Poggio Civitate

Tools for Textiles: Textile Production at the Etruscan Settlement of Poggio Civitate, Murlo, in the Seventh and Sixth Centuries Bc

“…However, other lines of evidence suggest that we should challenge this initial assumption and think more carefully about the scale of local demand. Imports constitute only a very small fraction of the material found at Poggio Civitate; conversely, exceptionally few items manufactured at the site have been found outside Poggio Civitate or Poggio Aguzzo (Tuck, 2016: 108). Despite the monumental size of OC2/Workshop (the building was at least 52 m long), and the variety of materials produced there (pottery, metalwork, bone and antler carving, glass manufacture, textile production and food processing), it may have catered primarily to internal consumption.…”

“…A recent pilot study of sheep husbandry and mobility using stable and strontium isotopes to analyse sheep teeth from Poggio Civitate showed that all the animals were kept in the same geological environment, which corresponds to the local signature (Trentacoste et al ., 2019). The latest interpretation of the site by the excavators is that OC2/Workshop was likely engaged in satisfying the needs of the community in the immediate vicinity under the aristocratic control of the site, which was largely locally oriented (Tuck, 2014, 2016). The elite of Poggio Civitate controlled the manufacturing processes, some of which were seasonal, such as food production, while other activities were episodic (e.g.…”

“…Yet while production strategies at Poggio Civitate were mainly inward-oriented during the seventh and sixth centuries BC (Tuck, 2016), the textiles recovered at Poggio Aguzzo indicate that even smaller, inland, Etruscan centres consumed textiles similar to those worn by the elite of the larger Etruscan cities of Cerveteri, Vulci or Tarquinia. The high specialization and large-scale production of textiles at the Poggio Civitate workshop proves the role that textiles played in the development and reinforcement of a community among the elites even outside the urban centres (Riva, 2010).…”

“…2). Various theories have been proposed for its function including a political meeting hall, a religious sanctuary, an aristocratic residence and even an Etruscan version of an agora (Tuck, 2016: 110). The excavators currently believe that it combined the functions of the various Orientalizing buildings into a single edifice, dating to the early sixth century BC.…”

“… 6 For various views on why the Archaic complex at Poggio Civitate di Murlo was destroyed, see Edlund-Berry, 1994; and de Grummond, 1997: 23–40. For a summary, see Tuck, 2016: 111.…”