Machine-made clothing – Europe 1600s-1800s
India cotton (1600s AD) In the early 1600s AD, traders began to bring cotton cloth to Europe on sailing ships from India. People thought this cotton cloth was very convenient - it was pretty, [...]
India cotton (1600s AD) In the early 1600s AD, traders began to bring cotton cloth to Europe on sailing ships from India. People thought this cotton cloth was very convenient - it was pretty, [...]
Modern Buddhist nuns in northern India Women in early Buddhism The earliest Buddhists in India were both men and women, and there were Buddhist nuns as early as Buddhist monks. [...]
Nomos and physis: Laocoon: being strangled by snakes People in ancient Greece often thought of the world as being a fight, or an agon, between the two forces of rationalism [...]
Ancient Egyptian clothing: Rahotep and Nefret Ancient Egyptian tunics Unlike most of the people of the ancient Mediterranean, people in ancient Egypt did not wear just one or two big [...]
When did people start fishing? History of fishing: Stone carving of a fish (San Francisco, ca. 7000 BC) People probably began fishing in Africa, very early on in human history. [...]
Aztec woman spinning with a supported spindle (Codex Mendoza, 1520s AD) If you want to check out spinning for yourself, start by spinning some long grass on your own leg. [...]
A sheep in a pasture The most interesting thing about wool is that sheep didn't always have wool, or not enough to notice. When people first started hunting sheep, they [...]
Spinning wheel in China, Song Dynasty (the date is unknown) Why invent a spinning wheel? For more than three thousand years everybody used a hand spindle to spin wool, cotton, [...]
Spinning fishing nets: a Roman mosaic of a fishing net, Hippo Regius, Algeria (200s AD) Hand spinning All of the cloth used in the ancient world was made with thread [...]
Hand spindles with whorls Spinning has probably been around almost as long as people have. Every group of people known on earth at least knows how to pick some long [...]