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Results for whorl:

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spindle whorl

CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: A circular object with a central perforation intended to act as a fly wheel on a spindle, giving momentum to its rotation -- an artifact providing evidence of the spinning of thread. It would maintain the momentum of the spindle rotated by the spinner while he/she teases more fibers out of a fleece. They may be of stone, bone, or pottery, varying from flat disks to spherical or pyriform, and ranging 2.5-10 cm in diameter.

whorl

CATEGORY: artifact
DEFINITION: Something that whirls, coils, or spirals. It is also the circular object with a central perforation used to weight the end of a spindle and act as a fly wheel, giving momentum to its rotation while spinning thread. This drum-shaped section on the lower part of a spindle in spinning or weaving machinery served as a pulley for the tape drive that rotates the spindle.

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Agrelo culture

CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: The Agrelo culture was centered in northwestern Argentina and dates from AD 1 to 1000. The type site is just south of Mendoza and it features distinctive deep, wide-mouthed pottery with parallel stepped incised lines, punctations, and fingernail impressions, typical of southern Andean tradition. Pottery spindle whorls, crude figurines, labrets, clubheads, triangular projectile points, and beads of stone have been found. Pit inhumations were marked by stone circles. The Agrelo represents the agriculture-pottery threshold in this semi-arid area. Nearby coastal pottery styles (Cienega, El Molle) may be precursors to Agrelo.

Anse au Meadow, L'

CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site on the northern peninsula of Newfoundland that is the only known Viking settlement in the New World. The Norse explorers were the first Europeans to reach what is now Canadian explorers, c 1000 AD, as is recorded in the Icelandic sagas and recently confirmed by the archaeological discovery of the site at L' Anse-aux-Meadows. Excavations revealed traces of turf-walled houses similar to those at Viking sites in Greenland and Iceland. Also found was a spindle whorl, iron nails, and a smithy with pieces of bog-iron and several pounds of slag -- all of Norse origin. Radiocarbon dates range from AD 700-1080 with a concentration around 1000, which is the period when, according to the sagas, Norsemen led by Leif Eriksson sailed west from Greenland and explored the coast of America, which they named Vinland.

Ch'ü-chia-ling culture

CATEGORY: culture
DEFINITION: Neolithic culture of central China in the middle and lower Yangtze River valley in the 4th and 3rd millennia. It followed the Yang-Shao culture and preceded the Lung-Shan culture and shared a significant number of traits with the Ta-hsi culture. There was cultivation of rice, flat polished axes, ring-footed vessels, goblets with sharply angled profiles, ceramic whorls, and black pottery with designs painted in red after firing. Characteristic Ch'ü-chia-ling ceramic objects include eggshell-thin goblets and bowls painted with black or orange designs; double-waisted bowls; tall, ring-footed goblets and serving stands; and many styles of tripods. The whorls suggest a thriving textile industry. The chronological distribution of ceramic features suggests a transmission from Ta-hsi to Ch'ü-chia-ling, but the precise relationship between the two cultures is not known.

cowrie

SYNONYM: cowry
CATEGORY: artifact; fauna
DEFINITION: A variety of spiral shell from marine snails of the genus Cypraea, in which the opening is reduced to a slit running the length of one side. The humped, thick shell is beautifully colored (often speckled) and glossy; the apertural lips, which open into the first whorl in the shell, are rolled inward and may be fine-toothed. Its popularity in antiquity seems to depend on its use as a symbol of the female vulva. It was widely traded, larger species being imported into Europe from as far as the Red Sea. A cowrie-shaped amulet, known from Predynastic Egypt, was called a cowroid.

Itazuke

SYNONYM: Itatsuke
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: An early agricultural village in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, that is the type site for Early Yayoi pottery. The site had extensive paddy field remains. The pottery was associated with wooden hoes and semilunar stone harvesting-knives. There are also Early Yayoi graves and Middle and Late Yayoi occupation levels. Other artifacts recovered from the site include spindle whorls and bronze weapons.

L'Anse aux Meadows

SYNONYM: L'Anse-aux-Meadow
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: A site on Epaves Bay, northern Newfoundland, Canada, with evidence of a Viking settlement founded in the late 10th century AD. There are remains of Scandinavian-style turf-built houses and other artifacts of European origin: iron rivets, slag, a ring-headed bronze pin, and a soapstone spindle whorl. Supporting documents, such as Groen-lendingabok, Erik's Saga, and the map of Sigurthur Stefansson, also indicate that around 1000, Norse sailors journeyed to a land west of Greenland, which they called Vinland. The site has produced a series of radiocarbon dates which cluster around 1000 AD.

