9 788437 087658

MUJER Y VESTIMENTA
ASPECTOS DE LA IDENTIDAD FEMENINA
EN LA ANTIGÜEDAD
MONOGRAFÍAS DEL SEMA DE VALENCIA, II

Dirección

CARMEN ALFARO GINER

 CARMEN ALFARO GINER
MARÍA JULIA MARTÍNEZ GARCÍA
JÓNATAN ORTIZ GARCÍA
(Eds.)

MUJER Y VESTIMENTA
ASPECTOS DE LA IDENTIDAD
FEMENINA EN LA ANTIGÜEDAD

SEMA
VALENCIA, 2011
 Editores

Carmen Alfaro Giner, Mª Julia Martínez García y Jónatan Ortiz García

Reservados todos los derechos. De conformidad con lo dispuesto en el Art. 534 bis del
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tad quienes reprodujeran o plagiaren, en todo o en parte, una obra literaria, artística o
cientíica, ijada en cualquier tipo de soporte, sin la preceptiva autorización.

© Los autores: Agnete Wisti Lassen, Jónatan Ortiz García, Carlos Alberto Cabrera,
Isabel González-Amat, Xaverio Ballester, Antonio Vizcaíno Estevan, Annette Paetz
gen. Schieck, Ana Cabrera, Lluis Turell, Judit Pasztókai-Szeöke, Mª. Julia Martínez
García, Mª. Luisa Aguilar García, Carmen Alfaro Giner.

© SEMA, Universitat de València, 2011

Diseño Gráico: Carmen Alfaro

Ilustración de la cubierta:
Máscara de estuco egipcia. Museo Egipcio, Berlín (SMB). Foto M. Buesing.

ISBN: 978-84-370-8765-8
Depósito legal: V-4252-2011
Impreso en España
A todos los alumnos y profesores
que hicieron posible el SEMA
 ÍNDICE

Carmen alfaro Giner, Prefacio ........................................................................ 11

abreviaturas ..................................................................................................... 19

aGnete Wisti lassen, Social aspects of textile and textile production in the
Ancient Near East: Ethnicity and Dress in Middle Bronze Age Anatolia .... 23
antonio vizCaíno estevan, El manto femenino ibérico .................................... 33
Jónatan ortiz GarCía, La pervivencia de elementos indumentarios e identita-
rios egipcios en la iconografía grecorromana: el caso de Isis .................... 49
mª luisa aGuilar GarCía, La vestimenta femenina en la sátira latina clásica ... 67
Carlos alberto Cabrera, Vestimenta e identidad femenina en la comedia de
Plauto ........................................................................................................... 105
Judit Pasztókai-szeöke, “The mother shrinks, the child grows. What is it?”
The evidence of spinning implements in funerary context from the Roman
province of Pannonia ................................................................................... 125
isabel González-amat, La vestimenta femenina en la Historia Augusta.......... 141
annette Paetz Gen. sChieCk, Female representation in Roman Egyptian funer-
ary contexts: Mummy portraits, Painted shrouds and Masks ...................... 155
mª Julia martínez GarCía, Aspectos técnicos de la fabricación de los coloran-
tes empleados en la vestimenta femenina de época romana: fuentes escritas
y experimentación ........................................................................................ 185
ana Cabrera y lluis turell, Relexiones sobre el género en piezas descon-
textualizadas: el caso de la indumentaria copta en las colecciones públicas
españolas ...................................................................................................... 213
Xaverio ballester Gómez, El empleo metafórico de la vestimenta en la topo-
nimia ............................................................................................................. 227

reCensiones ........................................................................................................ 233

 ABREVIATURAS

AAB Acta Archaologica Brigetionensia

ABSA The Annual of the British School at Athens. Londres.
AEA Archivo Español de Arqueología. Madrid.
AJA American Journal of Archaeology. Boston.
AnHA Anales de Historia del Arte. Madrid.
AnMG Annales du Musée Guimet. Lyon - París.
ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt. Berlín - Nueva York,
1972-1992.
AntClass L’Antiquité Classique. Lovaina-la-Nueva.
ARW Archiv für Religionswissenschaft. Berlín – Friburgo – Leipzig – Tubinga.
AFA Archivo de Filología Aragonesa. Zaragoza.
BAEAA Boletín de la asociación española de amigos de la Arqueología. Madrid.
BES Bulletin of the Egyptological Seminar. Nueva York.
BIFAO Bulletin de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale. El Cairo.
BR Budapest Régiségei. Budapest.
CATIE Centro Agronómico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza. Turrialba
(Costa Rica).
CIETA Centre International d’Études des Textiles Anciens. Lyon.
CIL Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Berlín.
CLS Clavis Linguarum Semiticarum. Múnich.
CQ Classical Quarterly. Óxford.
CSIC Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientíicas. Madrid.
20 Abreviaturas

