Fibre Production and Emerging Textile Technology in the Early Neolithic Settlement of La Draga - Banyoles, north-east Iberia; 5300 to 4900 cal BC

Abstract

This paper focuses on the study of bone tools potentially linked to textile production and, in particular, on the analysis of use-wear developed on awls. The material analysed was recovered in La Draga, a lake-dwelling site attributable to the Early Neolithic period (5300 to 4900 cal BC) located in Banyoles (north-east Iberia, Spain). The results prove the use of these tools for processing and working vegetal fibres. The recovery of goods and artefacts made of these fibres, such as ropes and baskets, also suggests technical knowledge of plant fibre production among the first farming communities which settled in the western Mediterranean.