Tool or symbol? Exploring the significance of textile tools in Iron Age funerary contexts of Southern Portugal (7th–3rd/ 2nd centuries BCE)

Recent surveys of textile tools in Southern Portuguese Iron Age contexts have shown that they can be found in a variety of functional contexts. However, and while the significance of such tools in domestic and religious contexts has already been discussed, the meaning of their presence in funerary settings remains to be fully explored. Ten funerary sites, ranging in date from the mid-7th to the late 3rd/ early 2nd century BCE have nonetheless yielded textile tools, with a preponderance of spindle whorls over loom weights. A critical assessment of the data from those sites shows some revealing trends regarding the functional parameters of the tools and their position in the tombs but, most importantly, the gender and status of the deceased which they accompanied. Despite the low resolution of data, a tendential association with female burials can be posited, and at least some instances of textile tools in relatively high-status tombs can be noted. However, these funerary assemblages offer little to no evidence of craft specialization. These trends can usefully be compared to the available explanatory hypotheses put forward to explain the deposition of textile tools in tombs. Such an exercise suggests a complex, multi-layered meaning for these objects, which sum-up ideas about gender norms, gendered practices, status, and most likely also religious beliefs.