CTR The Danish National Research Foundation’s Centre for Textile Re-
search. Copenhague.
DHA Dyes in History and Archeology. Londres
DressID Programa Culture 2007-2012: Dress and Identities. New perspectives
on textiles in the Roman Empire.
DS Ch. Daremberg y E. Saglio (1877-1918), Dictionnaire des antiquités
grecques et romaines d’apres les textes et les monuments contenant
l’explication des termes que se rapporten aux moeurs, aux institu-
tions, à la religion et en général à la vie publique et privée des an-
ciens. París.
GM Gottinger Miszellen. Gotinga.
HPLC Cromatografía liquida de alta resolución.
ILS H. Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae. Berlín, 1892-1916.
JDAI Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts. Berlín.
JEA Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. Londres.
JECS Journal of Early Christian Studies. Baltimore.
JHS Journal of Hellenic Studies. Atenas.
JNES Journal of Near East Studies. Chicago.
JRS Journal of Roman Studies. Cámbridge.
LÄ W. Helck y E. Otto (eds.) (1975-1992), Lexikon der Ägyptologie.
Wiesbaden.
LIMC Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, 1981-1999. Zúrich
- Munich - Düsseldorf.
MAN Museo Arqueológico Nacional. Madrid.
MDAI(M) Madrider Mitteilungen. Deutsches Archäologisches Institut. Abtei-
lung Madrid.
MNAD Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas. Madrid.
MüJb Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst.
NAWG Nachrichten von der Akad. der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. Got-
inga.
NESAT North European Symposia for Archaeological Textiles. Manchester.
OBO Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis. Friburgo.
PBSR Papers of the British School at Rome. Londres.
PGM H.D. Betz (1986), The Greek Magical Papyri in traslation, including
the Demotic spells. Chicago - Londres.
PL Patrologia Latina, Migne. París.
PUV Publicaciones de la Universidad de Valencia.
Abreviaturas 21

PV I C. Alfaro, J. P. Wild y B. Costa (Eds.), Purpureae Vestes, Actas del I

Symposium Internacional sobre Textiles y Tintes del Mediterráneo en
época romana (Ibiza, 8 al 10 de noviembre, 2002), Purpureae Vestes
I. Valencia 2004.
PV II C. Alfaro, L. Karali, (Eds.), Vestidos, textiles y tintes Estudios sobre
la producción de bienes de consumo en la Antigüedad, Purpureae
Vestes II. Valencia 2008.
PV III C. Alfaro, J.P. Brun, Ph. Borgard y R. Pierobon (Eds.), Textiles y
tintes en la ciudad antigua/Tissus et teintures dans la cité antique/
Tessuti e tinture nella città antica, Purpureae Vestes III. Valencia-
Nápoles, 2011.
RÄR H. Bonnet (1952), Reallexikon der ägyptischen Religionsgeschichte.
Berlín.
REIB Revista de Estudios Ibéricos. Madrid
SEMA Seminario de Estudios de la Mujer en la Antigüedad. Valencia.
SIP Servicio de Investigación Prehistórica. Valencia.
SIRIS L. Vidman (1969), Sylloge inscriptionum religionis Isiacae et Sara-
piacae. Berlín.
SMB Schweizer Münzblatter. Basilea.
TLC Cromatografía en capa ina.
ZÄS Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde. Berlín.
ZPE Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik. Bonn.
 “THE MOTHER SHRINKS, THE CHILD GROWS. WHAT IS IT?”
THE EVIDENCE OF SPINNING IMPLEMENTS IN FUNERARY
CONTEXT FROM THE ROMAN PROVINCE OF PANNONIA

Judit Pasztókai-Szeöke*

Keywords: Spinning wool, spindle, distaff, Pannonia, graves, tombstones, female gender

introduCtion

Roman textile tools from funeral context – either found in burials or depicted in the
hand of the deceased – seemingly provide the most obvious clew to follow back to
the past and to grasp who took part in the local provincial textile production.1 This
paper, as its title indicates, questions this traditional approach to the funeral evidence
and through a complementary analysis of both the archaeological and iconographic-
epigraphic evidence from Pannonia makes an attempt for the understand of the real
nature of these evidence. Thus, this paper will examine the relationship between peo-
ple and objects.
The people are the inhabitants of the northern part (north to the river Drava) of a
frontier province –Pannonia, which existed between the 1st century and 1st third of the
5th century AD. This provincial population consisted of the descendants of the indig-
enous Pre-Roman Iron Age Celts and Pannons and the immigrants arrived in several
waves irst from Northern Italy, then also from other parts of the huge Empire into the
newly established province with and after the Roman conquest.2
The objects are spinning implements –spindles, spindle-whorls and short, hand-
distaffs– found in burials and depicted on the funeral monuments of Pannonia.

*
CTR and DressID Project. This project has been funded with support from the European Commis-
sion. The publication relects the views of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for
any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
1
madarassy, 1997; bíró, 2000; Gömöri, 2003.
2
On the Roman Pannonia and its inhabitants see móCsy, 1974 and visy, 2003.
126 Judit Pasztókai-Szeöke

the evidenCe of the Pannonian Graves

Spindle whorls and distaffs are not unusual inds in the Pannonian burials of
the Roman period. Whorls from funeral contexts do not really differ from those items
found in settlement sites, but distaffs found in burials stand apart as they are often
decorative and elaborately prepared from precious materials such as ivory, glass, am-
ber, bronze etc (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Amber distaffs from the cemeteries of ancient Scarbantia

(courtesy of the Museum of Sopron, Sopron; photo: Csaba Villányi).

Based on their non-functional aspects (excessive decoration, precious materials

etc), the question of further aspects of symbolism –other than reference to the daily
work or occupation of the deceased– emerges. Based on the age-groups with which
the inds are associated and their chronology, patterns emerge that suggest new pos-
sibilities in interpretation.
For the moment available osteological analyses seem to indicate that spinning
implements without exception were placed in female burials in Roman Pannonia. In
most cases they were found in the graves of females from the adult or mature age-
groups, but occasionally also with the osteological remains of juvenile girls.
While in the interments from the Roman period of Pannonia these spinning im-
plements are not unusual inds, there is no evidence for the deposition of spinning
tools into the burials of the indigenous pre-Roman Iron Age. The most remarkable
aspect is that the appearance of spinning implements in the area as grave-good is
undoubtedly a phenomenon that follows the Roman arrival and seems to have spread
along the roads in the newly established province.
Based on this evidence above, we can conclude that in the Roman province
of Pannonia spindle and distaff are gender- and age-speciic grave goods: they were
“The mother shrinks, the child grows. What is it” 127

found in the burials of females aged from 10 year-old, but dominantly adults, which
are in the Roman, not in the modern meaning of adulthood. As for the Roman girls
the twelfth birthday was postulated as the usual terminus post quem for adolescence,
since after this age –according to the legislation enacted in the Augustan era– they
were legally allowed to enter into marriage. Of course legislation is one thing, and
complying with the law is another. Among the epigraphic records from Pannonia and
also from the neighboring province, Dalmatia, there is a small group of grave monu-
ments which testiies that entering into a marriage at the age of 10 could happen in the
life of a bride and at the age around 12 was not exceptional.3 So, the females buried
with spinning implements in Pannonia can be interpreted as adult females within the
local Roman society, but might they be supposed to have been adult females living
in some sort of marital relationship (either in a legal Roman marriage, connubium or
other kinds of quasi-marital unions, contubernium or concubinatus) with a man? Al-
though relying only on this archaeological evidence of course it is impossible to arrive
to such a conclusion, but a short look at the origin of this mortuary custom (deposition
of spinning implements as grave-goods) can help.

