The agency & activity of women in the Chora of Metaponto (MT, Italy): a case study of textile production tools

Abstract

What do the distribution and characteristics of textile production tools excavated at sites in the territory of the 7th c. BCE Greek colony Metaponto, tell us about the agency, activities, and interactions of both indigenous and Greek women in the Iron Age and subsequent periods? Analysis of the typology and distribution of a sample of 547 textile production tools of indigenous and Greek styles excavated throughout the chora from both indigenous and Greek sites dating from the Iron Age to the 3rd century BCE revealed indigenous and Greek textile tools in contexts associated with farmhouses, necropoleis, sanctuaries and kilns. Tools found in sanctuaries as votive offerings attest to the nature of sanctuaries as places of encounter and exchange between both groups as textile production tools of both styles are deposited side by side as votive offerings.