3,400-Year-Old Loom Sheds Light on Bronze Age Textile Production

A team of six researchers led by Ricardo E. Basso Rial and Gabriel García Atiénzar, archaeologists at the University of Grenada and the University of Alicante, respectively, have published new research concerning remnants of a wooden Bronze Age loom discovered in Spain in 2008. The 3,450-year-old loom was inadvertently preserved when a fire decimated the surrounding Iberian village and a roof collapsed on top of it; typically, wooden looms don’t survive, with only the loom weights existing as archaeological artifacts. Loom weights, often made of clay, are used to hold vertical threads taut during the weaving process. Related Articles Researchers Confirm Location of Lost City of Alexandria on the Tigris A Newly Excavated Maya Settlement in Belize Shows Adaptation to Climate Change The ones uncovered at this site, known as Cabezo Redondo, are lighter weight than is typical of these object, indicating that the textiles produced at this village during the time of the fire (ca. 1000 BCE) were made of more delicate materials like wool. In contrast, heavier loom weights would have been required for weaving flax thread textiles. According to the report in Antiquity magazine, over 200 loom weights have been discovered in various houses at the Cabezo Redondo site, indicating “intensive textile production,” especially after 1600 BCE. The warp-weighted loom at the center of this new report was discovered near a cluster of houses on a sloping street that also included a stone bench, ceramic vessels, flint sickle blades, metal tools, and bone artifacts. The discovery of the weights along side the charred loom remnants and fibers allowed the researchers to reconstruct how textile production developed during this time.