Lanam fecit - the italian evidenCe

As it was mentioned above, the custom does not seem to have been rooted in
the mortuary tradition of the local indigenous Celtic population. The symbolism con-
cealing behind the new custom could have arrived with the early immigrants of the
newly established province who with their own traditions most probably affected the
mortuary practice of the region.
In ancient Italy, spinning wool (expressed by the phrases lanam fecit, laniica)
became a synonymous with women’s laboriousness and domestic virtue as among
many others Plutarch excellently formulated:

Gaia Caecilia consort of one of Tarquin`s sons, a fair and virtuous woman, whose
statue in bronze stands in the temple of Sanctus. And both her sandals and her spin-
dle were, in ancient days, dedicated there as tokens of her love of home and of her
industry respectively.4

Already in Early Iron Age spindle whorls and distaffs in precious materials are
deposited in burials of Italian women as symbols of their economic and social role
in the community.5 For Roman times it became a topos in literature, art and funerary
epitaphs used to describe and depict Roman women of good moral standard, who
played a central role in the house, family and society, ensuring the continuity of the

3
See Digest XXIII, 1, 2; Cassius dio, LIV. 16, 7 and hoPkins, 1965; treGGiari, 1991, 40-3; sinobad, 2005.
4
Plu., Questiones Romanae 30. Similarily in Plin., N.H. VIII, 194. In the memorial inscriptions,
spinning wool (laniica) and staying at home (domiseda) is also included among the virtues of a deceased
wife (CLS II. 4639 and 4860; ILS 8402). See also PearCe, 1974; nielsen, 1998; larsson lovén, 1998;
larsson lovén, 2002, 82-87 and 135-140.
5
Whitehouse, 2001; Gleba, 2004, 2008; CottiCa, 2007.
128 Judit Pasztókai-Szeöke

lineage through their marriage. Therefore, in ancient Roman society spinning wool
acquired a strong ideological component, and spindle and distaff, often appearing
in funerary contexts, became powerful symbols of feminine gender. It is also not
surprising that spinning implements played a very important role in the traditional
Roman wedding ceremony.6
This symbolic connotation of spinning wool is also well-attested by ancient Lat-
in literary sources: it was entirely positive for a woman to be engaged in spinning, but
the very opposite for a man. A woman who claimed to be occupied with wool-work
represented a virtuous woman of spotless morality (e.g Lucretia by Livius, Claudia in
her funeral epitaph etc.),7 however for a man it had the signiicance of moral weakness
and feminine character.
The following examples of Antonius and Elagabalus can illustrate how this
strongly gender-related symbol of spinning wool was used relating to the way how
the Romans deined the difference between sex and gender.
On an Italian terra sigillata cup from the late Republic, Antonius is depicted as
Hercules sitting in a chariot and followed by a procession of women carrying his fan,
parasol, wool basket and also his distaff.8 Thus, this cup represents him as a man who
had used to being dominated by strong and “masculine” women (his wives, Fulvia
and later Cleopatra) who had shaped his weak (i.e. feminine) character, which made
Antonius unsuitable to rule the Roman Empire. Paralleling, the same Fulvia, wife of
Antonius is rumoured to hate spinning and have never worked with any wool.9 The
example of Antonius and his wife attests unambiguously how the rhetoric of the Ro-
man political propaganda exploited this widely acknowledged metaphor of spinning
wool through conveying a dishonouring rumour to the general population of empire.10
A later example, worded by Cassius Dio, characterized emperor Elagabalus in
general as a bad and weak ruler, much dominated by his female relatives. This wom-
anly dressed and make-up wearing man, who behaved as a wife of another man and
intended to change his biological sex -as Cassius Dio informs us mockingly-, loved
spinning wool.11
These two literal examples above can also elucidate why we have only very
scarce archaeological, epigraphic or iconographic evidence for male spinners, al-
though some Roman men were undoubtedly occupied by professional spinning. These
men left very few footprints in the archaeological or epigraphic-iconographic sand,

6
Plu., Quest. Rom. 31. Williams, 1958, 21; nielsen, 1998, 70.
7
liv. I, 57, 9; ov., Fasti II, 741-3 (Lucretia); CIL VI, 1527, 31670, 3705. Wistrand, 1976; hemel-
riJk, 2004 (Laudatio Turiae); CIL I, 1211 (Claudia); CIL VI, 10230 (Murdia); ILS 8402 (Amymone). See
also kamPen, 1981, 122.
8
volkmann, 1953, Taf. 7a-b.
9
Plu., Ant. 10, 3.
10
zanker, 1988, 58-59.
11
Cassius dio, LXXX, 14, 4 and LXXX, 16, 7.
“The mother shrinks, the child grows. What is it” 129

because of the strong ideological and gender-related symbolism of spinning (espe-

cially of wool) in ancient Roman society.12
As gender is culturally constructed, it comes into being and lives via social
customs, practices, ideals and norms.13 Through the elements of their own gender-
descriptive language, the Romans could have a discourse to deine gender in rela-
tion to the physical appearance (clothing, make-up etc.) and action (gesture, behavior,
etc.) of the individuals. As their conception of the relationship between masculine and
feminine gender was hierarchical (as perfect-strong and imperfect-weak), the same
components from this language could act differently in connection to the different
genders: e.g. an action (spinning wool) which could symbolize good moral standard
for the imperfect (for a woman) meant moral weakness and feminine character for the
perfect (for a man).

