Linen and the Dead Sea Scrolls

I discovered this news article about how pieces of ancient linen found with the Dead Sea Scrolls has sparked a renewed debate over the possible authorship of the scrolls:
http://news.yahoo.com/mystery-dead-sea-scroll-authors-possibly-solved-122406229.html

I find this fascinating for several reasons.  One is that I have had the privilege of viewing portions of the actual Scrolls and appreciate their historic significance.  I also find this particularly interesting because the authors, at the end of the article, even go so far as to speculate whether or not there were women living at Qumran based on the lack of spindle whorls and/or loom weights found at the site.  I wanted to stand up and cheer when I read:  

"This is very, very important, because this is connected to gender," Shamir said, "spinning is connected with women."

So very true but so very often missed in archeology, at least in the past.   What first made me aware of that was Elizabeth Wayland Barber's fabulous book, Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years, subtitled:   Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times.  Even though this was published in 1995 the information is still fascinating and relevant to anyone who is interested in textile history.  It's available on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Womens-Work-First-Years-Society/dp/0393313484/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321975122&sr=8-1.  Everyone serious about textile history should have this book on their shelf~ after having read it, of course!  I've posted the link to it on Amazon because all of the reviews, both publisher and reader, are themselves worth reading.

I hope you enjoy the article and also consider reading Dr. Barber's book.  What grabbed me about the Dead Sea Scrolls article was the connection to linen.  I love weaving linen and can't wait to get back to it.  Now, it's looking like it will be at least another couple of months before I will have access to my textile tools and supplies and, let me tell you, I sure miss it!  I immediately made a connection to Dr. Barber's book when I read the line:
"The textiles are of high quality and, based on the archaeological finds at Qumran itself, where there is little evidence of spindle whorls or loom weights, the team thinks it's unlikely they would have been made at the site."
The fact that they were even looking for that, let alone acknowledged it, is a huge step forward in archaeological research.  In fact, in reference to Dr. Barber's book, I found this on the Amazon site:
"it seems clear that until now descriptions of prehistoric and early historic cultures have omitted virtually half the picture".  Good for Orit Shamir, curator of organic materials at the Israel Antiquities Authority, and Naama Sukenik, a graduate student at Bar-Ilan University for publishing research on the missing "half of the picture"!