Possible 12,000-Year-Old Spindle Whorls Identified in Israel

Archaeology Magazine ^ | November 14, 2024 | editors / unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

More than 100 perforated soft limestone pebbles uncovered at the early village site of Nahal Ein-Gev II, which is located near the Sea of Galilee, may have been used as spindle whorls to produce yarn or cord some 12,000 years ago, according to a Haaretz report. The village was inhabited by the Natufians, who lived in the southern Levant between 15,000 and 11,500 years ago. Talia Yashuv and Leore Grosman of Hebrew University explained that prior to the invention of the spindle whorl, fibers were twisted together manually in a long and laborious process. In contrast, using a spindle whorl to twist fibers together would have made the task faster. All of the drilled pebbles recovered in the village site were "ugly," Yashuv added, explaining that they had not been polished or burnished like a bead, and they varied in size. Analysis of the holes in the pebbles showed that each one had been drilled from two directions, so that two flint drill bits would have met in the middle, creating an hourglass shape within the stones. This shape would have kept the spindle element from whirling off, Yahuv suggested. And, when the hole was off-center in partially worked stones, they were discarded, she noted. Because sheep had not yet been domesticated, the researchers concluded that it was unlikely that the villagers were spinning wool with their innovative "wheel and axle" technology.

[SunkenCiv]

Nahal Ein-Gev II site in northern Israel facing the Sea of Galilee

Naftali Hilger

[SunkenCiv]

I'd managed to lose track of the link to a similar story (or maybe it was this one), and don't remember who sent it, but you have my thanks!

[Angelino97]

The village was inhabited by the Natufians, who lived in the southern Levant between 15,000 and 11,500 years ago.

And yet some who take the Bible literally say the Earth is only about 6,000 years old.

[one guy in new jersey]

“And yet some who take the Bible literally say...”

Yes, some do do that, and do so say.

[carcraft]

Depends on your viewpoint when measuring time.

[unread]

"Depends on your viewpoint when measuring time."

Time belongs to the Great Creator of the universe, God Himself.! He does with time whatever he wishes... I don't think He's ever ask for our advise one way or the other.. :)

And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, What is the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord the third day? Then Isaiah said, This is the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing which He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees or go backward ten degrees? And Hezekiah answered, It is an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees, no but let the shadow go backward ten degrees. So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the Lord, and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz (2 Kings 20:8-11).

And this is the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing which He has spoken: Behold, I will bring the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward. So the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down (Isaiah 38:7,8).

[FreedomNotSafety]

“ I don’t think He’s ever ask for our advise…”

He never will because, if he asked, it is advice he would ask for.

“Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been able to give him advice?”.

[carcraft]

God s not capricious. He set the universe in motion. We consider time as static. Time is also related to speed etc.. A Jewish physicist pointed out that if you hopped a ride on the edge of the Universe at the ignition of the Big Bang from your perspective 6,000 years would pass, from our perspective millions of years wo7ld have passed. I find that interesting. Of course God can do what He wants, but why when God sees it as “ good”?