[Mamzelle]

Spinning wheels (operated by foot, or by turning a wheel) are very recent developments--roughtly around medieval/Renaissance. Until that time, all thread was spun on a spindle, an item of engineering so simple that you can manage it with a stick stuck into a potato. Even a small item of clothing was very labor-intensive--where we get our term, "heirloom."

(Interested in textiles)

Been reading a little of Basque lately because of the ETA--such a lot of Z's and K's! Has a very Greco affect.

And I'm always interested in Finnish, since that's what Tolkein used as a model for Elvish.

[blam]

"Spinning wheels (operated by foot, or by turning a wheel) are very recent developments--roughtly around medieval/Renaissance."

I think they go back much further than that. Elizabeth Barber (A textile expert), in her book, The Mummies Of Urumchi, discusses the clothing of the mummies found in the Tarim Basin. Some of these Caucasian mummies date to 2,000BC and have clothing that are comparable with the Scottish twills of today.(patterns and weaving techniques)

The materials, styles and Manufacturing techniques are exactly like those of the Celts at Hallstadt, Austria...which is a thousand years apart in time and 4,000 miles in distance. These early people to that region spoke the extinct Indo-European language, Tocharian.

The oldest paper ever found comes from this region and the language written on the paper is Tocharian. For further reading on this subject, go here:

The Curse Of The Red-Headed Mummy