An Unusual Early Medieval German Plying Tool

Mack in May 2023, Micky Schoeltzke, a French textile dyer and weaver I follow, wrote about a Merovingian gathering she attended in Marle. As usual, there were loots of gorgeous pictures of her work, but one that particularly caught my eye was an odd bowl with multiple spouts. It was made for her by la Poterie des Grands Bois.

Pottery bowl with multiple spouts, surrounded by various textiles and textile tools. Photo used with permission.

Micky included this photo which gave me some clues about where to look for more info, and there is a whole article about it in NESAT VI.

A black and white drawing of a reconstruction of how the pot would have been used, with the information that it came from Grave 74 I. Pfakofen, which is near Regensburg in Germany.

Armed with a grave number and location, I found a colour image that looked very similar, with the information that it was found with a spindle and two whorls, that the grave was from the late 6th C and it is on display at the Historical Museum in Regensburg.

The finds from Pfakofen grave 74 provide an insight into yarn production. The spindle, the two whorls and the spout vessel were probably used to twist particularly fine threads. Spindle, two whorls, spout vessel. Pfakofen, Kr. Regensburg, grave 74. Last third of the 6th century. Bone, clay. Regensburg, Historical Museum. Photo: Condreanu-Windauer, Regensburg.
https://www.hdbg.de/frauen/fbc5-1ce.htm

A close-up of the original pot

My reproduction pot, made by Karina at https://www.horuseyepottery.ca

This week I was able to get a copy of Antja Bartel’s article “Das Tüllengefässvon Pfakpfen, Lkr. Regensburg – ein seltener Fund aus dem frühen Mittlalter, published in NESAT VI. I haven’t had time to read it in my painfully slow German, but I did study the drawings of the grave finds and skim through the rest. My pot may be a little too big, but is still reasonable.

The next thing to do is to make myself a suitable bone spindle and whorl (and get Karina to make me the clay whorl). The spindle is about 8 inches long with a tiny hook at the top. The bone spindle is about 1 inch at its widest, and maybe 3/4 of an inch tall. The clay whorl is one of those cylinders that come to a point at the “equator”, with flat top and bottom. It is about 3/4 of an inch at its biggest dimensions for both height and width. Obviously, I’ll take more careful measurements before starting to work, but I was excited to share this and I look forward to testing the whole assembly soon.

I never did get around to trying this plying method either. And I have been looking at other techniques and tools for making rope; maybe this is the summer I get back to playing with string.

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