Wool in the Bronze Age: concluding reflections

Kristiansen and Sørensen review how wool textiles altered Bronze Age European economies and societies. They connect sheep breeding and fibre processing with trade in wool, yarn and cloth, with changing labour arrangements, and with the role of clothing in expressing identity. Wool textiles appear in Europe around 2000 BC, in their account, and show wider distribution by 1600 BC. The evidence consists of textile and fibre analyses, written records, settlement and household estimates, and preserved clothing from burials.

Wool production, they argue, required larger flocks and access to grazing land, and its stages of processing placed different demands on labour from plant-fibre production. Wool, yarn and textiles moved through local and long-distance networks, sometimes alongside other traded materials, and patterns varied by region and social group. They discuss changes in sheep and textile production in the Middle Bronze Age, including 1600–1300 BC, and use Danish evidence from 1500–1100 BC to estimate trade and textile use. Isotope results from Danish textiles bear on the movement of wool and yarn, though the analysed sample is small and the oak-coffin burials may represent an elite group (pp. 319–326).

They conclude that wool textiles emerged through experimentation and selective breeding, with regional differences in fibre quality and quantity. Wool economies could be entangled with metal and salt exchange, while textiles and ornaments helped distinguish bodies, gender and social identities (pp. 328–329).