Showing posts with label Acheulean. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Acheulean. Show all posts

Thursday, November 2, 2023

Discovery: Prehistoric Baskets By Nomadic Hunter-Gatherers


A MAJOR DISCOVERY OF DIRECT EVIDENCE:
Well-Preserved Baskets Are Found To Be 
2000 Years Older Than Previously Thought
&
The Ideas of Rick Doble who predicted this


New radiocarbon dating has determined that prehistoric artifacts, based on a basket weaving technology, found in the 'Bat Cave' in Spain (Cueva de los Murciélagos, Albuñol, Granada) are 2,000 years older than previously believed. The oldest are about 8,500 BP and related to early nomadic Holocene hunter-gatherers in Europe. 

Baskets/containers made by pre-Neolithic nomadic hunter-gatherers
found in the dry 'Bat Cave' in Spain.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cestillos_de_esparto_(29319999262).jpg

Detail of above.


Detail of above.


SUMMARY OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS DISCOVERY
-- This new dating means that a kind of threshold has been crossed; it means that the oldest artifacts were made by nomadic hunter-gatherers and not Neolithic people as had been previously thought.
-- Until recently it was assumed that basket weaving and woven-fiber technology began in the sedentary Neolithic time period and that this kind of advanced technology would not have been possible for nomadic hunter-gatherers.
-- The sophistication of the oldest baskets also indicates that this technology had been developing in the Paleolithic era for a long time, as it would taken many years for this kind of craftsmanship to develop.
-- It also means that at the beginning of the Neolithic era, the technology was already quite sophisticated. The Neolithic people inherited a woven-fiber technology that had been well developed by nomadic hunter-gatherers and which they could add to or improve upon and which was also crucial for the establishment of the Neolithic way of life.
-- In both cases, it shows considerable skill and good designs.
-- Having direct evidence of complete well-preserved artifacts means that this technology can now be studied in great detail which will also reveal a good deal about the abilities of nomadic hunter-gatherers.
 
“The quality and technological complexity of the basketry makes us question the simplistic assumptions we have about human communities prior to the arrival of agriculture in Southern Europe,” the study's leader, Francisco Martínez Sevilla, said and was quoted in the original SCIENCE ADVANCE article.

A complex and skilled process:
"The ancient humans crushed the grass to make twine to braid baskets, bags and sandals. The grass had to be dried for 20 to 30 days before it was rehydrated for 24 hours to make it pliable — a complex and skilled process."


THE DISCOVERY IN DETAIL

Anthropologists have known about these various woven-fiber items for decades but they were believed to be Neolithic. Now, however, this new dating shows that the oldest items were made by nomadic hunter-gatherers before the Neolithic era and are direct evidence of that fact. These items are well made and show a highly advanced technology.

This is extremely important because it places the time of the production of sophisticated basket weaving and woven-fiber technology long before the Neolithic era. The discovery of an advanced technology means that it usually came from a technology that had been developing for many years prior. This indicates that an earlier version was probably available to nomadic hunter-gatherers and suggests that well-made items could have been designed and created tens of thousands of years earlier than previously thought. 

This discovery changes our understanding of the time period before the Neolithic era, e.g., the Upper Paleolithic and also the Mesolithic period just before the Neolithic. Prior to this, only indirect evidence had been found in the form of basket weaving impressions in small bits of clay which were even much older. This current find provides direct evidence of well-preserved complete intact artifacts which greatly supports the earlier indirect evidence.

This discovery applies to the largest and most comprehensive group of baskets found so far that are intact and from the nomadic hunter-gatherer era. This means that the method of weaving and of processing the fibers, and the sturdiness of the design can all be studied in detail. Most of these baskets used fibers from the esparto plant which was highly valued for its many uses and properties. 

This technology was probably valued by nomadic hunter-gatherers because woven fiber items were light, strong, and durable and could be made in a wide variety of shapes and sizes for a wide variety of purposes including large burden baskets, containers, cooking baskets, bowls, plates, and very large and small water carrying baskets. They could also be designed to store grain for long periods of time. 

In this recent discovery complete well-made woven-fiber containers, baskets, bowls, plates, and shoes are some of the artifacts that were found in this dry cave along with fragments of cloth and mats. Normally fiber-based items decay quickly but in this case, the cave was quite dry and preserved these items. This find is rare and provides major evidence that usually is lost.

Furthermore, the discovery shows that at the very beginning of the Neolithic era this technology was already highly advanced. It is my belief that because it had been so well developed it provided Neolithic cultures with the early necessary tools for their sedentary way of life to take hold. 

