Archaeological excavations into prehistory sites tell us many tantalising aspects behind the stories of the people who lived there. Some of the questions we can answer today, were not possible decades ago, as science and archaeology continue to develop processes and more refined ways to examine artefacts.

The components of a wooden loom have been excavated at  the Bronze Age settlement of Cabezo Redondo in present-day Villena. Unique preservation due to the building it was in being burned down, the loom is an example of the textile revolution that was taking place 3,500 years ago.

The archaeobotanist Yolanda Carrión (Universitat de València) analysed the wooden pieces. She explained:

“The preservation of the organic elements was due to the fire that charred the remains and to the fact that these remains were practically unaltered later. Paradoxically, the fire both destroyed and preserved the site.”

From the microscopic study of the wood it was shown that the loom was made from Aleppo pine, widely found in the surrounding area. According to Carrión, the observation of the growth rings suggests that the timbers came from long-lived trees that provided large-diameter pieces of wood, which indicates that the material was carefully selected.

“The arrangement of wooden components of various sizes, assembled with each other and resting on a wall, and the presence of the weights allow us to develop a robust hypothesis about the morphology of the loom.”

The excavation also revealed new forms of lighter spindle whorls and various types of loom weights. Some of them are lightweight enough to allow for the production of finer, more complex fabrics, such as twills. 

The loom was located in an outdoor space shared by several households, which suggests that production was a cooperative effort.

It is believed those who used the loom would be the women of the settlement. In several graves at the site, teeth recovered from female remains have a degree of wear characteristically associated with spinning and weaving, as these women probably used their incisors to hold fibres in place or cut threads.

The Cabezo Redondo loom is already one of the most complete examples of textile technology in the European Bronze Age. Ricardo Basso Rial (University of Granada) said that the settlement has become “an exceptional laboratory to study the technical and social evolution of textiles in the second millennium BCE”.

Cabezo Redondo

Cabezo Redondo is a major Bronze Age settlement in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula. Systematic excavations started in 1960 under the direction of local researcher José María Soler, who intervened to prevent the destruction of the site by gypsum quarries.

From 1987 onwards, excavation campaigns at the site were led by Mauro S. Hernández. A team made up of INAPH researchers Gabriel García Atiénzar, Virginia Barciela González and others was set up afterwards.

Occupied approximately between 2100 and 1250 BCE, the settlement had a size of up to one hectare. The dwellings, built on a series of terraces on the slope of the hill, had workbenches, fireplaces, silos and receptacles for storage. The analysis of plant and animal remains indicates that the economy was based on intensive farming.

Moreover, numerous findings such as gold, silver and ivory ornaments or glass and seashell beads, among others, prove that the settlement was part of large exchange networks that connected it with other areas of the Iberian Peninsula, the Eastern Mediterranean and even Central Europe.

Click on this link to access, Evidence of a warp-weighted loom in the Bronze Age settlement of Cabezo Redondo (south-east Spain), published in Antiquity.