[Illustration: Fig. 203.--Cloth of the Bronze Age, found in the Lacustrine Settlements of Switzerland.]
Balls of thread and twine have also been found; likewise ends of cord, and ropes made of bark, nets with large and moderately-sized meshes, which we have previously represented, and lastly some fragments of a basket of straw or osier.
Ribs of animals, split through and tapering off at one end, have been considered to be the teeth of the cards or combs which were used for unravelling the flax. The whole comb was formed of several of these bones joined firmly together with a band.
[Illustration: Fig. 204.--The First Weaver.]
There were also found in the Swiss lakes a large number of discs made of baked earth perforated with a hole in their centre, of which we here give a representation (fig. 205), taken from one of the numerous specimens in the Museum of Saint-Germain. These are ordinary spindle-whorls.
[Illustration: Fig. 205.--Spindle-whorls made of baked Clay, found in the Lacustrine Settlements of Switzerland.]
Also, terra cotta weights pierced with a hole through the centre were intended to support the thread of flax in the weaving loom. The thread passed through the hole and was stopped by a knot at its extremity. We think that this interpretation of the use of these objects can hardly be called in question.
We also find in the lacustrine settlements woven fabrics, threads, strings, combs used for carding the flax, and spindle-whorls; the co-existence of all these objects proves that the invention of the art of weaving may be fixed at this date. The loom of the weaver may, therefore, be traced back to the most remote ages.
Acting upon this idea we have given a representation of _weaving in pre-historic times_.
The weaving-loom is so simple a matter that the men of the bronze age were enabled to produce it in nearly the same form as that in which it exists in the present day for the manufacture of plain kinds of cloth in various districts of the world where the art is still in a barbaric condition. The loom being upright, not horizontal as with us, the terra cotta weights just mentioned were used to keep the threads of the warp stretched. This seems to be the only difference. But, as we again repeat, the weaver's loom, on the whole, must have differed but very slightly from that of the present day. Its productions bear testimony to the fact.