While the Neolithic is famous for the invention of pottery and the domestication of animals, these only came during the last third of the Neolithic era. Basket weaving (woven-fiber) technology was needed for thousands of years before pottery was perfected and long before pack animals were domesticated. So woven-fiber technology was a crucial key industry. 

Furthermore, pack animals still required baskets to carry loads and light strong durable baskets were still essential for other work. Woven-fiber technology continued to advance so, for example, when reed fibers were combined with naturally occurring bitumen, small boats, and large sea-faring ships were built in the Persian Gulf area as well as large and smaller 'grass' (reed) buildings. 


SUPPORT FOR DECONSTRUCTINGTIME'S IDEAS

I have written several full-length articles that predicted and supported the idea that nomadic hunter-gatherers had a fully developed highly advanced woven-fiber technology that was both versatile and complex. This idea goes against the previously commonly held belief that hunter-gatherers were not capable of such a technology.

I am especially pleased about this find of direct evidence because it confirms many of my ideas and predictions that I have been suggesting for the last four years in this blog. Furthermore, it fits very nicely into my ideas for a revised much longer timeline of how woven-fiber technology developed. Until recently, researchers believed that basketry had begun in the Neolithic era. Now with this and other evidence, it appears that the development could have happened over tens of thousands of years or more. And this, again, is what I have suggested and predicted. Another recent discovery, that I reported in the last blog-article, confirms that early hominins had sophisticated plant material skills and even engineering skills half a million years ago. 


OTHER ANTHROPOLOGISTS AND ARCHAEOLOGISTS HAVE OFFERED SIMILAR IDEAS BEFORE I DID 

I need to point out that several other anthropologists and archaeologists, years ago,  offered the same idea of basketry being made in the Upper Paleolithic and before the Neolithic  Most of them have many more credentials than I do. 

Nevertheless, I feel that I have added something significant to this discussion. I believe that woven-fiber technology was a key technology beginning perhaps at the same time as Oldowan or Acheulean stone tools. I also believe that baskets and woven-fiber items are tools and need to be thought of as such. My theory about basket weaving technology goes back hundreds of thousands of years so it is important to me to place each step at the right point in time, as much as possible. 

The sophistication of these recently dated nomadic hunter-gatherer artifacts suggests that the technology was very old and that basket technology worked well with nomadic people who needed tools that were strong, light, and portable and that could be made from local plants. Furthermore, I believe that Neolithic societies inherited a fully developed technology from the Paleolithic era and did not invent it as was previously thought. Then the Neolithic cultures passed their even more developed technology down to the great emerging civilizations such as those in Mesopotamia that I believe had a large reed and fiber industry that was critical for the rise of their civilizations.


DOBLE'S ARTICLES ABOUT THIS

September 2019
Evidence for a Basket Weaving
and Woven-Fiber Technology
in the Paleolithic Era

January 2022
The Development Of Advanced
Woven-Fiber Technology
In The Paleolithic Era
Insights from Paleo-Indian artifacts and 
Ethnoarchaeology

AND
While this article is about gender bias, it discusses basket weaving technology by women who were members of nomadic hunter-gatherer tribes.
------------
December 2020
OVERCOMING GENDER BIAS
IN PALEOLITHIC RESEARCH:
Gender Bias May Have Prevented 
Paleolithic Basket-Weaving Technology 
from Being Recognized and Accepted

April 2021
The Crucial Importance 
of Basket Weaving Technology
for the World's First Civilizations


DID THE EMERGING NEOLITHIC WAY OF LIFE DEPEND ON BASKET WEAVING TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPED EARLIER BY HUNTER-GATHERERS?
I BELIEVE IT DID.

The Neolithic way of life may have depended on the sophisticated advanced development of basket weaving technology (what I have renamed woven-fiber technology) because it could create a wide variety of well-made light-weight rugged items that were necessary for the Neolithic lifestyle of planting, harvesting, and storing. I believe all of these essential technologies were initially accomplished with basket weaving skills. 


See my article where I explain the skills of nomadic hunter-gatherers and how these skills were probably passed on to Neolithic cultures.
----
February 2022
Pre-Pottery Neolithic Basket Weaving

I argue that for the first two-thirds of the Neolithic era, basketry was the key technology that allowed the Neolithic system to take hold. It was only in the last third of the Neolithic era (approx.) that domestication of animals and the use of pack animals replaced people carrying harvested crops in large 'burden' baskets on their backs, that pottery was developed, and that fabric for clothing and other uses, such as sacks, was perfected. And while these new technologies gave the Neolithic societies a major boost, they did not replace the use of woven-fiber technology which continued to be widely used for many different purposes such as the manufacture of small and large boats made of reeds and fibers.