the evidenCe of the Pannonian tombstones

In Pannonia, besides the spinning tools from grave assemblages we have an-
other group of evidence for spindle and distaff in funeral context. These are the depic-
tions of Roman tombstones.
The Roman funerary monuments were especially designed for the viewers to
whom they communicated information through written words of the epitaph and pic-
torial elements. Both components were carefully chosen and gender, age, legal status,
social prestige and wealth undoubtedly played a role in the choice of symbols in the
representation of the deceased. Insertion of certain objects from the iconographical
toolkit added further information about the deceased, such as the social role in family
and society etc.
To erect a tombstone inscribed with a Latin epitaph was a very Roman act, an act
of propagating status and usually it was the newly achieved status for some strata of
the Roman society. These memorials functioned as an advertisement of valuable sta-
tus advancement and were a medium for expressing integration, both real and aspired
to, into the Roman world.14
Similar to the evidence from other Roman provinces, spindle and distaff de-
picted on Pannonian funerary stelae, are always represented passively in the hands of
deceased women rather than in the spinning process.15
All these Pannonian gravestones with the depiction of spinning implements
(which means a corpus of ifteen items altogether) are dated between the 2nd half of
the 1st century and the 2nd century AD.

12
A unique depiction of a male spinner working on plant ibre is visible as a supporting character in
the workshop scene of an Ostian sarcophagus prepared for a shoemaker (zimmer, 1985, Taf. III.1). Further-
more, Plinius attested that “spinning lax is a respectable occupation for men” (N.H. XIX, 17). It is worth
to mention that both evidences are of spinning plant ibres, not wool.
13
montserrat, 2000, 156-157.
14
meyer, 1990, 89; Woolf, 1996; hoPe, 1997a-b; hoPe, 1998; larsson-lovén, 1998, 91; hoPe,
2001 and Carroll, 2006.
15
kamPen, 1981, 92 and larsson-lovén, 2002.
130 Judit Pasztókai-Szeöke

Based on the depicted roving around the distaff and some traces of its red colour,
the depicted raw iber is supposed to be wool.
By the origin and legal status of the deceased fe-
males we can distinguish between two groups: to the
irst group three female individuals belong and they
are women of freed status having Latin names and
wearing Roman attire. Eg. Iulia Urbana (Fig. 2), who
erected the monument for the memory both of her
former owner, Petronius Rufus and herself, was evi-
dently his wife as the depicted half igures of a couple
joining their right hand with dextrarum iunctio clearly
indicate that. As in the late republic and early imperial
Italy, memorials with portrait busts were particularly
favoured by freed slaves who used it for being depict-
ed in family groups and advertising their material and
social triumphs, we can suppose that the freed popu-
lation in Pannonia used their similar memorials for
similar purposes: they constructed a Roman identity
in a similar way and expressed an integration into the
Roman world. Their memorials emphasized that these
ex-slaves had gained their freedom, that they had be-
come Roman citizens who could marry legally and
Fig. 2. Tombstone of Petro-
nius Rufus and Iulia Urbana have legitimate children. In this context spindle and
from Walbersdorf (courtesy distaff could have been a proper symbol for a woman
of the Museum of Sopron, So- who intended to emphasize her newly achieved right
pron; photo: Csaba Villányi). to have legitimate off-springs.
Twelve items of the Pannonian gravestones belong to the second group and only
one female on each is represented with spindle and distaff in her hands16 (Fig. 3-5).
These women invariably wear the local-indigenous Celtic attire and their epitaphs
emphasize their Celtic origin, too: they bear Celtic names and one of them expresses
proudly, that she was an Eravisca (a woman from the local Celtic population). Ac-
cording to their legal status they were freeborn peregrinae (except one who also had
local Celtic origin, but who gained Roman citizenship).

