Μost of the information about the Mycenaean textile culture and technology derives from the palatial period (LH III) and is substantially based on indirect sources, such as written documents, textile tools, iconography and other archaeological finds. It is well established that the Mycenaean palaces controlled a sophisticated textile “industry” that produced large quantities of textiles, involved a great part of the population and represented a significant branch of the economy. Yet, our knowledge of textiles from the early Mycenaean period is much more limited.

The FAROS research programme, The Fabric of Kings: Funerary Textile Remains and the Early Mycenaean Textile Production, hosted by the University of the Peloponnese (2023-2025) and funded by the H.F.R.I. (project no 7354), has provided an excellent opportunity for the scientific study of the evidence related to textile production during the Shaft Graves period. Using an interdisciplinary methodology, the programme examined luxurious textile remains from the Grave Circles of Mycenae, alongside the rest of available sources (textile tools, iconography) and compared these with data from the palatial period aiming to gain a better understanding of the level of technology and the early Mycenaean textile production.

The lecture will present the programme’s findings, showcasing the characteristics of the luxurious textiles of the period.

 

A few words about the speaker

Stella Spantidaki is an archaeologist specialising in archaeological textiles and ancient textile technology. She studied Archaeology at the University of Crete and completed postgraduate studies in Textile Archaeology at Sorbonne University and in Museology at the École du Louvre. Her PhD, carried out at Sorbonne and Heidelberg University, focuses on textile production in Classical Athens. She has been President of ARTEX since 2015 and has taught Classical Archaeology at the University of the Aegean. She was Principal Investigator of the research project FAROS – The Fabric of Kings, funded by the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation, which focused on the interdisciplinary study of Mycenaean textile remains from the Grave Circles of Mycenae.