Fragmenter af et håndværk: Ten- og vævevægte i førromersk og ældre romersk jernalder i Jylland

Spindle whorls and loom weights from the Pre-Roman and Early Roman Iron Age in Denmark have never been systematically studied, resulting in an unexploited potential of insight to the textile craft of the Early Iron Age. This essential part of the material culture in weaving and spinning technologies was documented and investigated during our bachelor project and master’s thesis at the University of Copenhagen in 2015 and 2017. The geographical focus was set on Jutland with its many settlements and burial sites from the periods in question. The main results conclude that the use of the warp-weighted loom is reserved for the few, which the small number of loom-weights testify to. However, they do appear, especially in northern Jutland. This article outlines how to make analytical use of a loom-weight, based on the work of Centre for Textile Research et al.
The primary type of spindle-whorl is disc-shaped and manufactured from re-used potsherds, which have been rounded and pierced from both sides. We have tested these widely debated spindle-whorls in a spinning test, which proved to determine that uneven shards with skew piercings can be used as spindle whorls and do not have a negative effect on the outcome of the thread. The illumination of these humble clay objects has integrated the textile tools in a conceptual framework stretching across manufacture and function, which is widening the understanding of textile craft and processes in the Early Iron Age.