Large 'burden baskets' that may have been used
in the Neolithic era to bring in the harvest.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ka%C5%A1perjev_Janez_z_listnim_ko%C5%A1em_%22kranjska_svetloba%22,_Podlani%C5%A1%C4%8De_1954.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:V_ko%C5%A1u_nosi_seno_s_travnika,_Spodnje_Zre%C4%8De_1963_(2).jpg

A domesticated donkey that was used to transport produce
but still required woven-fiber baskets to carry the load.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Donkey_panniers.jpg


THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE ABOUT THIS NEW DISCOVERY
The earliest basketry in southern Europe: Hunter-gatherer and farmer plant-based technology in Cueva de los Murciélagos (Albuñol). Francisco Martínez-Sevilla,  Maria Herrero-Otal, Raquel Piqué Huerta. SCIENCE ADVANCES, 27 Sep 2023, Vol 9, Issue 39. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adi3055

A GOOD EXPLANATION
Earliest Baskets in Europe, From Almost 10,000 Years Ago, Found in Spanish Cave. Ruth Schuster, Sep 27, 2023.


CONCLUSION

While we can be delighted that this recent direct evidence has been found, unfortunately, the central problem still remains, which is that while natural fibers and wood probably were the largest materials used by early humans as all researchers agree, almost all evidence has decayed and thus is very hard to find. But now, at least, we are beginning to know what to look for

_________________________________

AFTERWORD

ESPARTO WOVEN-FIBER ARTIFACTS
From an earlier DeconstructingTime blog-article
before the discovery that these artifacts were 2000 years older.


Just how versatile was this technology? What kind of products could it provide? Woven-fiber technology was dependent on the plants that grew wild locally. So reeds were plentiful and versatile around Mesopotamia, papyrus was widely used in Lower Egypt, and in Spain and in North Africa the esparto plant was valued for its many uses.

Fortunately, in the case of esparto, we have direct evidence since many baskets, shoes, and mats have survived intact. The existence of these items also shows that basketry and weaving technologies were being widely used in the Neolithic and earlier. 

 
The following is quoted from:
Traditional Craft Techniques of Esparto Grass (Stipa tenacissima L.) in Spain
"Numerous archaeological artifacts and remains of esparto basketry have been discovered that date from the Neolithic period in southeast Spain. THESE PIECES DEMONSTRATE HIGH STANDARDS OF QUALITY COMPARED WITH MORE MODERN PIECES. [ED. My emphasis]...  These pieces represented clothes, hats, tunics, sandals, baskets, and ropes—ALL MADE WITH THE FINEST TECHNIQUES. [ED. My emphasis]  In some cases, the artifacts included colored espartos." (Fajardo et al. "Traditional Craft Techniques of Esparto Grass...")
The authors list all the things that can be made with esparto:
Baskets (wide variety), Beehive, Belt for mules and donkeys, Bottle and container covers, Bowls, Canteen, Chair, Cheese mold, Clothing, Covered basket, Donkey pannier, Dough basket, Espadrilles Esparteñas, Fan, Ferret basket, Fishing net, Fish trap, Fodder basket to feed animals, specially mules and horses, Hat Sombrero, Long rug, Net for fishing or to carry straw in the cart, Oil mill basket for pressing olive pulp, Pitcher, Rope, Round rug, Saddle, Saffron basket to collect saffron flowers, Sandals, Shepherd spoon, Provisional spoon to eat curd, Shutters to keep the home fresh, Shepherd’s slings, Snail basket to catch snails, Sowing basket, Stool, Swarm catcher to catch bee swarms, Table mat, Toys and ornaments, Tunics.


Baskets, Shoes, And Mats From The 'Bat Cave' 
Found In Los Murcielagos Cave, Albunol, Province Of Granada, Andalusia, Spain.





LEFT: Mat fragment.  RIGHT: Detail of mat fragment.
<https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fragmento_de_estera._Neol%C3%ADtico._Museo_Arqueol%C3%B3gico_Nacional_de_Espa%C3%B1a.jpg>




LEFT: Recreation of a Neolithic snail basket,
a traditional basket for collecting and gathering snails 
RIGHT: Detail snail basket

There are also many ways of processing the esparto plant and many ways of weaving the plant for various purposes which show the depth of knowledge people had.



