Turkmenistan Spinning
It was a bustling center of sericulture in the 4th through 7th centuries CE.[1]
Silk and cotton threads seem to be spun on a wheel, while woolen threads are spun on a spindles.[2]
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Dating to the Sassanian Empire (224 to 651 CE), the fibers found and produced in Turkmenistan were wool, cotton, and silk.[3] During this time period, cotton was spun on a drop spindle.[3]
Early silk in Turkmenistan was said to be so fine, that it wasn’t spun, it was just a single strand of silkworm thread. While silk reels were used, neither spindles nor wheels were used on silk in Turkmenistan until after the 8th century.[3]
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​Whorls found in a dig at Gurukly Depe in southeastern Turkmenistan[3]
References
[1] “History of Turkmenistan,” Wikipedia, June 15, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Turkmenistan.
[2] “Turkmens,” Wikipedia, June 14, 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkmens.
[3] Dominika Maja Kossowska-Janik, “Cotton and Wool: Textile Economy in the SERAKHS Oasis during the Late Sasanian Period, the Case of Spindle Whorls from Gurukly Depe (Turkmenistan),” Ethnobiology Letters 7, no. 1 (December 31, 2016), https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.7.1.2016.682.