Neolithic Textiles and Clothing Industries in the Aegean (NETIA)

By Kalliope Sarri

The NETIA research project explores the textile arts and crafts of the early agricultural communities in the Aegean (6500-3300 BCE). The scope of this interdisciplinary project is to examine the origins and the first stages of textile crafts and other related technologies for coverage, protection and decoration of the human body.

It focuses on raw materials, tools, technologies and textile design but aims towards an understanding of spatial organization of crafts and its impact on the economy, social structure of ancient societies and their natural environment.

The main data collection is being carried out primarily within the borders of the modern Greek state, while comparisons will be made with Neolithic evidence from the Balkan countries and Anatolia as well as with the worldwide ethnographic record.

Since industrial activities in the Neolithic societies are closely related to the earliest systematic exploitation of natural resources and the domestication of wild species (plants and animals) first attested in the Near East, this synthesis, combined with other archaeological data, will contribute to an overall understanding of innovations, cultural exchange and population mobility in contemporary Neolithic Europe.

The results will be presented in a series of academic and popular outreach activities and will supply material for educational, museological and industrial applications.