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Wednesday, September 30, 2020

The History of a Rejected Idea: Basket-Weaving in the Paleolithic Era

The History and Final Acceptance
 of a Rejected Idea:
Basket-Weaving in the Paleolithic Era

ABSTRACT: 
More than 100 years ago Gustave Chauvet wrote that he believed basketry and simple weaving were present in the Upper Paleolithic sites he had studied. Yet it took almost that long to convince experts that this was the case. The discovery of irrefutable evidence in the form of impressions of weaving in clay provided the proof. Now it is clear that basket-weaving and textile-weaving were not incompatible with the hunter-gatherer Paleolithic lifestyle and did not require the sedentary settled Neolithic way of life as had been assumed. This opens up the idea that basket-weaving or woven-fiber technology as I have called it, could have begun even in the Lower Paleolithic, millions of years ago. What follows in the rest of this article is a summary of my seven articles over the past year in which I outline how basketry could have begun perhaps two million years ago and then how it could have developed until the rise of the great civilizations of Sumer and Egypt which depended on this technology. I conclude with ideas about how to find indirect evidence of basket-weaving in the Paleolithic era. 

See a listing of 14 blogs about basket weaving technology from its earliest stages in the Paleolithic era to its implementation in the world's first civilizations.

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A PDF of this blog-article at: 
https://unc.academia.edu/RickDoble/DRAFTS#drafts

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 The Illustrated Theory 
 of Paleo Basket-Weaving Technology 
 by Rick Doble 
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"Many...creation myths place basketry
among the first of the arts given to humans."
Basketry. Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica. (https://www.britannica.com/art/basketry)

INTRODUCTION

After reading an almost forgotten book by noted French archeologist Gustave Chauvet, Dr. Paul Bahn wrote in 2001 that, “It is a long overdue development that, 90 years after Chauvet’s publication, prehistory seems ready to at last accept the probably HUGE IMPORTANCE OF BASKETRY [ED: my emphasis] and simple weaving in the Upper Palaeolithic.” [1]

54: Bone Needle  55: Bone Awl  57: Rod of Reindeer Antler
A Paleolithic basket-weaving toolkit?

This picture, from a book by William Boyd Dawkins in 1880, shows bone tools found in the Church Hole cave in Britain.[2] These were dated to the Magdalenian era, i.e., to the end of the Upper Paleolithic about "12,500 and 12,200 years ago" according to the Durham University Website.[3] These implements were found 30 years before Chauvet suggested that baskets might have been made during this time period.

These Magdalenian, Upper Paleolithic tools shown above, are entirely consistent with tools used to make baskets. (A stone cutting tool needed for basketry was also found in the cave but not pictured here.) As the California Parks website stated when writing about American Indian Basketry and the Indian way of life -- which is considered to be very similar to European Upper Paleolithic,[4] -- "Whether coiled, twined, or plaited, baskets were woven...with little more than an awl and knife."[5] The book Basket Making of 1901 added that a single large knitting needle was also useful.[6]

The tools pictured here are similar to what Chauvet found and were from the same period, the Magdalenian, that he had studied in the Grotte du Placard in France and on which he based his ideas of the existence of basketry in the Upper Paleolithic.[7] But his ideas were ignored for 90 years until there was irrefutable proof.

This photo shows an almost complete contemporary basket-weaving toolkit.
The tools are a knife, awl, curved awl, and rapping iron.
It is from the basket making website of Willow Basketmaker (https://www.willowbasketmaker.com) reprinted by permission.
A small number of tools are all that is required to make baskets and woven objects. All of these tools or similar tools could have been made by Paleolithic people, as their basic design is not difficult. So it is possible that many of the unidentified tools that have been found in Paleolithic caves could have been basket-making tools. 


A NEW STORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN TECHNOLOGY

The acceptance of evidence about basket-weaving in the Paleolithic era rewrites a considerable amount of history and changes basic assumptions that have been around for at least 150 years. Furthermore, it could alter the story of human evolution, human cognition, and the development of culture along with our understanding of who we are, what we believe, and how we got where we are today.

Recent discoveries have more than confirmed Chauvet's intuition. He was talking about weaving in the Magdalenian era which is 17,000 - 12,000 BP, the period just before the Neolithic farming era. But today recent discoveries have confirmed that weaving and basket making existed about 27,000 BP, a time period firmly in the Paleolithic era when humans were hunter-gatherers and long before they began the sedentary lifestyle of farming.[8] Moreover, the sophistication of the discovered weaving indicated that it had begun many thousands of years earlier.[9]

And this is one of the key points. Until this idea was accepted, the general assumption was that basket-weaving and textile weaving were too labor-intensive to be compatible with the mobile nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle. 

