About ExporTIC

Textile imprints on clay represent a significant and often overlooked form of textile preservation in the archaeological record. Preserved as impressions on a non-organic matrix, these imprints offer crucial insights into ancient textiles and textile production—especially during the earliest periods, where organic textile remains are extremely scarce, and in regions where environmental conditions prevent the survival of organic materials.

Despite their value, textile imprints have only recently begun to receive focused attention from archaeologists. While they provide important information about the characteristics of the original textiles, as well as the diverse contexts of textile use and consumption in the past, the methodologies applied to study them remain inconsistent.

Moreover, the interpretations that do exist are often site-specific and scattered across a wide range of publications, limiting the potential for large-scale comparative or statistical analyses. This fragmentation hinders our ability to adopt a longue durée perspective on the development of textile technology and consumption patterns.

ExplorTIC aims to develop comprehensive research and documentation protocols for textile imprints on clay, using digital tools, an online repository and a dedicated database. The project is based on a new dataset of over 2,000 textile imprints.

The primary source material comes from two key case studies:

1) textile imprints on pottery from North-Central Europe, represented by finds from Poland dated from the Neolithic to the Early Iron Age.

2) Bronze Age textile imprints from Aegean clay sealings from the Corpus der minoischen und mykenischen Siegel (CMS) Archive in Heidelberg.

Reflecting the principal investigator’s and team’s expertise and research interests, the selection of two case studies enables the exploration of a wide range of products and diverse textile consumption contexts. Adopting a broad chronological framework of over two millennia supports a diachronic and cross-regional, comparative investigation of technological developments in textile making.

The primary goals of the project encompass both research and methodological objectives:

Research objectives:

1. Revealing the diversity of textile use-patterns and consumption contexts documented by textile imprints on clay. This includes their ornamental role on pottery (Case Study 1), cross-craft incorporation of textiles in pottery making and metallurgy (Case Study 1), various textile applications in storage and sealing practices (Case Study 2), and textile recycling patterns (both Case Studies).
2. Trace potential individuals associated with specific textile products and sealing practices through the repetitive utilisation of identical cords and seals, as well as distinctive methods of textile handling, such as binding or knotting (Case Study 2).
3. Revealing local and regional, longue durée developments in textile technology and exploitation of natural resources (both Case Studies).

Methodological objectives:

• Evaluate digital documentation and analytical methodologies, including Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), 3D photogrammetry, 3D scanning, and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The goal is to establish a robust, standardised documentation protocol along with a unified vocabulary and a technical analysis manual.

Define characteristics for classifying impressed raw materials and techniques of production through archaeological experiments. Formulating best practices to address key challenges in the study of textile imprints on clay. This also involves formulating best practices to address key challenges in studying textile imprints, such as their fragile nature, high dimensionality, and alterations due to pressure, as well as difficulties in identifying raw materials and techniques.

Significance and novelty of the ExplorTIC approach

Textiles have played a central role in human societies for nearly 10,000 years, shaping social and individual identities through markers such as gender, age, and status. Their production constituted one of the most significant crafts in many past communities. However, due to environmentally dependent preservation conditions, the textiles recovered through archaeological excavations represent only a narrow segment of the vast array originally produced and used. Textile imprints on clay not only supplement this limited record, but also provide rare insights into aspects of textile consumption that are seldom captured by surviving textile fragments—including their broader functional, symbolic, and technological roles in ancient societies.

The selected case studies enable the exploration of cross-craft applications of textiles (CS 1), the transfer of textile decorative qualities into other media such as pottery (CS 1), and the use of textiles in storage and administrative practices (CS 2). Both case studies provide evidence of textile recycling and reuse, including the use of rags in pottery production and the repeated use of the same cords in sealing activities. Case Study 2 further offers insights into previously inaccessible patterns of concurrent textile handling for similar functions. Preliminary analyses of peg sealings from Phaistos conducted by the PI have revealed occasional associations between the repeated use of specific cords, distinct methods of binding pegs, and the reuse of the same seal. These findings suggest complex interactions between textiles as active material agents and the embodied practices of their users. Such insights promise to broaden our understanding of sealing practices and the social roles of individuals involved in them.

Fig 3. Case Study 2: the scope of research (by A. Ulanowska).

The application of a broad chronological framework facilitates the tracing of dominant techniques and major developments in both textile technology and the exploitation of natural resources over time and across regions from a longue durée perspective. The presence of multiple finds within the same archaeological contexts also allows for the evaluation of local diversity in textile consumption, as well as the degree of standardisation in production.

However, achieving meaningful large-scale comparative studies is not feasible without the systematic publication of primary data and the adoption of standardised research protocols for identifying raw materials and production techniques. While some previous identifications have been supported by experimental replication and modern reference collections, the diagnostic features used to identify specific fibre types are not always clearly defined. Likewise, it is often unclear how microstructural characteristics resulting from different processing techniques are accounted for in interpretations.

Similar methodological challenges arise in distinguishing between production techniques—for example, differentiating among cord-making processes such as splicing, spinning, plying, and drilling, or identifying various matting, basketry, and textile-weaving techniques. Therefore, the establishment of standardised vocabularies for both techniques and raw material types, together with the development of a comprehensive manual for technical analysis, is essential for enabling consistent and comparable studies of textile imprints across diverse archaeological and chronological contexts.

ExplorTIC is innovative both in the way it presents data and in the methodologies it applies. A key outcome of the project is a comprehensive online database dedicated to textile imprints on clay. Built on the foundation of the existing “Textiles and Seals Database,” this new platform will consolidate nearly 800 previously recorded imprints with over 2,000 newly documented examples—providing open access to more than 2,800 individual artefacts. The database will support advanced search options and allow researchers worldwide to contribute data, making it a dynamic, collaborative tool for textile archaeology.

The project also introduces a pioneering integration of digital documentation techniques. Alongside traditional microscope-based analysis, ExplorTIC will apply and combine methods such as Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI), 3D photogrammetry, 3D scanning, and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) across a large dataset for the first time.

An open-access repository will host the full documentation protocol and a digital reference collection of experimental samples—featuring both raw materials and textiles made with diverse techniques. All entries will include downloadable 3D printing templates, supporting reproducibility and comparative research.

ExplorTIC is expected to significantly increase awareness within the archaeological community of the research value of textile imprints on clay. By highlighting technological developments in textile production, cross-craft interactions, and textile recycling practices, the project aims to shift perceptions of textile imprints from marginal finds to essential sources of archaeological knowledge.

A key driver of this impact is the open-access digital database, which enables researchers to conduct large-scale quantitative and statistical analyses—something previously unachievable for textile finds from Bronze Age Greece and prehistoric Poland. This tool will empower comparative and diachronic studies, encouraging broader engagement with textile-related evidence.

The project’s development of research protocols, documentation standards, and reference collections will provide a solid foundation for future studies. These resources will support the implementation of consistent methodologies in the analysis of textile imprints across different regions and time periods.

Beyond academia, ExplorTIC offers broader educational and outreach potential. The inclusion of 3D printing templates for both experimental samples and archaeological imprints opens new possibilities for use in teaching, museum exhibitions, and public engagement. By making these materials accessible, the project invites a wider audience to interact with and learn from the past in tangible, hands-on ways.