12,000-year-old spindle whorls and the innovation of wheeled rotational technologies

[celtiberian-II]

‘The wheel and axle’ revolutionized human technological history by transforming linear to rotary motion and causing parts of devices to move. While its ancient origins are commonly associated with the appearance of carts during the Bronze Age, we focus on much earlier wheel-shaped find–an exceptional assemblage of over a hundred perforated pebbles from the 12,000-year-old Natufian village of Nahal Ein-Gev II, Israel. We analyze the assemblage using 3D methodologies, incorporating novel study applications to both the pebbles and their perforations and explore the functional implications. We conclude that these items could have served as spindle whorls to spin fibres. In a cumulative evolutionary trend, they manifest early phases of the development of rotational technologies by laying the mechanical principle of the wheel and axle. All in all, it reflects on the technological innovations that played an important part in the Neolithization processes of the Southern Levant.

• Published: November 13, 2024
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0312007

 

[bicicleur 2]

Flax was already spun and dyed by HG in Georgia before the last ice age.
Rotational technologies existed long before the wheel and axle.
The wheel and axle was not the invention of rotational technologie, it was the invention of the bearings for the axle, which were made in copper or bronze.

 

[Khopesh_Wielder]

Flax was already spun and dyed by HG in Georgia before the last ice age.
Rotational technologies existed long before the wheel and axle.
The wheel and axle was not the invention of rotational technologie, it was the invention of the bearings for the axle, which were made in copper or bronze.

Well where is the proof that they used a spinning instrument? I am pretty sure you can spin flax with just your hands although it may be more labour-intensive.

 

[bicicleur 2]

Well where is the proof that they used a spinning instrument? I am pretty sure you can spin flax with just your hands although it may be more labour-intensive.

No, you're right about that, but there are other proofs of rotational technology, like 35000 year old beads made with a rotating drill.