The female pensum in the Archaic and Hellenistic Periods: the epinetron, the spindle, and the distaff

Description

Published in Origini n. XL/2017. Rivista annuale del Dipartimento di Scienze dell’Antichità – “Sapienza” Università di Roma | Preistoria e protostoria delle civiltà antiche – Prehistory and protohistory of ancient civilizations | In all periods of history, the working of textile fibres was among one of the more specialised activities that required skill, space, and specific equipment in order to be undertaken in a domestic or manufacturing sphere. The iconographic and literary sources tell us that in various geographical areas, both men and women were involved in these activities. In the Greek and Italic worlds, the undisputed protagonists, at least in some phases of the wool working process, were women, whose virtue was identified in the wool working itself, in particular spinning, a daily task defined pensum in Roman society. Among the organised textile making activities, spinning required particularly large amount of time, but it was also the most flexible as it could...

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