The archaeological site of Nahal Ein Gev, located in Israel’s Jordan Rift Valley, has long been recognized as an ancient center of technological innovation. Now, researchers have unearthed yet another fascinating technology, dated to about 12,000 years ago.
A team led by Talia Yashuv, an archaeologist from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Computational Archaeology Laboratory, has discovered an assemblage of perforated stones. These are believed to be early spindle whorls — small, weighted discs used to spin fibers into yarn more efficiently. This discovery not only showcases an impressive technological leap but also implies a deep understanding of rotational mechanics, long before the wheel was invented.
Spinning History
The researchers encountered more than 100 perforated pebbles at the site, all varying in shape yet consistently perforated at the center. “When we started, we had no clue,” Yashuv recalled in a talk with ZME Science. “We literally didn’t know what the stones are… These are not beads, as we already have a collection of different beads at the site. We wanted to find out what’s this about.”
Using advanced digital analysis, the team scanned each artifact to develop an algorithm that mapped the 3D structure of each perforation. This meticulous approach revealed that these stones were more than just decorative. Rather than focusing on aesthetics, the ancient craftsmen prioritized functionality. The perforations aligned with the stones’ center of mass, optimizing balance for use on a spindle.
Essentially, the stones were perforated in a way that made them balanced and likely usable on a spindle rather than a string. This level of precision indicates a purpose beyond simple adornment.
“Most of these stones are ugly natural stones, there’s nothing special about them. But we spotted several parameters that were important for the ancient craftsmen. They wanted to collect balanced items, generally round stones, and they perforated the stones at the center of mass, which is the center of the item, and they created the perforation that is itself balanced and constant.”
The researchers looked at whether other interpretations were possible for these objects, but the spindle whorls fit by far the best.
But here’s where it starts to get interesting: these could be the earliest discovered spindle whorls, dating back to approximately 12,000 years and predating similar spindle whorls by thousands of years.
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An ancient hub of innovation
The people of Nahal Ein Gev belonged to the Natufian culture, which thrived in the Levant (present-day Israel, Lebanon, and Syria) between 15,000 and 11,500 years ago. The Natufians were among the first groups transitioning from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to early agriculture, yet this innovation was just one of many.
“They build villages and houses; they bury the dead. Their art is exploding and becomes symbolic, they specialize in practices like bead making or drilling technology,” Yashuv tells ZME Science. The Natufians would start eating small animals, not just large ones. Yet even among this innovative culture, the inhabitants of the Nahal-Ein Gev site were outstanding.
“The Natufians of Nahal Ein Gev are a unique population,” she says. “This was a place that just exploded with innovations.” From bead-making to high-quality lime plaster and specialized flint tools, the technological activities at Nahal Ein Gev were diverse and sophisticated. According to Yashuv, the village was more than a typical Natufian settlement; it was a hub of innovation. They even became specialized in the fishing of a certain fish that they like and this is the only one they caught in the lake.
So, it doesn’t seem as odd that they would also make spindle whorls so much earlier than other cultures. If spinning or spindle whorls existed elsewhere at this time, artisans may have utilized perishable materials. So, archaeologists haven’t found evidence from the same period.
“Archeologically, you don’t see it. It only starts to appear 4,000 years later. The stone artifacts appear again, 4000 years later — and in between, almost nothing.”
The proximity to the lake may have also been important. It provided the villagers with an abundant source of smooth pebbles, which they skillfully drilled, possibly due to their exceptional expertise with flint perforators.
The story doesn’t end with spindle whorls, either — there’s one more spin to it, one that links to one of the most impactful inventions in human history: the wheel.
Reinventing the wheel
The wheel is often heralded as one of humanity’s greatest inventions. But what if there wasn’t one single breakthrough but rather a series of incremental advancements? Spindle whorls hint at a “pre-wheel” stage in the development of rotational technology. These tools function similarly to a wheel and axle, indicating that the principles of rotation were understood long before they were applied to transportation.
The ancient spindle whorls at Nahal Ein Gev stand out because they hint at a “pre-wheel” stage in the evolution of rotational technology. After all, the spindle and whorl are a bit like a wheel and axle. This isn’t a new idea, either.
Gordon Childe, a mid-20th-century archeologist, speculated that rotational mechanics, including the wheel, should be understood as a broad family of related technologies, not just as tools for transportation. This view resonates with Yashuv’s findings, as she sees these spindle whorls as part of a larger lineage of rotational tools that predate the wheel itself.
“What we see at Nahal Ein Gev isn’t just about early spinning,” Yashuv asserts. “It’s about the mechanical principle of rotation becoming common knowledge. The spindle whorls were just one of many innovations from this place. Later, this knowledge would be recombined and used in other ways, eventually leading to something as transformative as the wheel.”
There’s still a bit of interpretation regarding this idea. At the Natufian time, there was nothing like the wheel. They are specializing in fast drilling and fast spinning. But at some point, when rotational technologies became common place, the idea to use wheels for transportation may have also emerged.
A historic mystery
While the spindle whorls at Nahal Ein Gev represent an early mastery of a rotational technology, the story of this innovation is not one of continuous progress. As Talia Yashuv points out, the Natufians were pioneers in rotational mechanics, yet this knowledge seemed to disappear mysteriously when the village was eventually deserted.
“When they deserted the village, I don’t know why they stopped. They were doing other things. They continued to spin fibers, but not in this certain technique. I don’t know why,” Yashuv admits. This discontinuity is a familiar pattern in the history of technology: innovations often appear, disappear, and then reemerge thousands of years later when conditions are right.
The spindle whorls of Nahal Ein Gev highlight a deeper phenomenon in human technological history: how ideas and inventions can be forgotten and later rediscovered. Yashuv likens this process to the modern adoption of technologies like Zoom during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The technology was available for years before, but only when circumstances changed did it become indispensable,” she explains. Similarly, the concept of using centrally perforated stones for spinning fibers may have been sidelined during the Natufian era, only to return thousands of years later with the rise of pottery and more advanced spinning techniques in the Neolithic period.
The disappearance of spindle whorls from the archaeological record for thousands of years suggests that while the Natufians at Nahal Ein Gev laid the groundwork for rotational technology, the knowledge did not immediately propagate.
We don’t know what happened to the people at Nahal Ein Gev, nor why their inventions did not propagate. That is, perhaps, a story for a different time.
The study was published in PLoS: DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0312007