From flax to wool: spinning at cabezo redondo (villena, alicante) and changes in textile production during the bronze age

This paper analyses the important set of spindle whorls from the Cabezo Redondo settlement, recovered both in the ancient excavations of Jose Maria Soler and in the excavations carried out in recent decades. The large number of tools, all of them corresponding to Late Bronze Age contexts (c. 1600-1250 cal BC), and their characteristics -diversity in materials used, typology and weight- allow us to infer an intense spinning activity distributed throughout the settlement, as well as important transformations in textile production with respect to previous times. The main changes include the continuity of the tradition of spinning bast fibres such as flax and, above all, the consolidation of new spinning techniques and the generalisation of the spinning of animal fibres such as wool. In short, the study of these artefacts, together with the analysis of other indicators, suggests the development of a wide and diverse textile production, in line with what happened in other areas of Europe and the Mediterranean during the second half of the 2nd millennium BC.