Two-needle knitting and cross-knit looping: early bronze age pottery imprints from anatolia and the caucasus

Abstract

There is ample evidence for the use of prehistoric loom-woven, tabby fabric (made by plain warp and weft technique) in the construction of pottery. Ancient potters from the steppe regions of central Asia through to Anatolia and in some parts of Europe sometimes built their wares aided by old fragments of cloth and basketry, which left impressions on and in the walls of their vessels. In the highlands of eastern Turkey at the site of Sos Höyük and at Chobareti, in Georgia, the impressions on Early Bronze Age pottery include an array of textiles and, notably, what appears to be the earliest known evidence for two-needle knitting and for the continued use of the single-element, cross-knit looping (also known as Coptic ‘nalbinding’) made using an eyed-needle, a craft which has been found in Pre-Pottery Neolithic contexts of the Levant. Various basketry techniques are also represented.