Teotihuacán Spindle Whorls

These spindle whorls, together with many hundreds more, were collected in the Teotihuacán Valley in Mexico in the early 1900s and date to the period of 200 to 800 a.d.

(click for bigness and beauty)

Some are stone, some are ceramic, and the largest one is about 2 1/2 inches (65 cm mm) in diameter.

 These spindles would have been used as support spindles to spin cotton as shown here.


 

Comments

[Eigon]

65cm?! That's over two feet! (I'm sure you meant 6.5cm really) :)

[Jenny]

hello! re supported spindles: have you done much in the way of spinning on them and how did you like it? I purchased a tahkli (sp?) which I LOVE! except that what I love is twirling it in my hand, but with no fiber attached. I find it a real pain to actually spin with. I just like to twirl it. Is that weird?

[Habetrot]

Excellent question, Luneray. Not ignorant at all.

At that time and place, there were pretty much only two fibers to be spun, cotton and maguey, a type of agave. I took a little artistic liberty and only mentioned cotton, though from the drawing the girl could have been spinning either one.

[luneray]

I don't know much about spinning, so forgive the ignorant question...how do you know those were meant to spin cotton? Is there a special shape to the whorl? Was cotton the only type of textile fiber that was found in the area?

[Kim]

And what exactly is the person on the left doing? Is that a wolf whistle or ....?

[Peggy]

Once again, thank you so much for publishing such a wonderful, informative blog.

[Freyalyn]

Love the speech bubbles!

[Deborah Robson]

So where is the contemporaneous carving from? It looks so much like the imagery of the Codex Mendoza (which is a sixteenth-century manuscript).

[Cassie]

Those spindles are amazing. And fascinating.