The work performed in the 24 months of the grant includes systematic recordings of textile tools from Greek museums, training in experimental archaeology actions in DK and NL, editing and writing academic papers in DK and presenting the results in several international meetings and conferences.
Main results
Previous studies of this early technology have shown that since the 7th mill. BCE people in the East Mediterranean had already started with the construction of textile tools. A closer study of these, beyond the study of their purpose and functionality, has also revealed the cognitive field and the skill level of the Neolithic people, regarding the understanding of natural laws, which later led to the creation of even more complex tools and technologies. Understanding and using natural laws, such as the law of gravity and physical forces, such as rotation, evidenced by the operation of spindle whorls, show us the intellectual environment of the Neolithic people, who could already understand and handle the basic principles of the natural sciences: observation and experiment.
These revolutionary mental and practical achievements are inextricably linked to the establishment of permanent settlements and the engagement of people with agricultural work, which gave them the affordance and time to control their natural environment and modify it, through farming and husbandry, so as to meet their needs and desires. Textile fibres originated from a variety of plants coming from the immediate environment and later from the wool of domesticated animals. Particularly this transition from using simply prepared materials taken from nature to the preparation of materials for a later use is a very important stage in the history of technologies since it shows long-term planning, team working, and tedious labour in many small-scale, home industries.
Textile implements and loom types
For the manufacture of the earliest textile tools, raw materials of animal, vegetal or mineral origin, such as wood, animal bones, stone, and clay were used. The archaeological record of the clay textile tools is the most well-studied group but there is a multi-faceted group of bone implements also thought to be associated with textile production, however, without a specific function being attributed to them. Through comparative studies, it became possible to identify the pointed awl, as weaving implement. Contemporary traditional craftspeople in South America and Central Asia use this kind of tool on their horizontal ground looms or on the back-strap looms. These loom types, however, are not known from Europe, thus these bone tools have not yet been associated with textile production. A visit to traditional textile craftspeople in Peru, organized by the Centre for Textile Research, gave a definite answer to this matter. The Neolithic bone awls have an identical shape and show similar use-wear traces and therefore they presumably have the same purpose as the modern Andean implements. This was also manifested through object microscopy and a preliminary use-wear analysis.
A major technological step of the Neolithic was the invention or development of the loom, perhaps initially designed as a simple frame, which has greatly mechanized the manual work, the initial technological stages being very similar to basketry. The presence or absence of certain textile implements evidences which type of loom was used by the Neolithic people. Thus, the absence of loom weights during the largest part of the Neolithic shows us that the vertical, warp-weighted loom was not yet in use and that textiles were originally made on another or perhaps on other kinds of looms, eventually the horizontal ground loom, the two-beam loom, the back-strap loom or a small portable frame loom. This view has been further reinforced in NETIA by the new identification of a type of perforated clay objects, which are now interpreted as functional parts of a horizontal ground loom.
