Stone Age twining unraveled
New finds suggest that people used plant fibers for sewing and other purposes in western Asia by 32,000 years ago
By Bruce Bower
In the Stone Age, advances in fiber technology globalized people not communication. As early as 32,000 years ago, hunter-gatherers figured out how to transform wild flax fibers into cords suitable for sewing clothes, weaving baskets and attaching stone tools to handles, researchers report in the Sept. 11 Science.
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Their excavations at a western Asian cave have yielded the oldest known fragments of twine.
Following the ancient invention of cord-making techniques, human groups were able to create warm, durable clothes and other gear needed for trekking into Siberia and across a now-submerged land bridge to North America, proposes Harvard University archaeologist Ofer Bar-Yosef, a coauthor of the new study.
“The invention of cordage was an extremely important technological event,” Bar-Yosef says.