Did basketry begin millions of years ago?

 

Did basket making begin millions of years ago?

Rick Doble is the first to explicitly propose this.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Black-headed_weaver_(Ploceus_cucullatus_bohndorffi)_male_nest_building.jpg

To my readers:
I have relied heavily on Google AI (always referenced with quotation marks) for this article to back up my ideas, but please see my original articles on this blog, DeconstructingTime, listed at the end for much more in-depth and referenced research.

GOOGLE AI
WHO IS THE FIRST PERSON TO SUGGEST THAT BASKET-MAKING IS MILLIONS OF YEARS OLD
"Rick Doble is the writer and researcher who explicitly proposed that rudimentary basket making and woven-fiber technology could be millions of years old (dating back roughly 2 million years to early hominins like Homo habilis)."
I believe I am the first researcher to suggest that the beginnings of complex human-made basketry began as much as 2.5 million years ago. The reason I picked 2.5 millions years is because that is the time period of the fossil evidence at Oldowan Gorge in Africa where weaverbird remains and evidence of homo habilis were found in the same layers.

This has not been considered until now for two reasons:
>>> There was no physical evidence -- since plant material decays  quickly and does not leave a trace
>>> Researchers did not think that basketry was an important skill and craft and therefore did not understand the necessary development of manual dexterity and fine motor skills along with the many cognitive skills of conceiving of a design and then creating it in fiber. So for the last hundred years it has been generally assumed that basketry began about 10,000 years ago in the Neolithic Era.

However, all this changed around 1995. Dr. Olga Soffer and Dr. James Adovasio confirmed evidence, with distinct impressions in clay, that sophisticated weaving and basketry had been accomplished in the Upper Paleolithic about 27,000 years ago and not the Neolithic era. This did more than move the timeline of the development of weaving and basketry; it opened the door to considering a very different timeline, i.e., that basket making might have begun even earlier, a lot earlier.

The nagging problem, of course, the same problem that had dogged theories about basketry all along, was that there was almost no direct or indirect evidence, so there was almost nothing to base a new timeline on. Carl Sagan's phrase "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" means that a lack of proof for something does not automatically mean that the thing does not exist.

However, the clear clay impression evidence that was found pointed to a much earlier development. One set of impressions even suggested the use of a basic loom, which was a major discovery. 

COULD THE CRAFT OF BASKETRY BE MILLIONS OF YEARS OLD?

To find support for my hypothesis that basketry began millions of years ago, I decided that I needed to put together pieces of a puzzle from different disciplines and hopefully create a narrative that made sense.

The intersection of early proto-humans and weaverbirds is one of those remarkable periods in human history. Based on ethnoarchaeology, i.e., contemporary behavior that sheds light on past behavior, the Paleolithic weaverbirds showed proto-humans the versatile technology of basket weaving, and they did it in detail.

WE DO HAVE EVIDENCE IN THE LOWER PALEOLITHIC ERA
Fossil evidence shows that proto-humans lived together in the same time period in the same environment, i.e., baobab trees, and thus were probably well aware of weaverbirds and their nests.

MODERN BEHAVIOR THAT APPEARS TO BE SIMILAR TO PALEOLITHIC BEHAVIOR

THE FOLLOWING IS SPECULATION BASED ON CONTEMPORARY WEAVERBIRD BEHAVIOR; THE FOLLOWING IS CONSISTENT WITH PALEOLITHIC BEHAVIOR AS HYPOTHESIZED 

Just like modern humans today (contemporary hunter-gatherers such as the Hadza), it is assumed that Paleolithic hominins occupied Baobab trees along with weaver birds. So proto-humans would have been familiar with weaverbird nests and how well-made they were. 

Male weaver birds make several nests that a female weaver bird can choose from, so many nests are left over and abandoned. Today modern humans use the many abandoned nests for baskets, so it is likely that proto-humans did also. This suggests that proto-humans could have been well acquainted with their construction, their usefulness, and their durability.

Just like hunter-gatherers today, proto-humans would have been able to observe how nests were made from scratch because the birds often took days to make one. Their slow construction was, in itself, like a tutorial. The nests were built in stages, and each stage provided the basis for the next step. At first, they made a skeleton open structure with just a few hard and stiff spokes; then they wove opposing flexible strands over and under the spokes using carefully selected materials. This slow, methodical construction would have made it possible for early proto-humans to understand how to build their own baskets.

