Elizabeth Wayland Barber

New discoveries about the textile arts reveal women's unexpectedly influential role in ancient societies. Twenty thousand years ago, women were making and wearing the first clothing created from spun fibers. In fact, right up to the Industrial Revolution the fiber arts were an enormous economic force, belonging primarily to women. Despite the great toil required in making cloth and clothing, most books on ancient history and economics have no information on them. Much of this gap results from the extreme perishability of what women produced, but it seems clear that until now descriptions of prehistoric and early historic cultures have omitted virtually half the picture. Elizabeth Wayland Barber has drawn from data gathered by the most sophisticated new archaeological methods—methods she herself helped to fashion.

The 30th-anniversary edition of a historical account, called “brilliantly original” by Katha Pollitt ( Washington Post Book World ), that reframed our understanding of women’s lives in early societies. Twenty thousand years ago, women were making and wearing clothing created from spun fibers. In Women’s Work , archaeologist-linguist Elizabeth Wayland Barber “weaves the strands of mythology and literature, ethnology and documented history into a rich tapestry” (John Noble Wilford, New York Times Book Review ), illuminating the vital role women held in preindustrial societies. With a distinctive and innovative approach to ancient remains, Barber examines ancient textiles from Stone Age string skirts and ancient Egyptian sleeved tunics to intricate Neolithic Swiss linens and colorfully patterned Minoan dresses, offering us captivating glimpses into the daily lives of women through the cloth they made and wore. “A fascinating history and prehistory of the making of textiles, a craft, exclusive to women (including queens and goddesses), that preceded and made possible civilization itself.”― New York Times Book Review “Fortunately, this most distinctive of female occupations has a sympathetic and authoritative chronicler in Elizabeth Wayland Barber.”―Mary R. Lefkowitz, New York Review of Books 71 illustrations, 5 maps