CHAP, viii.] POTTERY. 275 



Spinning and Weaving. 



The arts of spinning and the manufacture of linen 

 were introduced into Europe in the Neolithic age, and 

 they have been preserved with but little variation 

 from that period down to the present day in certain 

 remote parts of Europe, and have only been superseded 

 in modern times by the complicated machines so familiar 

 to us. In the Neolithic household the spindle and the 

 distaff were always to be found, and the circular per- 

 forated spindle-whorls, made sometimes of stone, and at 

 other times of pottery or bone, are very commonly met 

 with in the Neolithic habitations and tombs. The thread 

 is proved by the discoveries in the Swiss lakes to have 

 been composed of flax, and the combs (Fig. 96), which 

 have been used for pushing the threads of the warp on 

 to the weft, show that it was woven into linen on some 

 kind of loom. It is very probable also that the art 

 of making woollen cloth was also known, although from 

 its perishable nature no trace of it has been handed 

 down to us. These operations were probably carried on 

 by the women, as was the universal practice among the 

 classical peoples of the Mediterranean, as well as among 

 the rude tribes of Africa, Asia, and America. 



Pottery. 



The fragments of pottery found in and around the 

 habitations and tombs show that the Neolithic inhabit- 

 ants of Britain and Ireland were acquainted with the 

 potter's art. Their vessels are coarsely made by hand, 

 and very generally composed of clay, in which small 

 pieces of stone, or fragments of shell, have been worked. 



