Wool-spinning, Bronze-working, and the Peculiarities of Mycenaean ta-ra-si-ja

This paper deals with the wool and bronze industries related to a peculiar production system termed ta-ra-si-ja on some Linear B texts. These are contrasted to the perfume industry, with the aim of outlining the peculiarities of the Mycenaean ta-ra-si-ja and the social status of smiths and weavers. For contextual and etymological reasons it is argued that the term ta-ra-si-ja /tala(n)siā/ indicates a production procedure directly organized by the central administration. This system entailed the weighing of certain amounts of wool and bronze, which would have been supplied to weavers and smiths in order to be processed into finished products, and finally returned to the Palace. The central administration also ran an important perfume industry, but in the related records the term ta-ra-si-ja never appears. In my opinion, this is because the term ta-ra-si-ja doesn't fit with the raw materials involved, i.e. olive oil and spices, which were not weighed, but measured. The main conclusions are: 1) The word ta-ra-si-ja indicated the wool- and bronze-working, because wool and bronze were materials subjected to weight control; 2) ta-ra-si-ja work was carried out in areas peripheral to the Palace; 3) Social status and number of people involved in textile production and metalworking were directly proportional to the value of the raw materials they worked with: as wool was more common and less valuable material than bronze, so larger and more humble was the workforce involved in its manufacture. The weavers were low-social-level workers, totally dependent on the Palace, which worked at home. Instead, the smiths were autonomous and mid-social-level craftsmen, obliged to provide regular “corvée” working at the place of residence; 4) The ta-ra-si-ja involved an extensive production system. On the whole, such a system had a high economic range comparable to that of perfumed oil production, but shared among a much larger and decentralized staff, who were supplied regularly with low quantities of raw materials. Summing up, I believe that the main characteristics of the ta-ra-si-ja work were: 1) the weight control of the materials, 2) the fact that it was a work carried out at home, but centrally managed, and 3) the extensive system of production.