Women & Girls in the Ancient World: Their History, Our History
is a celebration of women and girls in the ancient world at the
Oriental Institute on May 5, 2013. Four female archaeologists – Megaera
Lorenz, Debora
Heard, Kate Grossman, and Benedetta Bellucci–brought their expertise
and knowledge by showing the visitors artifacts and presented the
stories of mothers,
daugthers, queens, and common women of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt,
Anatolia (Turkey), and Nubia (northern Sudan and southern Egypt) in the
galleries of the
Oriental Institute Museum. This post and the upcoming posts will
recap a few of the objects selected by the four archaeologist speakers
in this family
program. The posts also include additional student and classroom
activity suggestions for your teaching.
Spindle Whorls
Henrietta Herbolsheimer, M.D. Syro-Anatolian Gallery, Oriental Institute Museum
What is a spindle whorl?
A spindle whorl is a pierced object, circular in section, used on a
spindle to weigh it down and help the spinning process. In the ancient
world in
general, spinning was done by hand, with a spindle that was nothing
more than a rod with a spindle whorl.
Spindles were usually made of wood. The spindle whorl, though, was
often made of harder, heavier material, such as ceramic, stone, or bone.
Since the wood
has deteriorated and disappeared, this is what we find in
excavations: little discoid objects called spindle whorls.
A spindle whorl can have different shapes, as you see in the photograph. Eight spindle whorls dating to the first millennium B.C.E.
Walking through the Syro-Anatolian gallery, you can also see a beautiful
little spindle whorl bearing an inscription in Phoenician script:
"This produces spun (?)yarn."
