Avenches – Roman Museum – Permanent Exhibition

Second Floor Textile Production
3. Limestone head of a girl.
4-6. Bone counters.
7-9. Glass counters.
10-12. Counters made from pottery or glass sherds; coin turned into counter.
13-27. Glass, bone and ceramic counters, coin turned into counter (1).
28-30. Bone and bronze dice.
31. Ceramic beaker.
32. Fragment of stone game board used for playing ”Twelve Lines” (p. 49, 1).
33. Five lamb bones for playing knucklebones.
Textile Production (2)
(Display case 5)
In Roman times, textiles were used to make clothes, tents, blankets, cushions, sails
for boats, sacks, etc.
Wool and linen were the most widely used materials. Silk was very costly as it
was imported from the Orient and it did not appear before the end of the Roman
Empire. Hemp was mainly used to make ropes, while cotton from the Orient was a
rare commodity.
First, the raw material was prepared for spinning. The plant fibres were obtained
by soaking, beating and drying processes. Then they were combed like wool; it is
possible that carding combs (no. 37), used to disentangle wool, were also used in
linen production. Once the fibres were organised in strands they were wrapped
around distaffs.
For spinning, the strands placed on the distaff were pulled and twisted in order
to obtain a thread wound around a spindle, which was weighted with a spindle
whorl (nos. 1-9).
Weaving was done on a vertical loom where the warp threads were attached at
the top, and straightened by loom-weights usually made of earthenware (nos. 10-12).
Sometimes, patterns such as squares were woven into the cloth or it was
embroidered or painted.
Various items of clothing were made from the cloth. The clothes were sewn
with iron, bronze or bone needles (nos. 13-36). Thimbles protected the dressmakers’
fingers (no. 38).
1-9. Bone spindles; stone and ceramic spindle whorls, two of which were cut from pottery
sherds.
10-12. Terra cotta loom weights used for tightening the warp threads.
13-36. Iron, bronze and bone needles.
37. Iron carding comb.
38. Bronze thimble (3).
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Second Floor
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