FLOMA · From Loom to Market: Gendered Textile Economies of the Bronze Age Iranian Plateau

FLOMA investigates how textile production, consumption, and exchange shaped Bronze Age economies (3200–1200 BCE). Situated at the crossroads of Southwest Asia, the Iranian Plateau played a crucial yet underexplored role in linking Mesopotamia, Central Asia, and the Indus Valley. FLOMA delivers the first gender-informed reconstruction of Plateau textile economies by addressing three objectives: build a digital corpus and typology of tools, preserved textiles, and imprints from four key sites (Shahr-i Sokhta, Tepe Hissar, Tepe Yahya, Susa); test models of labour organisation—household, specialised, or elite-sponsored—through archaeological proxies cross-verified with iconographic and textual evidence; andsituate Plateau production within wider exchange by identifying hubs and circulation corridors through network modelling.To achieve these aims, FLOMA combines archaeology, computational analysis, philology, and gender archaeology in an interdisciplinary framework. A geo-referenced GIS database will standardise documentation of tools, fabrics, and imprints, operationalised as proxies for technology and labour. Spatial statistics, clustering, and network modelling will transform datasets into relational analyses of production contexts and inter-site connectivity. Integration with comparative data from Mesopotamia, Elam, Central Asia, and the Indus Valley will provide additional contextualisation.FLOMA is groundbreaking in advancing beyond the state of the art: it transforms artefact-level documentation into testable proxies, embeds Plateau data into interregional systems, and foregrounds gendered labour as a structural driver of ancient economies. The results will reshape debates on urbanisation, economic history, and cultural resilience. Deliverables include open-access datasets, peer-reviewed studies, and public engagement, aligning with MSCA priorities in innovative scholarship, gender equality, open science, and career development.