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CHAPTER III
Weaving-Combs
By H. ST. GEORGE GRAY, M.A., F.S.A.
For the sake of comparison this chapter will be based, to a large extent,
on the article on Weaving-combs from the Glastonbury Lake Village published
in Vol. I of the work relating thereto, which is accompanied by three
plates of combs and eight illustrations in the text. Much that has been
written in that chapter need not be repeated here, but it should be read
in conjunction with this chapter on the Meare (western village) combs.
1. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
In Vol. I of The Glastonbury Lake Village the writer devoted pp.266-299
to the subject of Weaving-combs. Following the publication of Vol.11 in
1917, H. Ling Roth published his 'Studies in Primitive Looms' (Part lV,
Conclusion) in the Journal, Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. xlviii,
for 1918, and Section 2 of that paper dealt with the subject of the "Alleged
'Weaving Combs'" (pp. 124-135)1.
Since that time other archaeologists have made allusion to Ling Roth's
opinion, but nothing further has been written, so far as the writer is
aware,2 to shake one's
1 This well illustrated
report on Primitive Looms was reprinted as a handbook to the Bankfield
Museum, Halifax.
2nd ser., no.11, where the pagination in the Journ. Anthrop. Inst. is
rather different, pp.124-135 becoming pp.130-141.
2 See, for instance, the
paper on Hunsbury Hill-fort, Arch. Journ., xciii (1936) 69; also Dr. Grabame
Clark in V. C.H. Cambs.,i, 287. The subject has been briefly discussed
by Mrs. Cunnington in 'All Cannings Cross Farm' (1923), pp.94-95. See
also Stevens, 'Flint Chips' (1870), 64-65. He thought that the combs found
in the Higbfield Pit Dwelling, Salisbury, 'might have been made for skin-dressing
purposes, although he was too cautious to commit himself'. Sir Cyril Fox
in Proc. Preh. Soc. E.A., iv, 214, says 'It may be noted that it is by
no means certain that any members of the group were weavers' combs'...
In turning to the Guide to the Eaiqy Iron Age Antiquities, British Museum
(1925), pp.152-153, caution is expressed in speaking of these objects
as hand-combs, 'perhaps used for beating in the weft on the loom', but
the accompanying illustrations are entitled 'weaving-combs'.
It is noted that Dr. Mortimer wheeler, in the Maiden Castle Report (1943),
pp.297-303, regards these combs as 'weaving-combs', and he adopts the
classification used in Giastonbury Lake Village, and states that, 'In
publishing the Glastonbury combs, Mr. St. George Gray proposed six types,
of which only the first four are revelant in the present context. No evolutionary
or other significance (as Dr. wheeler rightly says) can be claimed for
these types, 'but they are convenient in the absence of any more significant
scheme'.
Attention should also be drawn to a note by Grace M. Crowfoot, entitled
'The Bone "Gouges" of Maiden Castle
and other Sites ', published in Antiquity, xix (no.75), Sept., 1945, pp.
157-8, where reference is made to the purpose of these combs (beaters).
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