Among the grave goods of the ancient Veneto burials, ceramic spindle whorls, reels and counterweights are quite common: they are related to the female world, of which the textile manufacturing was an important element. Some years ago, in a paper written for the catalougue of the exhibition Le ore e I giorni delle donne, Verucchio 2007, we started an analysis aimed at recognizing the specific indicators of weaving, such as distaffs, spindles, thread spacers, needles, buttons, along with the recently discovered weaving tablets from Este. The goal of that work was to understand the various levels of specialization involved in the different phases of the production process. We discussed some tool associations that could be considered as “toolkits”, along with some clear diachronic changes in these sets.
In this paper we continued this analysis by approaching old and new data from a numerical and ponderal point of view, in order to better understand the specific function of some classes of artifacts, and be able to make hypoteses about the “invisible” tools (wooden spindles, typology and typometry of the looms…). Furthermore, a complete reconstruction of the textiles production process could help us understanding the change (from an individual, domestic activity to a large-scale production) the textile manufacturing underwent during the 1st millennium BC
