The application of use-wear analysis to the study of function of prehistoric Sicilian textile tools

Abstract

Hitherto, the function of ceramic implements used in textile manufacture was defined mainly through the analysis of their functional parameters (weight and thickness) and tested in experimental spinning or weaving. This paper discusses the application of use-wear analysis to the study of function of prehistoric Sicilian textile tools that could not be unambiguously identified as spindle-whorls or loom-weights based only on their morphological features (weights, dimensions, and/or forms). It presents the results of an experimental approach intended to verify whether the types of wear previously distinguished through macroscopic observation of the artifacts’ surfaces are the result of spinning. The comparison of functional wear obtained from experimental spinning with ceramic replicas of the advanced Early and Middle Bronze Age (c. 1700–1250 BC) artifacts unearthed in the Aeolian Archipelago, lower Tyrrhenian region, with traces preserved on archaeological material allowed the proposition of an alternative interpretation of their function. This study provided, through a process of elimination, an indication of which of these tools were more likely used for weaving, instead of spinning.