1. La lavorazione della lana nella bassa pianura del Po: dai pesi da telaio al paesaggio di età romana
- Author
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Busana, M.S., Basso, P., Calzolari, M., Busana, M.S., Basso, P., and Calzolari, M.
- Abstract
The archaeological discoveries of the Roman age in the Lower Po Valley (from Mantova to Rovigo and from Brescello to Ferrara) emphasize the great number of fictile loom weights, which testify the wool manufacture in this territory on the edge of the centuriations and occupied by a landscape with grass, wood and marshes. The loom weights of the land around the Po river have often a face with a decoration impressed by a mould. This decoration consists in a figurative iconography, whose significance is dealt with in this paper. In some weights it is possible to identify the wool weaver at the loom, and particularly the vertical loom with the warp-yarns and other accessory elements. In many weights the decoration is an inscription in capital letters, with an onomastic formula: names of ingenui or slaves. Sometimes they are referred to as figuli, “potters”; their role in the textile production is discussed in this paper. The distribution of the discoveries and the rural character of the settlement lead us to assume that in this territory the textile activity was mainly intended for the domestic requirements.
- Published
- 2012