The American Historical Review/Volume 23/The Trades of Antiquity as a Field of Investigation

by William Linn Westermann

 

NOTES AND SUGGESTIONS

The Trades of Antiquity as a Field of Investigation

The study of the industrial organization of ancient times will always be baffling and difficult, because the existing remains of the output of the industries are scattered about in many museums and are practically inaccessible at a distance from the great museum centres. Moreover, as compared with modern times, the amount of available information is small and statistical comparisons quite out of the question. Nevertheless, the field is an attractive one which still offers opportunity for a number of useful studies. These must be made with great care. Most particularly, great restraint is required in the necessary attempt to fill in by legitimate conjecture the blank spaces, both temporal and territorial, in which material is entirely lacking or else vague and insufficient. The best results will be obtained, I think, by highly specialized studies of single trades, carried where possible through the entire period of antiquity. As a model of what may be accomplished by an enthusiastic student of one particular craft and its products, Kisa's Das Glas im Altertume may be cited.^[1]

An opportunity to do a similar piece of work, equally interesting and of greater importance, perhaps, in the history of industrial development, is offered in the weaving trade. From Egypt we have great quantities of ancient fabrics, chiefly of coarse weaves. We have, especially from Egypt, a fairly large amount of information, both pictorial and documentary, upon the technique of the weaving industry. The basis for this phase of the work has already been laid in Blümner's Gewerbe und Künste bei Griechen und Römern.^[2] Other more special studies have also been made upon the ancient textile industries and the related dyeing industry. But there is no study of large scope which gives us a perspective of the advance in technical skill or the bearing of the Chinese silk trade upon the development of textile manufactures in the Mediterranean world. There is no satisfactory study of the changing social status of the weavers themselves throughout antiquity. In the period covered by the papyri, inscriptions, and the codes of the Roman and Byzantine empires, roughly speaking from 300 B. C. to 900 A. D., information upon this subject is fairly abundant and easily accessible.

The comprehensive study of the weaving trade suggested above can only be undertaken by a scholar who is able to meet three requirements. He must have, or acquire, a knowledge of the technique of textile manufacturing. He must have time. He must have money available for travel and study in the great museums. The scholar best adapted for this service is, perhaps, to be found in a man of thorough classical training—the ancient languages are an absolute essential—connected with one of our best-equipped museums, in Boston, New York, or Chicago.

In the same way the lead industry of antiquity would also repay an intensive and comprehensive treatment, though not to the same degree as the weaving trade. Here, too, special studies are already available, but only as a working basis.^[3] As in the study of textile manufactures, the archaeological evidence would form the foundation of the work.

In the ancient iron industry more work has been done. The monumental work of Ludwig Beck upon the history of iron^[4] does not, however, make use of the epigraphical and papyrological evidence. Despite Waltzing's exhaustive volumes upon the industrial corporations among the Romans^[5] and other more recent studies on the Greek and Byzantine gilds, a separate study of the iron workers throughout antiquity would amply repay the time spent upon it as a dissertation. Here the ends to be sought are two: first, to determine the social classification of the laborers in the industry;^[6] second, to determine the amount of interest and control "of the governments over ore production and manufacture in the iron industry.

For the ancient building trades, the archaeologists have already done a great deal in the study of the technique. But little attention has been given to their economic and social aspects; on this side of the building trades lies an untouched field. These subjects are suggested as types of investigation now greatly needed in the field of ancient history. It is only through such studies, and others like them, that we can attain a real knowledge of ancient industrial life.

W. L. Westermann.

 

1. Dr. Anton Kisa, Das Glas im Altertume (Leipzig, 1908, 3 vols.).
2. Hugo Blümner, Technologie und Terminologie der Gewerbe und Künste bei Griechen und Römern (Leipzig, 1875–1887, 4 vols.).
3. See the article plumbum in Daremberg-Saglio, Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines. All the material available in the Greek papyri from Egypt has been gathered, for all the industries, by Th. Reil in his doctoral dissertation, Beitrage sur Kenntniss des Gewerbes im Hellenistischen Aegypten (Leipzig, 1913).
4. Dr. Ludwig Beck, Die Geschichte des Eisens (second ed., vol. I., Braunschweig, 1890–1891).
5. P. Waltzing, Les Corporations Professionelles chez les Romains (Louvain, 1895–1900, 4 vols.).
6. A model for this type of study may be found in the article by H. Gummerus in Klio, XIV. 2, "Die Römische Industrie; das Goldschmied- und Juweliergewerbe".