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On early metallurgy and textile-production technologies in the southern Levant: a response to Langgut et al. (2016)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2017

Erez Ben-Yosef ,
Orit Shamir  and
Janet Levy
Erez Ben-Yosef*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures, Tel Aviv University, Gilman Building 225, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
Orit Shamir
Affiliation:
Israel Antiquities Authority, Rockefeller Museum, Sultan Suleiman Street 27, Jerusalem 91004, Israel
Janet Levy
Affiliation:
Department of Bible Archaeology and the Ancient Near East, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, PO Box 1025, Beer-Sheva, Israel
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: ebenyose@post.tau.ac.il)
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Extract

In a recent article published in this journal, Langgut et al. (2016: 973) proposed five Late Chalcolithic (c. 4300–4000 BC) wooden shafts to be “the earliest Near Eastern wooden spinning implements”. Here we discuss these unique finds in light of their cultural and technological contexts, and suggest an alternative interpretation according to which these wooden shafts, one with a lead macehead lodged on its upper end, were components of the cultic practices of the southern Levantine Ghassulian culture.

Type
Debate
Information
Antiquity , Volume 91 , Issue 357 , June 2017 , pp. 765 - 776
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2017 

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