Hacinebi Tepe, a small site along the Euphrates River in southern Turkey, has two major phases of occupation during the Late Chalcolithic period (4th millennium B.C.). The earlier phase is a local Late Chalcolithic occupation, and the second phase shows evidence of contact with Uruk Mesopotamia. The spindle whorls from both phases were analyzed and compared. The results indicate that fine- and medium-weight threads of wool and possibly goat hair were being spun in both phases. A comparison of Hacinebi's spindle whorls with three southern samples suggests that Mesopotamian women, and therefore entire Mesopotamian households, were not present at Hacinebi during the contact phase. The process of spinning is discussed with emphasis on its archaeological implications. Included are a discussion of the critical attributes of spindle whorls (what they can tell us and why), some criteria to distinguish spindle whorls from other pierced objects, and an accurate method (confirmed by experiment) for estimating the complete weights of partial spindle whorls.