This time period was a time when Homo habilis was starting to walk upright, thus freeing arms to carry stuff and allowing fine manual control, which makes this a key moment in human development. So this is a good moment to highlight for the beginnings of basket weaving.

Also 
GOOGLE AI
"Human Universals, anthropologist Donald Brown lists containers as a fundamental, cross-cultural technological universal found in every known human society."
"Containers are cultural universals because every known human society throughout history has created objects to hold, store, protect, or transport things. While the materials and technologies change across cultures, the fundamental need to contain items remains constant." 
 
This indicates that containers were an essential tool that were used by proto-humans from the earliest times. Woven baskets were, of course, not the only containers, but they were one of the ways that containers were made.

WHAT DOES THIS PROVE?
The above shows that there is substantial circumstantial evidence based on contemporary behavior. Plus fossil remains 2.5 million years ago also showed that early humans were probablyware of weaverbirds because they lived in the same environment at the same time (see link below).. 

None of this proves my hypothesis, but it does make it much more likely. Each behavior, such as close proximity, the ability to use and work with abandoned baskets, and the ability to study the slow process of building a nest, adds weight to my hypothesis.

The circumstantial evidence is so substantial and detailed that I believe this hypothesis deserves to be examined with computer simulations, among other things.

GOOGLE AI
"Yes, a computer model can absolutely be created to measure the survival possibilities of early humans with or without baskets."
 
This could be a perfect graduate student project (or better yet team project) to study the effects of having baskets vs. no baskets for perhaps the initial one million years (from Homo habilis to Homo erectus, for example, i.e., 2.5 million years ago to 1.5 million years ago). This would have to be thoroughly researched and peer-reviewed.


Direct Quotes from Google AI about early basketry
======================================
GOOGLE AI
"Yes, walking upright directly enabled the evolution of the manual dexterity required for complex, versatile tasks like weaving baskets."
"Weaverbirds and humans frequently inhabit and utilize the exact same baobab trees across Africa."
"Studies on African landscapes note that weaverbirds often prefer nesting in trees where human activity is present, leading to a long history of close spatial overlap."
"Early humans could learn the principles of structural weaving, basketry, and architectural design by observing the intricate, interlocking construction of weaverbird nests."
Even today builders, engineers and architects use ideas and designs from weaverbirds.
Today "The process of interlacing long stalks of grass and reeds to achieve structurally sound, water-resistant, and insulated shelters draws directly on the same basic structural principles executed by the weaverbird."
"Modern African Architecture and Biomimicry:
"The link between weaverbirds and human architecture has transitioned seamlessly into contemporary biomimicry across Africa. Modern architects frequently turn to the weaverbird to solve complex thermodynamic and structural challenges:"
==========================

SOME OF MY IN-DEPTH BLOG-ARTICLES ABOUT THIS HYPOTHESIS

Paleolithic Evidence for an Early Weaving Technology
Paleolithic Evidence Shows
That Homo Habilis 
Could Have Learned Weaving
From Weaverbirds (Ploceidae)
https://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2019/10/paleolithic-evidence-for-early-weaving_27.html

Homo Habilis Learned Basket Making from Weaverbirds
Evidence That Paleolithic Hominins
Lived in Close Association
With Weaverbirds
and Their Basket Making Skills
https://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2020/04/oldowan-weaverbirds-homo-habilis-basket-making.html

Rename the Stone Age as the Stone and Basket Age
 Should "The Stone Age" Be Called
"The Stone and Basket Age?"
 A complete theory about the million(s?) year evolution
of basket weaving and woven-fiber technology
that was crucial for the development of civilization.
https://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2023/05/rename-stone-age-as-stone-and-basket-age.html

https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/24/Baya_Weaver_by_Tisha_Mukherjee_26.jpg/960px-Baya_Weaver_by_Tisha_Mukherjee_26.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=index&utm_content=thumbnail

https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/40/Baya_Weaver_in_Bhigwan_August_2025_by_Tisha_Mukherjee_08.jpg/960px-Baya_Weaver_in_Bhigwan_August_2025_by_Tisha_Mukherjee_08.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=index&utm_content=thumbnail

Detail of above.

Example of Weaverbird knots.

"The Weaving of the Red-Billed Weaver Bird in Captivity."

(Friedmann, 363)

Friedmann, Herbert. "The Weaving of the Red-Billed Weaver Bird in Captivity." Zoologica:. Scientific Contribution of the New York Zoological Society, Volume II, Number 16. The Society, The Zoological Park,, New York, 1922.