Tools & manufacturing · c. 7,000 BCE

Weaving and the loom

Interlaced threads turn fiber into cloth.

Cloth impressions at Jarmo date to about 7000-6500 BCE, and surviving woven textiles at Çatalhöyük to about 6700-6500 BCE. A ground loom is painted on an Egyptian dish from Badari dated to about 3600 BCE. The loom became the most important production machine of the preindustrial world.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia Source

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 2

Agriculture 9500 BCE
Cordage and rope 50k BCE

What it led to 4

Silk 3500 BCE
Spinning wheel 1000
Bouchon's punched paper loom 1725
Flying shuttle 1733

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

World GDP over a million years Latest: 41k billion 1990 international $ (2000) Source: DeLong 1998, Estimating World GDP, One Million B.C. - Present; Wikipedia: Gross world product (DeLong table, cross-check)