Pre-inventing the wheel: 12,000-year-old pebbles an early sign of spinning technology

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Yashuv, Grosman, 2024, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0
Yashuv, Grosman, 2024, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0

12,000-year-old pebbles from an archaeological site in Israel may be tools that were a precursor to the invention of the wheel, according to international researchers. The team studied a collection of over 100 mostly limestone pebbles, all with a hole in the middle to form a donut shape that date back to the transition into the Neolithic period, long before the Bronze Age where cart wheels became common. The researchers suspect these pebbles were used as spindle whorls for making cloth, and they reinforced this theory by successfully using replicas of the pebbles to spin flax. The researchers say these tools may have paved the way for later rotating technologies such as the potter's wheel and the cart wheel.

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From: PLOS

12,000-year old stones may be very early evidence of wheel-like technology

Stones were likely used by early human cultures as spindle whorls to turn fibers into yarn


A collection of perforated pebbles from an archaeological site in Israel may be spindle whorls, representing a key milestone in the development of rotational tools including wheels, according to a study published November 13, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Talia Yashuv and Leore Grosman from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

Donut-shaped objects connected to a bar, forming a wheel and axle, are a key invention springboarding technological development and are commonly associated with Bronze Age carts. Spindle whorls, round, weighted objects that are attached to a spindle stick, form a similar wheel-and-axle-like device to help the spindle rotate faster and longer, enabling it to efficiently gather up fibers such as wool or flax and spin them into yarn.

The stones studied in the new paper, recovered from the Nahal-Ein Gev II dig site in northern Israel, date back approximately 12,000 years, during the important transition to an agricultural lifestyle and the Neolithic period, long before the cart wheels of the Bronze Age. Introducing an innovative method for studying perforated objects, based on digital 3-D models of the stones and their negative holes, the authors describe more than a hundred of the mostly-limestone pebbles, which feature a circular shape perforated by a central hole. Due to this structure and composition, the authors of the new paper deduce that the stones were likely used as spindle whorls — a hypothesis also supported by successfully spinning flax using replicas of the stones.

This collection of spindle whorls would represent a very early example of humans using rotation with a wheel-shaped tool. They might have paved the way for later rotational technologies, such as the potter’s wheel and the cart wheel, which were vital to the development of early human civilizations.

The authors add: “The most important aspect of the study is how modern technology allows us to delve deep into touching the fingerprints of the prehistoric craftsman, then learn something new about them and their innovativeness, and at the same time, about our modern technology and how we’re linked.”

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Organisation/s: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
Funder: Israel Science Foundation grants #2034/ 19 and #703/23 (LG), the Irene Levy Sala CARE Archaeological Foundation (LG), the Bina and Moshe Stekelis Foundation for prehistoric research in Israel (TY).
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