|
P62
belief that the lake-villagers used these implements chiefly for beating
in or closing up the threads of the weft on an upright loom, so as to
ensure a certain evenness and compactness in the cloth, the weft pressing
between the warp threads. The
villagers may of course have used these combs, or some of them, for other
purposes, such as they might be suited for, perhaps for skin-dressing,
for scraping hairs from skins, or for combing the hair of the head.3
Ling Roth contended that in many instances the teeth are not set on a
flat base, but on a rounded piece of antler or bone, concavo-convex in
cross-section. This he asserted, would distort the warp and cause unnecessary
friction, and moreover would 'tie' in the operation of beating in the
weft, and obstruct smooth working.
In the further consideration of the precise purpose of these combs there
can be little doubt that they were used in connection with the weaving
of textiles. In the dwellings producing most combs there was a corresponding
number of other weaving appliances found. For instance, Mound VII (one
of the richest of the Meare dwellings) added no less than twenty-eight
combs to the collections, several of which bore considerable signs of
wear ; it also produced a few baked clay triangular loom-weights4
and several fragments, thirty-four spindle-whorls, about twenty 'bobbins'
(tarsals), and a dozen so-called gouges' (perhaps implements connected
with weaving). Mound XXII, which added seventeen combs to the collections,
revealed two loom-weights and some damaged ones, five 'bobbins', and eleven
spindle-whorls. Seventeen combs were also discovered in Mound XXXIV, and
here were also found two or three loom-weights and fragments, five 'bobbins'
and forty-seven spindle-whorls. Then in Mound IX, from which fifteen combs
were unearthed, a large triangular loom-weight and several fragments were
found, and twenty-five spindle-whorls, four 'gouges' and nine' bobbins'.
Again, Mound XXIV produced seven combs, three' bobbins', and five spindle-whorls.
These dwellings were evidently weaving establishments,
and judging from the remains found, other industries flourished in them,
especially in No.VII.
3 No combs which
could be descnibed as hair-combs were found in either of the lake villages.
4 At Swallowdiffe Down, Dr.
R. C. C. Clay found a weaving-comb in a pit together with loom-weights
and the
charred remains of a loom (Wilts Arch. Mag., xliii, 1925, p.76).
next
CONTENTS
|