The thinking is that these holey limestone pebbles, which are roughly the size of a quarter and weigh up to an ounce, were spindle whorls used to spin textiles of flax or wool.

They also noted that early fishing weights tended to be larger and made out of heavier material than limestone. To see if the pebbles could have been spindle whorls, the team created precise ...

The hundred or so mostly limestone pebbles were unearthed at the Nahal-Ein Gev II dig site, per the study. They were perforated in the middle, leading scientists to believe that they were spindle ...

Uncovered at the Natufian settlement of Nahal Ein-Gev II (NEG II) in modern-day Israel, the perforated limestone pebbles date back to 12,000 years ago during the Epipaleolithic period, which ...

A remarkable pilot project installed on a 240-m (787-ft) container ship has proven it's possible to capture at least 78% of emissions from the smokestacks of cargo ships and convert the CO2 into ...

A collection of perforated pebbles from an archaeological site in Israel may be spindle whorls, representing a key milestone in the development of rotational tools including wheels, according to a ...

Researchers looked at more than 100 holey limestone pebbles Credit: SWNS. The rolling stones predate the currently known oldest set of wheels by 6,000 years, according to a study published in Plos ...

A collection of perforated pebbles from an archaeological site in Israel may be spindle whorls, representing a key milestone in the development of rotational tools including wheels, according to a ...

When faced with an assortment of 12,000-year-old perforated pebbles from an archaeological site in northern Israel, researchers wondered if the artifacts could be beads, or perhaps fishing weights.

The pebbles were found in previous excavations at a site archaeologists call "Nahal Ein Gev II." It is located in northern Israel, about 1.2 miles (2 kilometers) east of the Sea of Galilee.

Because the artifacts are “simple limestone pebbles that don’t stick out at first glance,” the researchers were surprised to learn how they were likely used, Yashuv tells the Times of Israel ...