Period: Pre-Roman Iron Age (c. 350 BC)

Project title: Textilteknologiska studier av sländspinning – träsländan från Hjortspring

Researcher: Linda Mårtensson, CTR, University of Copenhagen

Email: lindamartensson(at)spray.se

Year: 2007

Abstract:

Many Iron Age finds have been discovered in Hjortspring Bog on Als. Among these is an interesting little “stick”. The stick is about 32 cm. long and has a thickening at one end. It has been interpreted as a spindle used for spinning thread, but this has never been tested in practice.

In this experiment the stick from Hjortspring Bog was carefully reconstructed. Due to the shape of this possible spindle there is nowhere to affix further weights. As a result the spinning technique must have been different from that when using a spindle with added spindle whorls.

Various techniques were tested, including one employed in present-day Greece where spindles resembling the Iron Age find are still in use. In the Greek technique the spindle is rotated in the hand as opposed to being suspended.

The experiment showed that the simple stick functioned well as a spindle. The Greek spinning technique and a technique where the stick is rotated against the thigh worked the best. Thus a lack of spindle whorls in the archaeological record cannot exclude that spinning occurred.

If only the suspended technique had been used in the current test, the spindle from Hjortspring would have been assessed as unsuitable for spinning since this technique did not work well. Therefore, it was concluded that apart from the choice of fibre and spinning tool, it is important also to regard the spinning technique in use.

Reference number: HAF 05/07