Abstract
Imperial silks were highly symbolic in the Byzantine world and were important conveyors of the imperial image. Despite this fact, the factories and workers that produced them have been little studied. This article attempts to remedy this gap in the academic literature by examining the sources of labour in the imperial textile factories from their inception in the fourth century. It proposes that forced labour was a key factor of these factories, and that this created an environment in which the workers enabled the development of a collective identity which gave them agency in the power politics of the state. It further suggests that the mode of production was implied by the material, embedding the imperial textile factories into the social fabric of Byzantine society.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 57 |
| Number of pages | 87 |
| Journal | Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik |
| Volume | 73 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 10 Mar 2024 |
Keywords
- Labour
- Silk
- Imperial Factories
- Textile Production
- Identity
- Slavery
Access to Document
- Kelly_2024_JOEB_Identity-Forced-Labour_AAM
Copyright ©2024 Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the author created accepted manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1553/joeb73s57