The earliest Near Eastern wooden spinning implements

• Autores: Dafna Langgut, Naama Yahalom-Mack, Simcha Lev-Yadun, Eitan Kremer, Micka Ullman, Uri Davidovich
• Localización: Antiquity, ISSN 0003-598X, Vol. 90, Nº 352, 2016, págs. 973-990
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • A unique set of circumstances has preserved a group of rare wooden artefacts deep within burial caves in the southern Levant. Identified as spindles and distaffs, they are fashioned from tamarisk wood and date to the Late Chalcolithic period. Analysis suggests that these implements were used to spin flax fibres, and they provide the earliest evidence for two distinct spinning techniques, drop spinning and supported spinning (with rolling on the thigh). One wooden spindle with the whorl still in place is the oldest such tool to survive intact in the Near East. The lead forming the whorl may have originated in Anatolia, and it is evidence, perhaps, of early long-distance trade.