Textiles for War: Archaeological Evidence and Approaches

Textiles – understood in the broadest sense of the word to include various structures produced using natural fibres – and leather have been used for war since the Palaeolithic: as strings to attach arrowheads to their shafts, as garments and defensive armour components for the warriors, as shelters to house them, and as sails to carry them across the sea. In certain historical periods, enormous quantities of textiles were produced for war, requiring substantial material and human resources as well as time. Yet, we have only very limited archaeological evidence of textiles used for war. In order to extract the maximum information from these precious remains, a combination of diverse multidisciplinary approaches must be used. This paper reviews some recent case studies, which identified textiles used for war in diverse chronological periods and geographical settings and proposes some avenues for future research.