The experiments, which were carried out on 28/01/2023 and 21/02/2023, deal with the Bronze Age production of threads for textile products. The basis for the experiments is the previous bachelor thesis "Die spinnen, die Nuragher: Die Spinnwirtel und die lokale Textilproduktion des villaggio von Grutti Acqua auf Sardinien, Italien", which was written as part of the DFG project Making Landscapes under the direction of Prof. Dr. Constance von Rüden. In the work, the spindle whorls found during the excavations between 2019 and 2021 were processed.

The material used for spinning should have been heavy due to the weight of the spinning whorls. It could probably have been animal wool, which was only very roughly cleaned beforehand and not thoroughly combed out.

The aim was to produce a low-whorl spindle with the spindle whorl at the bottom of the spindle. An industrial, modern wood carving knife was used to carve the wood. An inexperienced person needed about half an hour with the knife to make a spindle. In the end, two branches about 30 centimeters long were made and named. Spindle A was the carved specimen, which had a diameter of 0.8 centimeters at the top. Spindle B was left natural.

To make the spindle whorls, industrial clay was used with a 20% fireclay coating, a thickness of 0.05 mm and a firing range of 1000-1250°. It reaches its density from 1200°. 12 spindle whorls were formed, which were titled and marked with the Roman numerals I to XII. The spindle whorls I to VI were weighed in a wet state before forming. The spindle whorls VII to XII were formed by feel to find out whether an approximation was possible through practice.

The potter had virtually no previous experience of shaping clay. The clay was quite easy to shape, especially once it had absorbed some of the body heat. As soon as water was added, the consistency became much softer, but was still able to hold its shape. The water created lots of water droplets at the workplace, which were soaked with clay. In general, the work was not particularly clean, even with more effort, which could be due to a lack of expertise. Shaping the clay turned out to be much more difficult than expected. In both groups I-III and IV-VI, the amount of clay in the hand was quite small, so that the slightest pressure exerted with the hands had an immediate effect on the shape.  It was even more difficult to create the spindle channel. The thinnest tip of the spindle was used for this. As the clay slipped out of the hand relatively easily and was easily deformed, it was not very easy to drill the hole. In the end, the potters developed a technique in which the spindle was held with the thighs and the spindle whorl was slowly pressed onto the spindle with the entire palm of the hand. When the spindle whorl was completely pierced, excess clay was removed from the upper part of the spindle so that it would not stick to the whorl, and the spindle whorl was pulled off. The outwardly curved clay was smoothed out on the spindle whorl so that the result really resembled the patterns.

The potter was faced with the challenge of putting the spindle into operation without any previous knowledge. It soon became clear that a notch had to be made in the upper part of the spindle, where the raw wool was attached. In addition, it was wrapped once or twice around the notch, where it could get caught. This only worked with the raw wool. The finely processed filling wool tore immediately at any attempt to attach it either to the spindle or at the latest when trying to let the spindle hang on the wool. Other attempts included unrolling the spindle from the thigh. This caused the spindle to rotate continuously for an average of 3-5 seconds. This method was both the most efficient and the most comfortable, as it could also be carried out in a seated position.