Mention must be made of the manifold symbolic meanings of textiles and their manufacture in antiquity (Wagner-Hasel 2000). Artemis and Athene carried golden spindles and supposedly passed their knowledge of textile manufacture to young women. Spinning and weaving were regarded as sacred activities. They both formed an integral part of the high standing of aristocratic women. Precious clothes played a central role as dowry, and certainly had a strong erotic connotation, for example as wedding coats. And of course the fates and their thread must not be forgotten. On a more profane level textiles may stand for material wealth, for prestigious contacts with other groups, particularly those in the Mediterranean world as the swastika ornaments of the Hochdorf textiles seem to demonstrate.
Fig. 7. 1: Schirndorf, tum. 200. H. = 30 cm. – 2: Schirndorf, tum. 59. H = 23.2 cm. Decoration on ceramic vessels (after Stroh 2000b, pl. 26,8; Stroh 1988, pl. 78).
1.
It seems as if the pottery of the east Hallstatt province may give some clues to the possible meaning of the textiles in Early Iron Age burials. Some of the ceramic vessels with human representations show a couple holding their hands. The couple can be found in the grave with the weaving loom in Frög (Gleirscher 2009, 205-206 fig. 2-3) as well as in Nové Kosariská, tumulus 1 and 4 (Pichlerová 1969, pl. 3; pl. 5; pl. 20,4), or in tumulus 28 in Sopron (Eibner-Persy 1980, pl. 28-29). Most researchers take these couples either as men involved in some ritual fight or as dancers or mourners (Gleirscher 2009). Once again a look to the south reveals a further possibility. In grave B/1971 of the Lippi necropolis in Verucchio a carved piece of wood shows an upright standing couple making love (von Eles 2007, 152 fig. 4). Evidently the couple is meant to symbolize a wedding, more
conceivably a hieros gamos. Depictions of weddings are indeed quite common
in the Mediterranean and beyond. Typically one figure touches the chin of the other or the breasts or right away the genitals (Säflund 1993, 37-46). Weddings are a central motif in situla art (Huth 2003, 160-220) as well as on the throne of grave 89 in Verucchio (von Eles 2002) or on the cart incense burner from Bisenzio Olmo Bello (Woytowitsch 1978, pl. 24).
A recently discovered situla from Pieve d’Alpago near Belluno underlines the close relationship between wedding, weaving and, for that matter, access to power (Gangemi et al. 2016). Several depictions of sexual encounters are followed by a woman giving birth to a child (Fig. 8). The scenery is enriched by a variety of symbols and paraphernalia of high status like the richly ornamented dress of the women, large earrings, belts, scepters and last but not least weaving equipment like a loom. A couple of footstools underneath the lovers’ bed reminds the beholder that all this wedding business is about access to power. While on the oinochoe from Tragliatella a pair of thrones awaits the lovers (Torelli 1997, 29 fig. 15), in situla art footstools seem to be a common shorthand code for sitting on a throne. Pairs of footstools can be found on several situlae (always placed below the lovers’ bed), like on a newly discovered cist from Montebelluna. Here two spinning women stand right next to the couple making love (Bianchin-Citton 2014). Other vessels in situla art show a man or a woman serving a drink to the couple on the bed. In addition footstools are accessories of weaving women sitting on a throne, like on the throne from Verucchio or the tintinnabulum of the tomba degli ori in Bologna (von Eles 2002; Morigi Govi 1971). Sometimes, however, the hieros gamos itself takes place on a throne, as is the case on the belt plate from Brezje (Barth 1999).
In Italian research it is generally accepted by now that the events depicted in situla art are meant to legitimize power (Sassatelli 2013). There is a clear link between drinking and marriage in situla art, and there is an equally clear link between textiles and marriage in situla art. It seems that textiles played a crucial role in weddings, showing that a woman was prepared to marry and demonstrating her high social standing.
Burials of the Early Iron Age, especially so rich burials, seem to be staged like a marriage, with the grave goods telling a story very similar to the events depicted in situla art (Huth 2003; 2015). One element is never missing in burials of the Early Iron Age, and this is drinking. Other elements like weapons or a wagon may be present, but they do not have to be. In situla art the drink served by a woman with precious clothes to a man sitting on a throne (or lying in a bed, after all) is one of the central events. The other one is the sexual intercourse with this woman.
The second element that may not be missing, at least in all burials that are carefully excavated, is precious cloth, sometimes used for enshrouding the grave
goods. Sometimes the act of weaving is shown by pictorial representations like in the Kalenderberg group or in northern Bavaria. One may therefore wonder if the rich decoration on pots like in south-western Germany is not meant to represent textiles wrapped around the drinking vessels, or urns for that matter.
Drinking and making textiles are integral and indispensable elements of the marriage symbolism of Early Iron Age burials. The close relationship between drinking and making textiles can be seen on the pendant of the large drinking horn in Hochdorf, which has the shape of a weaving loom (Fath/Glunz-Hüsken 2011, 263 fig. 9,1).
The rich burials in the Low Countries fit perfectly well into the ideological realm of the Early Iron Age communities further to the south and east. They tell exactly the same story about divine descent as the supposedly princely graves and many of the better equipped Hallstatt and Villanova burials do (Huth 2015). Hence the grave-goods are by no means exotic. They may be unusual with regard to the simple burials, but this is very much the same case with the rich burials and the long neglected simple burials of the Hallstatt core area.
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