These tools were used to spin thread from the Iron Age and into the 17 century when the spinning wheel became more common. The whorl from Tønsberg, made from red sandstone, has a flat base and ...

as she sees these spindle whorls as part of a larger lineage of rotational tools that predate the wheel itself. “What we see at Nahal Ein Gev isn’t just about early spinning,” Yashuv asserts.

Spinning methods. (a) Manual thigh-spinning [64]; (b) Spindle-and-whorl “supported spinning” [68]; (c) “drop spinning” [66]; (d) the experimental spindles and ...