"The conventional wisdom has been that a time-consuming task like weaving would only be practiced by sedentary, agrarian cultures. [ED: i.e., Neolithic societies]" said Dr. Adovasio in an interview with Discovery Magazine.[10] However, this was only an assumption which evidence did not justify. And later it was discovered in a study of contemporary Philippine groups that hunter-gatherers actually had a lot more leisure time than farmers.[11]

So for almost 100 years, it was assumed that basket-weaving and such could only have begun when people settled down to farming in the Neolithic era. And while clear evidence of basketry and weaving was found in the Neolithic time period, nothing obvious was found in the Paleolithic era -- so this confirmed everyone's assumptions. 

The odd thing is that virtually everyone agreed that there had to be other technologies in the Paleolithic era that were based on wood and plants, but they were reluctant to venture a guess or to find ways to look for them.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Carl Sagan
"In whichever way archaeological remains are interpreted, one must always be aware that the vast majority of the materials with which prehistoric people were surrounded and with which they worked is lost to us today. ...organic materials start to decay as soon as they are deposited in the ground." [12]
"This lack of archaeological visibility contrasts with the importance attributed to these perishable materials and techniques in some ethnoarchaeological studies, which highlight the extremely high proportion of objects made with them and the techniques compared to those made from stone and bone."[13]
Pre-conceptions and presumptions are sometimes more of a barrier to scientific inquiry than a lack of evidence. In a famous historical example, Darwin realized that his theory could only work if evolution occurred over millions of years and not the six thousand years that most experts assumed was the age of the Earth, which had hampered geological science for centuries.

The absence of evidence does not indicate evidence of absence as Carl Sagan used to say. While looking for evidence of plant material that has completely decayed is virtually impossible, there are other indirect ways that can give clear indications. In the case of Drs. Soffer and Adovasio, who proved that weaving occurred in the Paleolithic era, they found clay fragments that held distinct impressions of weaving.[14] In another case, wear patterns on bone tools pointed to the use of fiber ropes.[15]

So today researchers are open to the possibility that basket-weaving and textile technologies began many more years ago in the Upper Paleolithic or as long ago as 40 kya although evidence gets harder to find the further a researcher goes back into the past. 

But this discovery by Drs. Soffer and Adovasio has even greater implications. Accepting the fact that hunter-gatherers utilized basket-weaving and simple textile weaving opens the door to a much greater time span for the development of these technologies. Before the acceptance of this idea, the assumption was, as I said,  that a sedentary Neolithic lifestyle was required, but now that this barrier has been overcome, I believe the entire Paleolithic period of the hominid hunter-gatherer existence should be examined -- meaning Upper, Middle, and even Lower Paleolithic.

This is important because finding evidence in the distant past could change our view of human development. For example, if basket-weaving began one million years ago with Homo erectus, it might lead to major changes in our understanding of human cognition, evolution, and culture.

NEW QUESTIONS

SO NOW THERE ARE A NUMBER OF NEW QUESTIONS:
#1. When did basket-weaving, or weaving or textile weaving start and how long did each stage take to develop? 
#2. How did it begin and how did it develop?
#3. Where did it start and where did it spread to?

Over the last year, I have written seven articles about the possible early beginnings of basket-weaving and its importance to the human narrative. While I am certainly not the first person to suggest that basket-weaving began much earlier than previously thought and that it was perhaps a key technology that affected human development, I may be the first to attempt a general outline of how basket-weaving could have begun a million or so years ago, much earlier than previously thought. And then I outlined how the technology could have developed at different points on the timeline and in successive societies. Because it is one thing to show that this technology existed around 27,000 years ago but another thing to describe a possible scenario of its earliest beginnings and development.

THE ORIGINS OF BASKET-WEAVING
Please Note: The following footnotes 16-19, 21, 23 link to and refer to my detailed articles about different aspects of prehistoric basket-weaving.
In the scenario, I have proposed basket-weaving was the mother art form. All other fiber arts including textiles and cordage came from basket-weaving.

Basic basket-weaving could have begun in any of the Paleolithic periods, but the following scenario takes the technology back to the earliest days of humankind. 

I believe that basketry could have begun almost 2 million years ago using a basket model derived from the complicated woven nests of weaverbirds. I have been able to prove that Homo habilis (or Oldowan toolmakers) lived in Olduvai Gorge on the savanna in Africa at the same time as weaverbirds according to the fossil record.[16] And I have also shown that early hominids lived in close proximity to weaverbirds since they both congregated around baobab trees.[17] 

I believe that hominids with an upright stance and two free hands would have seen the advantage of carrying baskets and been inspired by the weaverbirds. The construction of the first baskets would have been based on a 'random weave'.[18] Such baskets could be quite strong and light. These baskets would have given early hominids a survival advantage since it meant that they could gather abundant food and different food far from their camp, for example, which would not have been worthwhile without these baskets. Without baskets, they would have spent more energy getting to the food than they got eating the food.

