Women & Girls in the Ancient World/ PART 1: Spindle Whorls in Ancient Anatonlia

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."

 



What is the significance of textile production in ancient Anatolian society?
 
The production of yarn and the weaving of that yarn into textiles was entrusted to women. The starting material was called “fibres” and would become yarn once spun. Fibres could be vegetal (for the ancient Near East, in particular, flax and hemp) or animal (hair and wool). Once cleaned, beaten, or carded to eliminate impurities (processes differ for the different kinds of material), fibres were ready to be spun. They could be located around the shoulder, or on different kind of supports, steady (such as pots or baskets) or mobile (distaffs). This was important because it allowed women to spin while at home, but also while they were performing other duties, such as preparing food, caring for children, or herding flocks far from their homes. [1]
 
In the ancient Near East, textiles included not only clothing and linens, but also carpets, sacks, bags, military tents, sails, bandages, etc. Soldiers could not go to war without military attire and tents. Doctors could not heal without bandages. Merchants could not work without sacks, bags, and sails for boats. Moreover, beautiful ancient textiles were among the goods traded by merchants.

Noble and rich women created textiles too. In ancient literature (Homer’s Odyssey), spinning with golden spindles is mentioned. And archaeologists have found some gold and silver spindles in royal tombs in Anatolia dating to the third millennium B.C.E. [2] High-ranking women were spinning and weaving precious thread and textiles. They were in charge, for example, of the garments for the statues of the gods and other textiles for the temples.


What role did women in ancient Anatolia play in textile production?
 
Women of all social levels were involved in the production of textiles, but they were also involved in their trading!

Texts tell us about the trade of textiles between ancient Assyria (modern northern Iraq) and ancient Anatolia (modern Turkey). This trade between Assyria and Anatolia was particularly flourishing in the first centuries of the second millennium B.C.E. In this period, Assyrian merchants traveled to Anatolian cities selling and buying goods before going back home to Assur. Back home, their wives, daughters, and sisters were in charge of the business. They were not producing all the textiles necessary for the trade by themselves, but other women (slaves and paid workforce) were weaving and sewing for them.

These businesswomen wrote letters to their husbands to know what kind of textiles they needed more of, and those men sent back instructions as how to make the textiles according to taste of buyers in Anatolia. [3]
 
Also, wool fibres or spun yarn of wool were less expensive in Anatolia compared to Assyria (sheep were more common) and these Assyrian businesswomen sent requests to their men to buy these materials and send them back home in order to increase their profit.
Spindles were very common objects, and every woman had several of them in the ancient world. Until the industrial era, spinning was a fundamental part of the life and economy of a family.

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[1] Cf. E. Barber, Women’s Work: 29-41.

[2] The subject is intriguing although complicated. For a general reference, see E. Barber, Women’s Work: 207-231. For the important symbolism of spindle (and distaff) in ancient Anatolia, see J. Yakar & A. Taffet, “The Spiritual Connotations of Spindle and Spinning”.

[3] Cf. E. Barber, Women’s Work: 164-184. C. Michel & , K. R. Veenhof, “The Textiles Traded by the Assyrians in Anatolia.”


References
 
Barber, E. J. 1991 The Prehistoric Textiles: The Development of the Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Princeton.

Barber, E. J. 1994 Women’s Work. The First 20,000 Years. Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times. New York – London.

Bier, C. 1995 “Textile Arts in Ancient Western Asia”. In J. Sasson (ed.), Civilizations of the Ancient Near East, New York: 1567-1588.

Michel, C. & Veenhof, K. R. 2010 “The Textiles Traded by the Assyrians in Anatolia (19^th-18^th centuries BC)”. In C. Michel & M.-L. Nosch (eds.), Textile Terminologies in the Ancient Near East and the Mediterranean Area from the 3rd to the 1st millennium BC, Ancient Textiles Series 8, Oxford: 210-271.
 
Sharp Joukowsky, M. 1996 Early Turkey. Anatolian Archaeology from Prehistory through the Lydian Period. Dubuque, Iowa.

Yakar, J. & Taffet, A. 2007 “The Spiritual Connotations of the Spindle and Spinning: Selected Cases from Ancient Anatolia and Neighbouring Lands”. In M. Alparslan, M. Doğan-Alparslan & H. Peker (eds.), Belkıs Dinçol ve Ali Dinçol’a Armağan. VITA. Festschrift in Honor of Belkıs Dinçol and Ali Dinçol, Istanbul: 781-788.


Suggested Guiding Questions and Basic Activities for Students:
 
For Elementary School Level: Connecting fairy tale to the origin of the spindle whorl
Maybe you know about spindles because of their presence in fairy tales, among them the most famous is “The Sleeping Beauty.” Do you remember this part of the story and what the spindle was used for?

Hint: From the Walt Disney's movie "The Sleeping Beauty", 1959:

Illustration by Alexander Zick (1890)

Image from Walt Disney’s “The Sleeping Beauty”, 1959

…The "evil" fairy curses the new-born princess, proclaiming that before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday, she will prick her finger/hand on a spindle or on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die.

Another (or "good") version of the fairy modifies the curse and when the sixteenth-year-old princess touches the spindle, she falls asleep for 100 years (in the fairy-tale) until she is finally awoken by a prince's kiss.

For Middle School Level: Make your own drop-spindle!
Materials Needed:

1. Wood stick for the spindle (for example, a chopstick will do)
   
2. Artificial clay to bake in oven for the spindle whorl (available in art supply stores)
   
3. Oven (household oven also works)
   

Instructions:

• Pinch a small amount of clay and manipulate it for a while to soften it.
  
• Shape your clay into a disk of roughly 3 inches diameter, with 0.5 to 1 inch of thickness in the middle part.
  
• Poke a hole in the center using your chopstick. Push it gently into the clay and then enlarge it (just a little!) by circling the inside of the hole with the chopstick. The disk has to easily slip and accommodate the wider side of the chopstick.
  
• Follow the instructions on the packaging to learn how to bake the clay (usually it must dry for a few hours before being baked).
  
• Bake it with the help of an adult.
  
• A spindle whorl can be decorated in many ways. If you want to try, you can make incisions on its surface (before to bake it!) using a toothpick or other sharp object.
  
• For further decoration, color your spindle. Some require a second baking.
  
• Your spindle whorl is ready! Now put your chopstick in it to have your spindle.
  

Further reference for this project: http://www.spinningdaily.com/Drop-Spindle-Spinning/
 
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About the Speaker/Author:

Benedetta Bellucci, PhD (University of Pavia, Italy), has participated in archaeological excavations and survey projects in Syria, Turkey, Libya, and Qatar. She is an instructor in ancient Near Eastern archaeology and art history at the University of Pavia, and works with museums and institutions in Italy for the promotion of archaeological and historical projects involving young students. Benedetta is currently a resident researcher at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago.