 This paper presents the results of an experimental pilot study conducted within the PROCON project led by Margherita Gleba at Cambridge, and aimed at evaluating what can we learn from textile tools that have been found in survey research rather than studies in open contexts, rather than in excavated closest contexts. So the study was aimed at investigating the opportunity but also the challenges of this particular type of data. The study was initially focused on Central Italy thanks to the collaboration of many scholars who have conducted research studies in the area, and then it was extended to a comparison with Greece, then to the collaboration of Emery Farinetti. Firstly we are going to discuss the methodological issues which are related to the reliability of the survey data, their dating, their representativeness, and the problem of well-known post-depositional factors, and we are going to see our case studies in Central Italy and Greece, and we are going to draw some preliminary conclusions. Finally we are going to twilight some potential further work. One of the first problems when studying textile tool from survey data, one of the main problems is the reliability itself. How can we relate textile tool to a specific function or activity if we lack the precise information of a context, and also how can we date them and relate them to a specific phase of the site that often is multi-phase by nature? In addition, often textile tool from survey data are not very huge in number, so how can they reveal or indicate the partners and trend? And finally there is the obvious problem of post-depositional biases. Included in the hyperbole project that has been recently subject to a re-evaluation by the British School of Rome, the La Ciumveggio project, the Forma Italia project led by Professor Carandina, Professor Carolfa, the Ciumveggio project led by Peter Altman and his team from Rollingen. And also the Malacredi survey and we also have the Rieti survey and the Tuscania project. In the landscape slide you see some of the fields around the side of Cusco Mellio, which is a small proto-urban settlement to the north-east of Rome that later became the suburbia of Rome, in which I conducted my fieldwork. Next slide. These slides show the visibility of data according to the different survey projects which were conducted in different times and sometimes with slightly different methodologies. However, we can see that a common partner is revealed in which the long waits are certainly the most visible, followed by a spindle wall and finally by generic test tools. So even if we have to assume differences, we can still see some common underlying generalities between the different projects. How data have been analyzed? The first step of the work is the dating of the textile tool. Primarily this has been made on the basis of typological analysis, either on the field or in the lab or from publication. And this is obviously based on the shape of the object, the type of clay, the inclusions, the presence or not of inscriptions and decorations. But when the typological dating was to general not possible or not available, we devised a new way of dating the tool, which is by context. Now this is a slightly difficult because as we said in the survey, we are dealing with open contests. However, sometimes it was possible to pin down the dating of the tool by context, one or two phases. And we decided that this was reliable enough. In fact, as we will see later, the results of the analysis and their internal consistency made us realize that this initial assumption was a rather reasonable and acceptable assumption. This slide shows some types of textile tools found in the region through time from the dark impasto, impasto bruno, bronze age and iron age spin the war and spools and sometimes long wait as well to the more common long wait of impasto pale impasto, of impasto chiaro of the archaic period or some more spin the war of impasto bruno to the republican and imperial Roman period long wait again in a cream or a very pale clay. Sometimes these tools can also have decoration or inscriptions in particular has been highlighted by Lin Fox for Southern Etruria, how in the archaic period, especially long waits can have signs indicating women and family connections in the territory or in the Roman period we can have the name of the pursuers of the long waits. Most data presented in this paper in relation to the Greek case study come from the Beotia survey conducted in Greece since the 1978. One important point to bear in mind in relation to Greek material and survey but it also partially affect Italian material is that sometimes textile tool have been used as a discriminator a ski marker to distinguish between permanent rural settlement and non-permanent rural settlement belonging to city dwellers. So in a way one has to be very careful to not fall in a sort of circular argument. Another example where textile tools have been used as indicator of sedentary activities is the case of the agro pastoral sites. These slides show an example from an excavation dated to the 4th to the 2nd century but the same concept can be applied to survey data. These people used perishable material to build like wood or wallet and doubt walls on stone foundation. So the presence of textile tool is an important indicator to identify only around sites and not just seasonal activities. So in a way this has helped made these people less invisible. Has per the distribution of type of textile tool also in the Greek case study long weights are the most common followed by spindle rule and by weights. It also has to be considered that sometimes some type of weights are similar in textile activity and also in fishing activities. As per the chronological attribution also in the Greek case studies the shape and decoration of the textile tool is an indicator and also contextual information can be helpful even if as we said we are talking about open sites but sometimes in the end also the type of fabric is the major chronological indicator. As per the distribution of the presence of textile tool according to primary or rural site increase the textile activity seems to be very much an indicator of domestic activity and linked to urban sites but we also have to consider that the quantity of material is greatly affected by the total amount of finds from the site and also the the biography the development of the of the settlement. This slide again comparing the the four different urban contexts and the presence of textile tools in the different time archaic and classical Hellenistic and then Hellenistic Roman and late Roman shows out the in a way the distribution of textile tool follows the general development of the city. So some final thoughts on the Greek case study. We have to bear in mind that sometimes textile tools have been a key element in the identification of domestic activity for the definition of the function of the site itself. Therefore the subsequent analysis by context might be misleading. As in the Italian case study looms wait are generally much more visible and also it would be important to consider the textile tool in relation to the total number of of material found at the site and the the chronicle biography of the cities. To compare the Italian and the Greek case studies we can see that in both region loom waits seem to be much more visible. In both cases the presence of textile tools seem to be affected by the general trend in settlement distribution or the site the chronicle biography. Textile tool can be seen both as an indicator of domestic and or productive activity and it's not always easy to distinguish between the two. Now withstanding the great limitation however the the survey has the potential to provide complementary data and interpretation to those given by excavation but probably we have to on the basis of this experiment we have to elaborate far more tailored methodological tools up to target this particular type of evidence.