Direct evidence for the weaving techniques used in the ancient Near East is sparse, but by combining many kinds of data a provisional picture can be gained. It is evident not only that different types of looms were used in different areas, but that the distribution of the types varied from period to period. Presumably changes in this craft form a part of the general pattern of cultural dynamics in the Eastern Mediterranean area. In addition, the way in which textile production was integrated in the social and economic structure is also of great importance. We have much pottery and very few textiles from ancient times, but the production of cloth occupied far more of a society's working energy than the production of pottery. Evidence about weaving is of different kinds in different areas. Looms themselves are usually of perishable materials, except for the weights used with the warp-weighted loom. Therefore it is only from the area where the warp-weighted loom was used-the Aegean world, Anatolia, and the Levant -that we have real pieces of looms. Textiles themselves are preserved in unusual conditions in many places, but only Egypt has provided large quantities. Representations of looms are common in Greece and Egypt, and pictures of cloth in many places. Texts give us some information in Greece and Egypt, but far more can be learned from the thousands of Mesopotamian tablets that refer to textiles and their production. As far as we can tell from the various kinds of evidence available, three kinds of loom were in use in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East in ancient times. One was the "ground loom," in which the warp was stretched horizontally between two beams that are pegged to the ground. This loom is still used in the Near East.