Book excerpt: This book is firstly an enormous catalogue of all textile finds from prehistoric, Roman and medieval contexts in Great Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Scandinavia. This data is used to show that the first steps towards organized textile production in northern Europe were taken more than 2,500 years ago, and that the industry that was to centre itself around the English Channel and North Sea coastal areas played an important part in the rise of the Carolingian Empire and Anglo-Saxon England.