DIGArTex – Archaeology, Archaeometry, and Digital technologies for the investigation of Archaeological Textiles

Despite the growing attention to the study of perishable and organic materials across Europe, large textile collections remain unstudied in archaeological deposits and museums worldwide. The DIGArTex project addresses the challenges that have hindered the full exploration of textiles as an archaeological source in classical archaeology. The fragile and unappealing appearance of excavated textiles, the complexity of documenting and analysing textile artefacts, and the lack of appropriate dissemination strategies have all contributed to this issue. DIGArTex contribute to fill this gap through the first comprehensive investigation of Vesuvian textile evidence, one of the largest Roman textile collections in the Mediterranean.

Recent academic interest in textile research highlights the valuable insights ancient fabrics provide into the social and economic factors of past societies. Textiles are among the earliest tangible expressions of technology, culture, and identity. A key aspect of this research is the study of production chains, which reveal the complex interactions between individuals, raw materials, and objects within their social contexts. In this context, the textile remains found in the ancient cities of the Vesuvian area offer exceptional research potential, as they exhibit numerous textile remains highly representative of dynamic, multicultural towns of the Roman Empire.

The DIGArTex project primarily focuses on the Herculaneum textile collection. Its objective is to generate new data that will significantly deepen our understanding of Vesuvian textile culture. This will be achieved by integrating newly acquired findings with the extensive corpus of Pompeian textiles. The project will generate new knowledge about the effects of thermal degradation on textile fibres, as well as insights into raw materials, textile finishing techniques, and the technical and cultural traditions that shaped textile production. On a broader scale, it aims to trace technological transfers, the hybridisation of techniques, and the integration of different raw materials driven by cultural and commercial interactions.

Using state-of-the-art analytical methods, DIGArTex will examine the textile collection while applying a comparative methodological approach to contextualise and interpret the acquired data in relation to other evidence from the Vesuvian area and available textile comparanda. Thanks to the A3Tex Research Centre, the project outcomes will be integrated, interpreted, and utilised, benefiting from ongoing projects, research initiatives, and cooperation agreements established by A3Tex with Italian and foreign research institutions, museums, and archaeological parks.

Ancient Herculaneum was situated on a plateau overlooking the sea, flanked by two streams to the east and west, with Mount Vesuvius towering in the background. The city was relatively small, covering approximately 20 hectares, and featured a road network organized around decumani (east-west streets) and cardini (north-south streets). Its population was estimated to be around 4,000 inhabitants. During the Augustan period, like many other cities in the Roman Empire, Herculaneum underwent significant architectural renovations, including the restoration of several public buildings, such as the Theater and the Basilica-Augusteum of M. Nonius Balbus.

During the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE, Herculaneum was struck by a series of pyroclastic surges, each reaching extremely high temperatures exceeding 400°C and incredible speeds of over 80 km per hour and then by mudslides that buried the city under a blanket of around 20 m of volcanic material. These extreme conditions led to the preservation of a diverse range of organic materials. Among the objects found in an exceptional state of carbonization were wooden furniture, small boats, a multitude of seeds, cereals, fruits, as well as fabrics and ropes. The Herculaneum textile collection is stored inside the deposit of the archaeological park. This corpus consists of numerous carbonized textiles and interlocked artifacts, which were found in both public and private buildings, along the streets within the city walls, in the Villa of the Papyri, and in the area facing the ancient beach.

The fabrics have been preserved in different states of carbonisation, but most are extremely fragile and fragmented, likely due to the intense heat generated during the eruption. In contrast, the interlocked artifacts are generally in better condition and include a variety of plaited, braided, and knotted objects, such as soles for humans and horses, baskets, mats, ropes, and fishing nets.
In the vaulted spaces (fornici) facing the ancient beach, probably used as warehouses or boat shelters, numerous skeletons of the victims of the eruption were discovered in 1980. Among the objects found next to the victims, several precious gold woven ribbons were also discovered in an excellent state of preservation.