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Soft-Finished Textiles In Roman Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

J. P. Wild
J. P. Wild
Affiliation:
Downing College, Cambridge
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Extract

The achievements of the textile industry in Roman Britain are often underestimated as a result of the meagreness of our available evidence. The Edict on maximum prices issued by Diocletian in A.D. 301 shows that British capes (byrri) commanded high prices on the markets of the Empire, and that in the late third century A.D. British rugs (tapetia) were the best in the world. In view of the competition from the traditional centres of rug manufacture in the East, this is an astonishing achievement.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , May 1967 , pp. 133 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1967

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References

1 Wild, J. P., ‘The Byrrus Britannicus’, Antiquity xxxvii (1963), 193–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Caputo, G., Goodchild, R., ‘Diocletian's price edict at Ptolemais (Cyrenaica)‘Google Scholar, J.R.S. xlv (1955), 114 (note by Sir Richmond, Ian).Google Scholar

3 Bulleid, A., H. St. Gray, G., The Glastonbury Lake Village, i (1911), 266 ff., ii (1917), 582 ff.Google Scholar; Childe, V. G., The Prehistory of Scotland (1935), p. 239.Google Scholar

4 I am hoping to publish an account of the literary and archaeological evidence soon.

5 The primary evidence is a list of Latin loan-words compiled by Lewis, H., Tr Elfen Ladin yn yr Iaith Gymraeg, 1943.Google Scholar A critical selection is presented and discussed by Jackson, K., Language and History in Early Britain (1953). PP. 78, 535.Google Scholar

6 Idem, ‘The Britons in Southern Scotland’, Antiquity xxix (1955), 79.Google Scholar

7 But cf. Jackson, (1953).Google Scholar

8 Horace, , epist. 1. 1. 95. 20 B.C.Google Scholar

9 Martial, 2. 58. A.D. 86.Google Scholar

10 Columella, , de re rustica, 11. 3. 26. c. A.D. 60.Google Scholar

1 de re rustica, 12. 3. 6.Google Scholar

2 Wilson, L. M., The Clothing of the Ancient Romans, 1938, pi. XIV, fig. 18 (fullonica)Google Scholar; Curtius, L., Die Wandmalerei Pompejis, Leipzig, 1929, 143 Abb. 93 (House of Vettii).Google Scholar

3 Fox, G. E., ‘Notes on some probable traces of fulling in Roman Britain’, Archaeologia lix (1905), 210–14.Google Scholar

4 The Victoria County History of Essex, iii (1963), pi. IX A (top right).Google Scholar

5 Conveniently in Wilson, L. M., op. cit., pl. XV, fig. 19.Google Scholar

6 ‘The Edict of Diocletian’, ed. et trans. Graser, E. R. in Frank, T., An Economic Survey of the Roman Empire, v (1940), 305 ff., caps. XX, 12; XXII, 6, 7; XXIV, 16.Google Scholar

7 The evidence, shortly to be published as part of a general historical survey of the development of the woollen fleece, has been kindly discussed with me by Dr. M. L. Ryder. It consists in fibre-measurements from ancient textiles and conclusions drawn from the distribution of fleece-types in the Middle Ages. See Ryder, M. L., ‘Sheep and Wool in history’, The Bradford Textile Journal, 1962–1963, 37, for a brief account.Google Scholar

1 On exhibition in the Bankfield Museum, Halifax.