LEFT: A weaverbird nest.
RIGHT: A random weave basket made by a human being. It is both strong and light and capable of carrying up to four kilograms (about 9 pounds). Photo and basket by Nan Bowles.

As many anthropologists have suggested, a technological advantage such as this would have helped in the evolution of hominids leading to a bigger brain and a smaller gut size. In addition, the cognitive skills basketry required would also have had a significant impact on evolution and culture as well.[19]
As Kathy Schick and Nicholas Toth pointed out, "It is likely that this phenomenon of accelerated brain expansion in the human lineage was due to the ability of hominins to access higher quality food resources through the use of technology, which allowed for a decreased gut size and increased brain size."[20]
Then over perhaps the next million years, the powerful right-angle design of baskets (the spoke strands and the weaver strands at right angles to each other)[21] would have developed which then allowed an almost limitless number of items to be made in various sizes and configurations. Once mastered a wide variety of items could have been made from mats to sandals and hats to houses and boats. These products were both highly functional and durable.

The right-angle design of baskets. An instruction page for school children
showing the right angle construction of basket-weaving.[22]

Cordage probably began about the same time as the first baskets, but textiles probably did not develop until basketry was quite advanced although it appears (according to the clay impressions found) it had begun by the Upper Paleolithic era.

Textiles seem to have developed rapidly in the Neolithic era along with a full range of related basket-weaving techniques designed for farming, food processing, thatching roofs, building houses, walls and fences, and for numerous other necessities.[23]

This is a model of the Tigris, a large reed boat. Built by Thor Heyerdahl of Kon-Tiki fame, the Tigris was 18 meters (about 60 feet) with a crew of eleven. It was a recreation of a 5000-year-old design used by Sumerian sailors and traders in the earliest days of civilization. Constructed with weaving technology, it was capable of carrying 50 tons of cargo according to Heyerdahl. It sailed from southern Mesopotamia to Pakistan and after six months was still in excellent condition.[24]

Basket-weaving and related skills then became fully developed with the rise of the great civilizations of Sumer and Egypt. These civilizations could not have functioned without basket technology as they were used throughout agriculture, fishing, and also in the storage of grain. 

Egyptian agriculture used woven-fiber sacks and baskets for planting, harvesting, transporting, storing, and processing. Without woven-fiber technology, Egyptian civilization could not have functioned.
(Left) Ancient Egyptian model of a granary with scribes. This model was found in a tomb and shows men delivering grain in woven sacks, which is being recorded by scribes.
(Right) Ancient Egyptian painting of men carrying and delivering sacks, from the Tomb of Oumsou.

I realize that I am suggesting a scenario that goes way beyond what most researchers have considered. Yet it is a start -- which I am sure will need to be modified or discarded.

I invite others to come up with alternate scenarios that describe the earliest beginnings of what I have called woven-fiber technology and its development and then describe how the other related technologies developed later.

FINDING EVIDENCE

Having said all of this, I realize that a major problem, the problem that has always dogged this subject, still remains. And that problem is how do you find clear evidence of basket-weaving or woven-fiber technology? Weaving impressions in clay -- since clay and baskets were often used in combination [25] -- and wear patterns on tools seem to be the most promising indicators.[26] 

Impressions of weaving in clay.
From Prehistoric Textile Fabrics Of The United States, Derived From Impressions On Pottery 
by William Henry Holmes, published in 1884.[27]

Writing about the very early Oldowan tools of a million or so years ago and their use on the African savanna, Dr. Toth of the Stoneage Institute said, "As plant processing in Oldowan times is a nearly invisible activity due to the general lack of preservation of macroscopic plant remains, this microwear evidence provides an invaluable window into this aspect of early hominin adaptation. The plant-cutting knives show classic ‘sickle gloss,’ indicating the gathering or processing of soft plants, whether for food, bedding, or other purposes." And African savanna grasses were also ideal for basket-weaving. [26]

Experimental Archaeology

In addition techniques from experimental archaeology might yield some insights. A contemporary basket maker could try to make random or regular baskets with stone and bone tools copied from Lower, Middle, and Upper Paleolithic tools. They could construct the basket with plant materials that were available during these periods. And trying to recreate possible Paleolithic baskets might spark some new ideas about finding evidence. 

