Ancient Textile Tools

Without the valuable insight provided by these textile tools, plotting a comprehensive chronology of manufacture would be almost impossible: often the finished product provides little evidence of the method of manufacture. No two social groups have ever produced the same textiles in the same way, and thus our distaffs, loom weights, and other textile tools are near unique items for the collector of antiquities. Furthermore, given the androcentric historical narrative preserved by the literary sources, artefacts from the sphere of textile production give expression to the lived experience of their female (and otherwise largely silenced) artisans.