A late 4th-century woman--born in Rome--buried in London wearing Chinese silk, with a pillow stuffed with Mediterranean bay leaves & a coffin scented with pistachio resin. A reminder of how global the premodern world was. #MedievalTwitterhttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/archaeology/archaeology-london-spitalfields-woman-mola-b1774473.html …
I think textile historians can broadly tell manufacturer location, to my knowledge, and at that time I believe China still had a monopoly on silk production, did they not?
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as for the isotopes: I do not believe the isotopes can determine if she came from Rome unless Rome has very specific isotopes in the soil there. Chances are it just showed that she was likely from the Mediterranean area...but I guess we'll have to wait for the report.
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India was certainly producing silk in this period and Rome had an extensive and well attested trade with India in this period. Would also be interesting to know whether this is argued to be imported textile or simply imported raw silk
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Actually - wondering if it would be possible to use isotopes to distinguish origin of silk?
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it might be, although I am unsure.
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