16
CIL III, 14359.18; GarbsCh, 1965, nr. 139.4; meid, 2005, 206 (Suadr[u]); GarbsCh, 1965,
nr.114.8; barkóCzi, 1983, taf. XIX.1; visy 1997, 38. Cat. Nr. 44 (Basia); GarbsCh, 1965. nr.114.7; meid,
2005, 181; naGy, 2007, Cat. 24 (Veriuga); alföldy, 2004, 37 (Bozi); GarbsCh, 1965, 149.8; visy, 1997, 16
and Cat. Nr. 14; maróti, 2003, 12 and Cat. nr. 6 (with colour pict.); meid, 2005, 143-4 (Verodubena); visy,
1997, 46-7 and Cat. Nr. 59; meid, 2005, 243-4 (Flavia Usaiu); faCsády, 1997, 197 and Pict. 160; naGy,
2004, 235 and Pict. 9 (unknown name); GarbsCh, 1965, 149.13; maróti, 2003, 16 and Cat. nr. 10 (unknown
name); GarbsCh, 1965, 149.10; visy, 1997, 20 and Cat. Nr. 20; maróti, 2003, 22 and Cat. nr. 16; meid,
2005, 116-7 (Satimara); PóCzy, 1959, Pict.7; németh, 1999, Cat. Nr.110 (unknown name); barkóCzi, 1983,
Taf. XXI.1 (unknown name); GarbsCh, 1965, 149.1 and Taf.13.10; visy, 1997, 17 and Cat. Nr. 16; faCsády,
1997, 103; németh, 1999, Cat. Nr. 8 (unknown name).
“The mother shrinks, the child grows. What is it” 131

Fig. 3. Tombstone of Veriuga from the Fig. 4. Fragmentary tombstone from the
ancient Intercisa (after Pásztókai-Szeőke ancient Aquincum (after Out of Rome 1997,
2000, 121). 197 and picture 160).

On the basis of the information from the epitaphs and the iconographic paral-
lels, all women holding spinning tools in their hands seem to have lived in some kind
of marital relationship, but only one seems to have been in a legal Roman marriage,
because the rest were not Roman citizens.

Fig. 5. Fragmentary tombstone from the ancient Aquincum

(after Póczy 1959, 152 and picture 7).
132 Judit Pasztókai-Szeöke

To sum up, spindle and distaff, these iconographic symbols of marriage, which
probably derived from Italy, probably were used both by freed incomers and free-born
indigenous people of Pannonia possibly to mediate the message of having a marital
relationship. It was a legal Roman marriage in the case of the irst group, but through
the symbolism of the spindle and distaff the indigenous Celts could also express that
their marital relationship (matrimonium iuris gentium with the Roman term) was mor-
ally strong and legal on their own traditional way. To make this message understand-
able for the viewers of these monuments they adapted and used the international pic-
torial language of Roman funeral iconography.
So, spinning tools in Roman Pannonia are symbols of women and furthermore,
married women, although used by those, too who lived in other conjugal relationships
than the legitimate Roman marriage.

the distaff-side – roman finGer-distaffs With female fiGurines

There is, however, another class of objects, which can take us even further. In
Pannonia, one of the most remarkable groups of the distaffs found in late Roman
burials (3rd-4th centuries AD) consists of elaborately carved short bone or ivory shafts
terminating in a ring at the bottom and decorated with a 7-10 cm high female igurine
at the top17 (Fig. 6-8). They belong to the so-called Finger-distaff type, because by
means of the ring the spinning woman could ix such a distaff on her inger.18
What makes these distaffs extremely interesting for us is the human igure repre-
sented on the top. Of the three distinguishable stylistic variations of the igure:
1) female igure holding an infant (Fig. 6);
2) representation of the female igure alone (without the infant) (Fig. 7);
3) female igure binding fascia pectoralis around her breasts.19 only the irst two
have been found in Pannonia so far.
These female igures are nude or covered by a cloak draped around their hips
and legs. There is a very interesting detail visible on most of these female representa-
tions, as a depiction of an abdominal cut rising longitudinally upwards from the navel,
which can be interpreted as the healed scar of a Caesarean section, maybe an allusion
to a problematic, life-dangerous, but survived delivery.20 Furthermore, this interpreta-
tion of the cut as the scar of a Caesarean delivery gives us the possibility to exclude
the idea that these female igurines might depict wet nurses (nutrices) and offers an-

