Woolly sheep and wool textiles
Oveja lanuda y tejido de lana
- Date
- c. 4000 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- Southern Mesopotamia (Uruk) and western Iran
- Credited to
- Uruk society and Iranian Chalcolithic societies
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Selection of sheep with a continuous fleece instead of hair, and shearing or plucking of the wool for spinning. Wool dyes well, keeps warm, and needs no farmland, unlike flax.
Indirect evidence (cull profiles, spindle whorls, archaic Uruk texts); the oldest preserved wool textile dates from the 3rd millennium.
What it led to
- Huge flocks managed by temples: the Sumerian textile industry and its trade
- Specialised nomadic herding on the steppe
- Dyed clothing and woven cloth as a medium of exchange
Built on
Made possible
Links
Sources✓ verified 2026-09-23
- https://www.topoi.org/project/a-4-4/
- https://www.academia.edu/34448065/Archaeology_of_Wool_in_Early_Mesopotamia_in_C_Breniquet_et_C_Michel_eds_Wool_Economy_in_the_Ancient_Near_East_and_the_Aegean_from_the_beginnings_of_Sheep_Husbandry_to_Institutional_Textile_Industry_colloque_ESF_6_8_nov_2012_Nanterre_Oxbow_Books_Ancient_Textile_Series_17_2014_p_52_78