ABSTRACT
Textile production and consumption in the eastern Mediterranean and Near East during the Late Bronze (1550–1180 bce) and Early Iron Ages (1180–1000 bce) involved a vast array of sensory experiences for both textile producers and consumers, combining tactile, visual, olfactive, and auditory senses. Instead of a senses by sense approach, this chapters discusses senses associated with textiles during production, and then consumption to better explore how synaesthesia produced cultural meaning and class differentiation. Textile manufacture with the sound of its looms and spindles would have been a tangible part of the city soundscape, while dye baths would have enhanced anyone’s olfactory experience. Fabric qualities were characterised directly by touch and indirectly by tactile vision. Olfactory senses possibly allowed consumers to differentiate between vegetal and mollusc-based purples. Because form was invested with meaning, qualities akin to the worn materials such as radiance were transferred to the wearers of fine, decorated, and colourful elite fabrics, allowing them to perform their role in front of an audience.