17
bíró, 1994a-b; bíró, 1996a-b; bíró, 2000a. For items from elsewhere in the Roman Empire see in
Cremer, 1996a-b; Cremer, 1998/1999; rauh, 2004; trinkl, 2006.
18
Their functional identiication as distaffs is based on ethnographical evidence from modern Bul-
garia (WasoWiCz, 1987) and on ancient iconographical parallels from Asia Minor (Waelkens, 2000). The
inger-distaff is presumably depicted in use on a mosaic from Tabarca, Tunisia (fradier, 1976; ennaifer
M., La civilization tunisienne à travers la mosaïque, Tunis 1973, 37).
19
In her groundbreaking article, Bíró had distinguished only between the iconography of the irst
two groups (bíró, 1994b), because the two distaffs belonging to the third group were published later (frey-
taG Gen. lörinGhoff, 1994; trinkl, 2006).
20
Pásztókai-szeőke, 2009.
“The mother shrinks, the child grows. What is it” 133

other, more probable explanation of their being mothers with the incision referring
to the biological connection between woman and infant.21 Moreover, these elaborate
distaffs are the evidence of a tight link between motherhood (images of mother with
child at their top) and spinning (the function of the objects) in antiquity.

Fig. 6. Fragmentary bone
distaff from an unknown
archaeological site in Pan-
nonia (after Bíró 1994a,
plate LXXXVI.851).
Fig. 7. Bone distaff from a
female inhumation burial in
Tordas (after Bánki 1967-8,
237 and igure 13.3a).
Fig. 8. Fragmentary bone
distaff from the collection of the
Archäologisches Institut, Eber-
hard-Karls-Universität Tübingen
(courtesy of Prof. Dr. Bettina
von Freytag gen. Löringhoff).

In antiquity, spinning was a symbolic representation of control over human des-

tiny: over birth, life and death. In Roman mythology it was the duty of three Fate-god-
desses (the Parcae, namely Klotho, Lachesis and Atropos) to prepare the life-thread of
each mortal-being from the moment of the birth and to break it at the end of life. Ac-
cording to Roman traditions, on the social birth of the Roman child into community,
which was on the dies lustricus, when a newborn baby received its name after a ritual
bath, the same Fate-goddesses were who determined the child’s destiny.22

21
Beside the child and the abdominal incision there is a further detail which might be also interpret-
ed in association with motherhood. The nude, idealistic body of the iconographic type of Capitoline Venus,
with her full breasts, leshy limbs and ample hips could have been the symbol of the womanly fecundity and
communicated the ideal of reproductive beauty, the “domesticated sexuality” of a respectable and exem-
plary mother in the Roman period (kamPen, 1994, 126-8; matheson, 1996, 185-192; d`ambra, 1996a-b).
22
CottiCa, 2004 and 2007 with further references. See their representation on Roman biographical
sarcophagi (de anGeli, 1992, 643-4 and Cat.38-45; huskinson, 1996, 11-2; hänninen, 2005, 57).
134 Judit Pasztókai-Szeöke

According to the expectations of Roman society, the prime duty of a Roman

woman was to bear and give birth to legitimate children, as the explicit aim of the
Roman marriage was basically the procreation of legitimate heirs.23 Thus, women
had a special role in the destiny of society, as the guarantors of biological (and social)
continuity. As the image of mother with child at the top of our elaborate spinning
implements testiies, in antiquity spinning could be a powerful metaphor of woman’s
fertility and of capability of giving birth, ensuring the surviving of human race. E.g.
the 6th century AD Vienna Genesis also transmits the message of the “ideal, good”
wife spinning and taking care of her children contrasted to the “bad” wife of Potiphar,
who attempts to seduce Joseph (Fig. 8).24

Fig. 8. Good and bad wifes as depicted in Vienna Genesis

(after Fulghum Heintz 2003, 138, igure 13).

It is also worth noting how this notion of the close relationship between spinning
and motherhood was absorbed in the Christian Mariology and survived through cen-
turies in Christian tradition of late Antique, Byzantine and even later periods. In some
scenes of the Annunciation, Virgin Mary, the ultimate Christian female role-model, is
shown spinning or winding the wool roving around her distaff when the Archangel
Gabriel visits her. One of the earliest pictorial representations of the Annunciation