This Acheulean handaxe is about 15 cm long (about 6 inches)
and 6 cm (about 2.5 inches) wide at the top.
"Acheulean handaxes were multi-purpose tools used in a variety of tasks. Studies of surface-wear patterns reveal the uses of the handaxe included the butchering and skinning of game, digging in soil, and cutting wood or other plant materials."[28][29] 

For example, I would like to see what a modern-day basket maker could do with an Acheulean handaxe made by Homo erectus (or another hominid) about 300 kya, such as the one pictured above. Handaxes with a characteristic teardrop shape might have functioned as basket making tools.  The teardrop shape is similar to that of an awl which is one of the few essential tools needed for making baskets. But in addition, the handaxe could have been used to cut plants and also to process the plant material for basket making.

Ethnoarchaeology

Since virtually all societies make baskets, contemporary members of various societies from hunter-gatherers to traditional farming cultures should be consulted. Traditional basket-weavers might be able to identify which Paleolithic tools were probably used to weave baskets along with an understanding of how they were used.

Computer Simulations

Another approach could be computer simulations and "what if?" scenarios. For example, what if Homo habilis made random weave baskets that could carry up to 4 kilos. How would that affect their survival and evolution?
This is similar to other such ideas that have been developed recently. [30]

This is not going to be easy. But perhaps paleoanthropologists have taken the first step. And that step is to acknowledge that such evidence might exist. I believe you cannot find something if you aren't aware that it could be possible. 

Now people are aware. And that is half of the battle, so to speak.


MORE INFORMATION/BACKGROUND ABOUT 
POSSIBLE BASKET-WEAVING TOOLS IN THE PALEOLITHIC ERA

Please Note: Due to copyright restrictions I am limited to the pages I have posted in this article. However, thousands of bone, stone, and other tools have been documented but are under copyright.

Both of these Venus figures are from the Upper Paleolithic and are at least 25 kya. 
LEFT: The Venus of Brassempouy, discovered in 1892, is carved in ivory. 
RIGHT: The Venus of Dolní Vestonice is a ceramic figurine discovered in 1925. 

The sophistication of both of these female figures indicates that by 25 kya (or at least 8,000 years older than the Magdalenian culture that Gustave Chauvet was writing about) Upper Paleolithic peoples were capable of complex, sophisticated, detailed, precise objects. Therefore it stands to reason that they would have been able to make baskets and other related woven-fiber objects.

The following page shows tools and instruments that were discovered in the Raymonden cave in France. The cave was found by Michel Hardy in 1876 and these pictures are from his book about the cave. The finds in the cave have been dated to the Magdalenian, the same time period that was studied by Gustave Chauvet who believed that people of this era were capable of basket-weaving.



These implements pictured above are entirely consistent with the types of tools needed to make baskets. While this does not prove that they were, in fact, used this way, it does suggest that researchers need to study these tools carefully to see if there are any indications about how they might have been used to make baskets and/or weave other objects.[31]

From the 1903 book by M. l'abbe A. Parat, entitled Les Grottes de la Cure (cote d'Arcy).[32]

Many awls from different periods are often found in Upper Paleolithic caves. This page of awls (above) is from the Trilobite Cave in the Arcy-sur-Cure cave site in France. Two of the awls in this picture (#1 and #5) are from the very old Aurignacian period (43,000 to 26,000 years ago) and the others from the Magdalenian and other Upper Paleolithic strata in the cave, This page illustrates how common the awl was to Upper Paleolithic peoples. And, as I have pointed out, the awl is one of the few essential tools needed for basket-weaving. 


The above photo could be of a multi-purpose tool for making baskets. It is made out of mammoth bone and is dated to about 25,000 BP.[33]  It is from the Kostenki (or Kostjonki) Upper Paleolithic culture in Russia. This is the same culture that made a newly discovered huge building out of mammoth bones as early as 25 kya. If they could make such an elaborate and sophisticated building, isn't it possible they could make baskets as well? Anthropologists can only guess how the roof was put together over the building's framework of mammoth bones. “I cannot possibly imagine how they would have roofed over this structure,” said  Alexander Pryor, the lead author of a study of this new discovery.[34] I would suggest that the roof could have been a thatched kind of roof, utilizing woven-fiber technology.

