Researchers find 3,500-year-old loom that reveals textile revolution

UA researchers find 3,500-year-old loom that reveals key aspects of textile revolution in the Bronze Age

The finding, published in an article in the journal Antiquity, preserves most of the weights as well as components made from wood and plant fibres

Researchers from the universities of Granada and València are also part of the team at the Cabezo Redondo settlement in Villena

Approximately 3,500 years ago, in the Bronze Age settlement of Cabezo Redondo in present-day Villena, a fire razed dwellings and workshops to the ground. However, the same fire that destroyed part of the village also helped preserve an object that is incredibly hard to document in archaeology: a loom with a largely wooden structure.

Recently published in the journal Antiquity, this finding by a team of researchers from several Spanish universities is one of only a few known cases in Mediterranean Europe in which both the set of loom weights and components made from wood and plant fibres have been preserved. The article is authored by University of Alicante (UA) researchers Gabriel García Atiénzar, Paula Martín de la Sierra Pareja, Virginia Barciela González and Mauro S. Hernández Pérez, Ricardo Basso Rial (University of Granada) and Yolanda Carrión Marco (Universitat de València).

UA Professor of Prehistory Gabriel García Atiénzar explains that the fire generated a very specific archaeological context where “the collapse of the ceiling was crucial […] resulting in a sealed space in which the area was suddenly destroyed and immediately buried, enabling its preservation”. The loom components – including charred timbers, clay weights and esparto ropes – were trapped beneath the remains of the collapsed ceiling.

The loom appeared during the excavation of a circulation area on the western slope of the settlement, where the researchers found a raised platform with a dense concentration of clay weights. According to University of Granada predoctoral researcher Ricardo Basso Rial, this evidence allowed the team to identify the device with a high degree of certainty, as “although the loom was recovered from a collapsed area and some pieces were missing, the compact set of 44 cylindrical weights with a central perforation, most of them about 200 grams in weight, is characteristic of a vertical warp-weighted loom”.

Several pine timbers in a parallel arrangement were discovered alongside the weights. Some of the thicker timbers, with a rectangular cross-section, are probably the remains of the upright posts of the loom frame; other narrower pieces, with a rounded cross-section, supposedly constitute the horizontal posts.

The researchers also identified plaited esparto fibres associated with the structure, and even remains of small cords in the perforations of some weights, likely used to warp the warp threads to each loom weight. Thanks to this combination of weights, timbers and fibres, the researchers have been able to accurately determine how the loom worked, which is highly unusual in prehistoric contexts.

The archaeobotanist Yolanda Carrión (Universitat de València) analysed the wooden pieces. “The preservation of the organic elements was due to the fire that charred the remains and to the fact that these remains were practically unaltered later. Paradoxically, the fire both destroyed and preserved the site”, she says.

It was concluded from the microscopic study of the wood that the loom was made from Aleppo pine, widely found in the surrounding area. According to Carrión, the observation of the growth rings suggests that the timbers came from long-lived trees that provided large-diameter pieces of wood, which indicates that the material was carefully selected. The researcher adds that “the arrangement of wooden components of various sizes, assembled with each other and resting on a wall, and the presence of the weights allow us to develop a robust hypothesis about the morphology of the loom”.

The loom was part of a wider process known as the “textile revolution” in the European Bronze Age, characterised by technological and economic changes in textile production.

For Ricardo Basso, this process was not driven by a single factor: “the textile revolution was the result of a combination of processes, including the expansion of livestock breeding for wool production, technical innovations in looms and spinning and weaving tools, and social changes that led to more intensive and diversified textile production”.

At Cabezo Redondo, these transformations are inferred from the presence of new forms of lighter spindle whorls and various types of loom weights. Some of them are lightweight enough to allow for the production of finer, more complex fabrics, such as twills. However, the fabrics themselves are rarely preserved in archaeological settings, and therefore many of these deductions are based on the indirect study of tools.

For this reason, the loom recovered from Cabezo Redondo is especially valuable, allowing researchers to “go from interpreting isolated loom weights to documenting a working loom with extreme detail: the wooden structure, the ropes, the weights and the architectural context”, Basso argues.

The context in which the loom appeared also provides information on the social organisation of work. The device was located in an outdoor space shared by several households, which suggests that production was a cooperative effort. “This indicates that different household groups may have collaborated on activities such as spinning, weaving and milling”, as noted by Paula Martín de la Sierra, a predoctoral researcher at the UA Institute for Archaeology and Heritage Research (INAPH) and research team member. “Other artisanal activities in the village, such as metalwork or ivory craftsmanship, seem to have been concentrated in specialised areas”, she adds.

Bioanthropological evidence also points to a central role of women in textile activities. In several graves at the site, teeth recovered from female remains have a degree of wear characteristically associated with spinning and weaving, as these women probably used their incisors to hold fibres in place or cut threads.

Cabezo Redondo settlement

Cabezo Redondo was not an isolated village, but a key regional hub. Its size and continued occupation, as well as the presence of monumental structures, suggest that it had a major political and economic role in the south-eastern area of the Iberian Peninsula during the second millennium BCE.

While there are similarities to the well-known Argaric culture, the researchers think that the settlement dates from a later, “post-Argaric” period. The famous Cabezo Redondo treasure is likely contemporary to the loom.

In the researchers’ view, the finding opens up new lines of research. Future studies may include archaeometric analyses of microscopic fibres or isotopic studies of sheep to determine the origin of the raw materials and the degree of specialisation of textile production.

In the meantime, the Cabezo Redondo loom is already one of the most complete examples of textile technology in the European Bronze Age. As pointed out by Basso, the settlement has become “an exceptional laboratory to study the technical and social evolution of textiles in the second millennium BCE”.

Cabezo Redondo is a major Bronze Age settlement in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula. Systematic excavations started in 1960 under the direction of local researcher José María Soler, who intervened to prevent the destruction of the site by gypsum quarries.