23
treGGiari, 1991, 5-13; diXon, 1992; raWson, 2003, 95-6; hänninen, 2005, 49.
24
fulGhum heintz, 2003, 141 and 138, ig.13.
“The mother shrinks, the child grows. What is it” 135

with the spinning Virgin is to be found on a 5th century sarcophagus from Ravenna
which is known as Sepolchro di Braccioforte.25
Literary evidence of an apocryphal treatise from the mid-2nd century, the Pro-
toevangelium of James, attests that even at such an early date faith in the symbolic
connotation between spinning wool and conception had found its way to the early
Christians, before the oficial teaching of the church was fully developed, canonized
and communicated with the help of visual art.26 In the related passage of the Proto-
evangelium, at the moment of the Annunciation the Virgin is described as spinning a
skein of purple wool in order to weave a veil for the Temple of Jerusalem.27
Accordingly, spinning could also have been interpreted as a symbolic foreshadow-
ing of the Immaculate Conception, as weaving - of the Divine Incarnation in the lesh.
Thus Proclus, an outstanding pulpit orator of the 5th century Constantinople, (who often
drew his images, metaphors to portray the Virgin from the everyday life in the capital),
compared the Mother of God to a loom in one of his most distinctive metaphors.28
It seems most probable that the reverence for the motherhood of Mary, which is
the basic principle of Mariology and the Christian image of the spinning and weaving
Theotokos, the Mother of God was inherited by Christianity from its pagan forerun-
ners. It was also the motherhood of Mary, which became the point of connection
between her igure and the pagan mother-goddess concept, and the later canonized
doctrines of her veneration anchored in late antique popular beliefs of spinning as a
metaphor of motherhood.29

ConClusion

To conclude, whether these elaborate distaffs are the surviving relics of the cult
of a well-known mother-goddess or an unknown divine helper of Roman women in
labour, is not clear, but they can be interpreted as relics of the tight connotation be-
tween spinning and motherhood (the ultimate role of ancient women) in the late Ro-
man thinking.
Furthermore, on the basis of this short analysis, at least in the case of spindles
and distaffs, the traditional approach (that tools are always references to the former
daily activity or occupation of the deceased person) is questionable. Alternatively,
spinning implements seem to have strong ideological and gender-related symbolism
in antiquity. According to my opinion, spindle and distaff and in general spinning

25
badalanova Geller, 2004, 218. and ig. 3. Further examples are an ivory pyxis from the 5th-6th
century AD (Cremer, 1996a, Taf. 25.7) and a mosaic in the Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome (CottiCa, 2004,
ig. 15; badalanova Geller, 2004, 222) among many others.
26
benko, 1993, 200-3.
27
Ps.-JaC. 11, 1-3 (sChneemelCher, 1991, 430-1; benko, 1993, 198-9). This veil is believed to have
symbolized the lesh of Christ (see Constas, 1995, 181, and footnote 38).
28
Constas, 1995, 182 and Constas, 2003.
29
The term “Theotokos” was originally used by ordinary people and rooted in the popular believes
and only later taken up oficially by the clergy (benko, 1993; dennis 1996, 246-7; badalanova Geller,
2004, 211-2).
136 Judit Pasztókai-Szeöke

could have been metaphors of an interpersonal relationship, more precisely the ideal
marital relationship with embedded complexity of values, such as female chastity,
idelity, fertility (or motherhood) and industriousity.
The survival and use of this metaphor of spinning is also detectable in later
periods as among many other evidence30 a group of Bulgarian riddles testiies, which
an indulging example used as the title of this paper belongs to. To the question of this
riddle – The mother shrinks, the child grows. What is it? – the answer given is very
simple: it is spinning with distaff (the mother) and spindle (the child).31

aCknoWledGement

This research was accomplished with the help of a generous Ph.D-grant re-
ceived from The Danish National Research Foundation`s Centre for Textile Research
and from the University of Aarhus. My special thanks are due to my friends and col-
leagues in the Centre for Textile Research who have supported me constantly in vari-
ous ways through the writing process. For an illustration (picture 8) and permission
for its use I am thankful to Bettina von Freytag gen. Löringhoff. My special gratitude
also goes to Eva Andersson Strand, Margarita Gleba, Carmen Alfaro Giner, Françoise
Rougemont and Niels Hannestad for their valuable comments and critics on the early
drafts of this paper. Any remaining errors are my own. I am also grateful to Carmen
Alfaro Giner for inviting me to the conference Women and Clothing: Aspects of Fe-
male Identity in the Roman Empire and its provinces.

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E.g. in the present-day Russian Karelia there is a restriction according to which nobody is allowed
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