A perforated stone from the archaeological site of Nahal Ein Gev II, which may be a pale of an ancient shaft
Laurent Davin
A 12,000-year-old cluster of pebbles dug up in northern Israel may be the oldest known hand-turned scrolls; a textile technology that could ultimately help inspire the invention of the wheel.
Acting as a flywheel at the bottom of a shaft, whorls allowed people to efficiently spin natural fibers into yarn and thread to create clothing and other textiles. Newly discovered stone tools represent spindle-based rotary technology thousands of years before the first chariots, he says Talia Yashuv at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
“When you look back to find the first vehicle wheels 6,000 years ago, it’s not like it came out of nowhere,” he says. “It is important to study the evolution of transport and the functional evolution of the wheel.”
Yashuv and his colleague Leone GrossmanAlso at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he studied 113 partially or fully excavated stones at the site of Nahal Ein Gev II, an ancient town east of the Sea of Galilee. Archaeologists have been uncovering these limestone artifacts, likely made from rough pebbles on the nearby shore, since 1972.
The 3D scan revealed that the holes were drilled from the center with a flint hand drill, which, unlike today’s drills, leaves a narrow, twisted cone-like shape, Yashuv says. The holes were 3 to 4 centimeters in diameter, generally through the center of gravity of the pebbles.
Drilling on both sides would help balance the stone for more stable rotation, says Yashuv. Partially drilled stones had holes that were off-center, suggesting that they were flawed and may have been thrown out.
The team suspected that the stones, which weighed an average of 9 grams, were too heavy and “ugly” to be beads and too light and fragile to use as fishing weights, Yashuv says. The size, shape, and balance artifacts around the holes convinced the researchers that they were shafts.
To test their hypothesis, the researchers created replica rounds using nearby pebbles and a flint drill. Then they asked Yonit Crystaltraditional craftsman to try spinning linen with them.
“He was really surprised that they worked because they weren’t completely round,” says Yashuv. “But really the hole has to be located at the center of mass, and then it’s balanced and it works.”
If the stones are indeed spirals, this could be the oldest known spinning wheel, he says. 1991 Research on Bone and Antler Artifacts He found what may be 20,000-year-old scrolls, he added, but researchers who examined them suggested the pieces were likely decorative clothing accents. However, it is possible that people used coils even earlier, using wood or other biological materials that would have decayed by then.
The findings suggest that people were experimenting with spinning technology thousands of years before the pottery wheel was invented. cart wheel About 5,500 years ago, Yashuv says, and scrolls probably helped lead to these inventions.
Carole Cheval At the Côte d’Azur University in Nice, France, he is not so convinced, however. Whorls function as more than just a wheel, he explains.
And while the artifacts may be round, the study lacks microscopic data that would reveal signs of use — threads would have marked the stones over time, Cheval says.
Analysis of the remains was “beyond the scope” of the current investigation, Yashuv says.
Ideally, researchers studying ancient spirals would be skilled at turning themselves, which the study’s authors lacked, Cheval says. “It really changes the way you think about your archaeological finds,” he says.
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