What We Are Reading Today: ‘Prehistoric Textiles’ by E.J.W.Barber

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Updated 26 January 2026
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What We Are Reading Today: ‘Prehistoric Textiles’ by E.J.W.Barber

This pioneering work revises our notions of the origins and early development of textiles in Europe and the Near East.

Using innovative linguistic techniques, along with methods from paleobiology and other fields, it shows that spinning and pattern weaving began far earlier than has been supposed.

“Prehistoric Textiles” made an unsurpassed leap in the social and cultural understanding of textiles in humankind’s early history.