Stratigraphy, Radiocarbon and Textile Production: Chronotypologic Seriation of Bronze Age Loom Weights from the South-Eastern Area of the Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

This article aims to demonstrate the importance, as a chronological indicator, of one of the objects of the Bronze Age archaeological record in the south-eastern quadrant of the Iberian Peninsula that has not been considered until now: loom weights. From the analysis of their typological seriation, duly concatenated with the contextual information on their appearance in habitat spaces and with the chronostratigraphic data based on absolute dates associated from Argaric, Valencian Bronze Age and Bronze Age in La Mancha sites –2200-1550 cal bc– and Late Bronze Age sites –1550-1250 cal bc–, we show how, beyond the implications that their morphological changes may have had in the context of technical innovations and the organisation of textile craftsmanship over more than a millennium, they can also be used as a reliable chronological indicator in the temporal ordering.