Rare Glimpses: Well-Preserved Weaving Tools, Technologies, and Textiles from the North American Southwest

Summary

Perishable materials that provide information about prehistoric weaving traditions rarely survive in archaeological contexts. The arid environment in the U.S. Southwest, however, has allowed many perishable materials to preserve in excellent condition. Numerous objects collected from the U.S. Southwest, and which are spread out in museum collections across the United States, represent a varied range of textiles and also the material correlates of textile production, including wooden spinning and weaving tools, loom parts, and loom anchors, yucca needles, spun yarns, raw fiber, and pigments. This diverse array of weaving accoutrement provides rare evidence of techniques, materials, and style for prehistoric cloth production in North America from raw materials to a finished product. Furthermore, in many cases, the archaeological sites themselves provide insights about the method and process of prehistoric weaving in the U.S. Southwest, and help to place the objects within the environment in which they were created.  

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Precolumbian Textile Tools and Technologies: Case Studies from North America and Mesoamerica

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16490