Purple textiles were highly valued in the ancient Mediterranean as a symbol of prestige, social status and power. Despite the numerous publications focused on the production and spread of purple dye technologies, the discussion regarding this particular dye has often been compartmentalised regionally (eastern or western Mediterranean) and chronologically (second or first millennium bc). The aim of this paper is threefold: (1) to propose a full chaîne opératoire for the production of shellfish-purple-dyed textiles; (2) to synthesise the archaeological evidence on production and consumption of such textiles in the entire Mediterranean before the Romans; and (3) to discuss the social implications of the production and consumption of these textiles, to gain a better understanding of their economic and social significance.

Studying textile production in the middle Guadiana basin between the seventh and fifth centuries BC, this article reveals the significance of textiles for the development and change of economic complexity in rural societies in Iron Age southwestern Iberia. Textiles were at the very heart of the economic transformation of the area in this period. The functional properties of textile tools and their implications for manufacturing different types of threads and woven textiles show that in the seventh and sixth centuries BC the production of textiles was household-based and mostly for self-consumption. From the late sixth century and especially in the fifth century BC, however, the increasing specialisation of textile production and the appearance of workshops heralded new economic relations. By examining textile production and artisans' skills and knowledge, this study reconsiders our understanding of craft production, societal change, and economic complexity among the rural societies of Iron Age Iberia.

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Having followed with great interest the latest scholarly literature on ontology-related archaeologies, especially in this journal, this essay will problematise the extractive nature of much of this scholarship in the long-history of Western imperialism, in which Indigenous knowledge has been collected, depoliticised, classified, and then re-signified within Western frameworks.