Bronze Age Textiles from the North Caucasus: New Evidence of Fourth Millennium BC Fibres and Fabrics

Abstract

Summary. Textiles from the North Caucasus Majkop culture (3700–3200 cal BC) site of Novosvobodnaya were selected for a programme of examination. Wool, flax and cotton‐like plant‐fibre threads were identified. This is the oldest example of wool so far identified in the archaeological record. Weaving techniques employed in making the textiles included the use of tablets or discs, and a simple frame. In addition, two dyeing techniques using tannin dyes have been determined.

Shepsi, the Oldest Dolmen with Port-Hole Slab in the Western Caucasus

“…Also, the crouched bodies placed into the burial chambers of both the dolmen and the tombs are oriented the same way. Finally, we conclude that the 14 C dates for the burials in the dolmen Shepsi are within the range of a few other established 14 C dates available for burials in Novosvobodnaya-type tombs (see Table 2) (Shishlina et al 2003;Korenevsky and Rezepkin 2008).…”

New Frames of Archaeometrical Description of Spindle Whorls: A Case Study of the Late Eneolithic Spindle Whorls From the 1c Site in Gródek, District of Hrubieszów, Poland

“…There is archaeological evidence indirectly indicating the presence of the robust sheep in the area northward of the Caucasus range at the time (see Tsalkin 1970, 175–6). The fact cannot be ignored that the oldest discoveries of woollen textiles in Europe (half‐woollen, as a matter of fact) also come from excavations of the Maikop Culture burial mounds (Shishlina et al. 2003, 333–4, fig.…”

Animals and inequality in Chalcolithic central Anatolia

“…Although animal fibers, including wool, were likely used on a household scale throughout the Chalcolithic (McCorriston, 1997;Payne, 1988;Shishlina et al, 2003;Sudo, 2010), demographic profiles and biometrics from Çadır indicate strategies consistent with intensive investment in wool production (Arbuckle, 2009). Given the abundance of expensive-to-maintain adult male sheep at LC Çadır compared to earlier Chalcolithic sites in the region, it is clear that this change represents a major reorganization of management strategies emphasizing the production of a commodity, wool, over subsistence-level production.…”