Lagozza

SYNONYM: Lagozza di Besnate
CATEGORY: site; culture
DEFINITION: Late Neolithic lake village settlement in Lombardy, Italy, dated to c 3600 BC. Remains of wooden pile dwellings exist in the type site of the Lagozza culture, characterized by finely made black-burnished carinated bowls. Decoration is rare, consisting of radiating lines on the lower walls or scratched cross-hatched triangles. Instead of proper handles, simple and multiple perforated lugs were used, including the flûte de pan. The culture is related to, and possibly derived from, Chassey (France) and Cortaillod (Switzerland). Spindle whorls and loom-weights show textile production. The culture was established in the north and spread slowly down the Adriatic side of Italy to the Marche and Ripoli in the Late Neolithic, and to Ariano by the Copper Age, surviving there to give rise to the Apennine culture of the Bronze Age. Copper axes are among the earliest copper items of northern Italy.

Merimde Beni Salama

SYNONYM: Merinde, Merimda Beni Salama
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Site on the west bank of the Nile Delta, Egypt, representing one of the earliest cultures of Egypt, similar to that of the Fayyum (Faiyum). It yielded a radiocarbon date of 5060 BC and was occupied for about 600 years, probably c 4900-4300 BC, by a population up to 16,000. Three occupation phases showed progressively more substantial shelters, beneath which the dead were buried in a crouched position. Barley and emmer, cattle, sheep, and pigs are attested. Sickle flints and hollow-based arrowheads, pyriform and spherical maceheads, sling stones, fishhooks, spindle whorls, and simple stone axheads have been found. The pottery was poor, plain, straw-tempered and often covered with a slip. It is the earliest evidence for fully sedentary village life in the Nile valley. The Merimda phase of the Lower Egyptian Predynastic Period appears to have been roughly contemporary with the late Badarian and Amratian phases in Upper Egypt.

Qujialing

SYNONYM: [Ch'ü-chia-ling]
CATEGORY: site
DEFINITION: Type site in Jingshan Xian, Hubei province, China, of a rice-growing Neolithic culture of the middle Yangtze region. Radiocarbon dates from various sites range from c 3100-2650 BC. Qujialing's closest affiliations seem to be with the east-coast Neolithic cultures of the lower Ynazi. During the 4th and 3rd millennia BC, the Ta-hsi and Ch'ü-chia-ling cultures shared a significant number of traits, including rice production, ring-footed vessels, goblets with sharply angled profiles, ceramic whorls, and black pottery with designs painted in red after firing. Characteristic Ch'ü-chia-ling ceramic objects not generally found in Ta-hsi sites include eggshell-thin goblets and bowls painted with black or orange designs; double-waisted bowls; tall, ring-footed goblets and serving stands; and many styles of tripods. There are indications of a thriving textile industry. The chronological distribution of ceramic features suggests a transmission from Ta-hsi to Ch'ü-chia-ling, but the precise relationship between the two cultures has been much debated.

spinning

CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: The extrusion of liquid fiber-forming material, followed by hardening to form filaments; a technical process by which fibers are twisted together to make continuous threads. The wool was fixed as a mass on the distaff. A thread was drawn out by one hand and fixed on the spindle. Attached to this last was a stone spindle whorl. As the spindle was spun around the whorl gave momentum on the flywheel principle. The thread from the distaff was twisted and then wound on to the spindle. Rarely are the threads, or cloth woven from them, are found in archaeological contexts, unless preserved by desiccation, waterlogging, or metal corrosion products. Proof of spinning comes more commonly from the discovery of a spindle whorl, loom weight, or comb. Spinning was engaged in during Neolithic times.

terra-cotta

SYNONYM: terra-cotta
CATEGORY: artifact; structure
DEFINITION: Literally 'baked earth' or 'baked clay'; fired clay which is incompletely fired and still porous. It is used to make artifacts such as vessels, figurines, tablets, spindle whorls, loom weights, or net sinkers. It is a material from which much ancient pottery and other fired clay objects were made. It is also found as a structural material in hearths and kilns, where the clay of which they were built has been baked in use. A special variety of terra-cotta called 'daub' was produced only by accidental burning. Today, the term is applied to statuary, building materials, etc. rather than the better fired modern pottery.

textile

CATEGORY: term
DEFINITION: Fabric produced by spinning and weaving fibers, whether of animal or vegetable origin. Fragments may be preserved by waterlogging and tanning, by desiccation, or by corrosion of copper or bronze lying alongside. More commonly, items such as spindle whorls, weaving combs, and loom weights attest their existence.