads: methodologies in textile and
    dress research", pp. [10-1.]{.smallcaps} If the link with the
    household is clearly established in ancient Sudanese contexts, no
    data pertaining to gender and a gendered differentiation of labor
    has come to light.

[^26]: Shinnie and Bradley, *The Capital of Kush I*, and Shinnie and
    Anderson[,]{.smallcaps} *The Capital of Kush II.*

[^27]: Török, *Meroe City, an ancient African capital*.

[^28]: More spindle whorls have been discovered during Jane Humphris's
    excavations at Meroe for the UCL Qatar Sudan archaeological project.
    Found in different contexts and under current study, these objects
    have not been added to the present paper.

[^29]: At the time of this study, I was unfortunately unable to locate
    any loom weight, nor the needle and spool, which whereabouts remain
    unknown. Further investigations in the site storage rooms and in the
    Khartoum University collections, as part of the Meroe Archival
    Project, might increase and precise the present list (A. Boozer,
    pers. comm.)

[^30]: Yvanez, "Spinning in Meroitic Sudan".

[^31]: Focused on test pits and trenches, the methodology followed by
    P.L. Shinnie didn't allow for the excavation of complete building
    structures. The objects are therefore attached to numbered
    "squares", making their attribution to specific houses difficult and
    hypothetical. For a description of excavation techniques and maps,
    see Shinnie and Bradley, *The Capital of Kush I*.

[^32]: Barber, *Prehistoric Textiles*, pp. 84-6.

[^33]: Picton and Mack, *African Textiles*, p. 31.

[^34]: Shinnie and Bradley, *The Capital of Kush I*, pp. 64-5.

[^35]: Even in much better documented contexts, such as Pompeii,
    relating traces of crafts to a greater economic organization remains
    difficult, see Flohr, "The textile economy of Pompeii".

[^36]: Yvanez, "Precious textiles"; "Clothing the elite"; and Yvanez and
    Wozniak, "Cotton in ancient Sudan and Nubia".

[^37]: Adams, "Sacred Textiles"; Adams and Adams, *Qasr Ibrim, The
    Ballana Phase*, pp. 60-1, 129-37.

[^38]: Spinazzi-Lucchesi and Yvanez, "Textile workshops in the Nile
    valley?".

[^39]: For a comprehensive view of Meroitic textile technics and
    clothing, see Adams, "Sacred Textiles", Wild[, "]{.smallcaps}Fringes
    and Aprons", Yvanez, "De fil en aiguille : aspects de l'artisanat
    textile méroïtique" and "Clothing the elite? Patterns of Textile
    Production and Consumption".

[^40]: [Yvanez]{.smallcaps}, "Spinning in Meroitic Sudan".

[^41]: [Barber]{.smallcaps}, *Women's work*. Textile crafts (especially
    weaving) are frequently associated to mixed activities in domestic
    settings, from contexts and production scales as different as Roman
    Pompeii or Viking Age long houses, see [Flohr]{.smallcaps}, "Working
    and Living Under One Roof" and [Andersson Strand]{.smallcaps},
    "Engendering Central Places".