While it is good that basketry technology in the Paleolithic era is now accepted, I have to wonder why it took so long, about 100 years. I believe it is clear from the facts presented in this article that:
#1. Paleolithic people were skilled and intelligent.
#2. They had the tools that were needed for basket-weaving and other woven objects and these tools were found by anthropologists.
#3. They had the plant materials -- as all locations in the world have plants that can be used for woven objects.
#4. They had the need -- to gather more food or to carry tools.
#5. Anthropologists agreed that Paleolithic peoples must have utilized plant materials for tools -- although evidence had disappeared due to decay
#6. It was generally known among experts that virtually all 'primitive' cultures had a basket-weaving technology. For example, baskets, wickerwork, and the like were mentioned more than 75 times in Sir James George Frazer's monumental work about 'primitive societies', The Golden Bough, which was first published in 1890. [35]
#7. It was clear that direct evidence of basketry was going to be almost impossible to find due to the decay of plant materials.
#8. It was/is well established that from the time of early hominids there were sophisticated stone-tool technologies such as the Oldowan and Acheulean. It stands to reason that if there was a technology that we do know about, there could also have been other technologies we do not have clear evidence of.
#9. Other sciences have ways of dealing with unknown factors in their concepts. For example, in astronomy, dark matter and dark energy are largely unknown but considered essential for an understanding of the structure and dynamics of the universe.

Therefore, logically, basket-weaving as a technology should have been on the list of likely technologies that Paleolithic peoples employed. So instead of denying that such a possibility could have existed, I believe that basket-weaving should have been accepted as one possible theory -- subject to change. Accepting it as a possibility meant that archeologists might have been more aware and more tuned-in to indirect evidence, such as wear patterns on tools. Now, as a result, we are, perhaps, 100 years behind in our understanding of the development of early hominid technology.
Speaking about the lack of archaeological interest in basketry, mats and textiles, Grace M. Crowfoot wrote the following in A History of Technology, Volume 1. "In considering gaps in the knowledge of textiles, it must be remembered that there are vast areas where little archaeological study has been undertaken...Surviving pieces of rag were often rejected as without interest...Determination of the exact botanical origin of the fibres used in basketry and weaving has only quite recently been recognized as of archaeological importance."[36]

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AFTERWORD

COGNITIVE, SOCIAL, CULTURAL, AND RELIGIOUS IMPLICATIONS

If basket-weaving began a long time ago, this has huge implications for cognitive, social, cultural, and religious development.

It is important to understand that in the past basket-weaving was a general term that was applied to woven-fiber items, not just baskets as we think of them today. It is also important to note that basket-weaving was not just a convenience, it was crucial. As you will read next, baskets were used to gather food, process food, and to cook food (Native Americans cooked with baskets, e.g.). They were also used to store food plus special baskets and woven nets were used to trap small game and catch fish.
NOTE: 
I use Native American culture and basketry as an example because many tribes were particularly skilled in basket making and many anthropologists believe that their hunter-gatherer lifestyle was similar to that of the Upper Paleolithic in Europe.[37]
Basket-weaving skills were central to many if not most Native American cultures. "Tribal women provided almost all household tools and utensils, storage containers, cups, and cradles by using one art: basket weaving."[38]

Morse, T. Vernette, Mrs., Basket Making (How To Do It Series).
Art Craft Institute, Chicago, 1902, p.6.

As can be seen above in this image of Native American baskets, quite a few configurations were possible. This has cognitive implications because a basket-weaver would need to have a clear idea of the final product before gathering the materials and starting on the construction.

While stone tool making might have been confined to hunters, basketry could have been tribal wide, and also children may have been instructed in basketry from an early age such as finding plants, preparing plants, and making simple baskets. Basket-making in the past has not been confined to one gender, so it is likely that both males and females and girls and boys made baskets.

To this day both males and females, young and old make baskets. There does not seem to be a gender distinction. However, textiles in ancient times and the goddesses of textiles were almost entirely women.

The fact that basket-weaving was probably tribal-wide meant that it was a common experience that all could relate to. So there could have been metaphors about baskets which became part of the language.

We also know that in many early cultures, baskets had a ritual and religious quality, so it may have been part of their belief system.

LEFT: A Mesopotamian king depicted with a basket on his head performing the basket-bearer ritual which was always enacted before the building of a temple, a ziggurat.[39] 
RIGHT: A computer reconstruction of the Ziggurat of Ur. A ziggurat was a Mesopotamian temple that was at the center of each city.

And -- since this is a blog about the human experience of time -- baskets and the process of making baskets might have been models for time itself. The process of making a basket involved a conception of time and an understanding of the step-by-step procedures. Baskets were divided into grids, each of which took a certain amount of time to make. The steps in making a basket could have eventually become time metaphors, for example.

American Indian Basketry
California Department of Parks and Recreation
Baskets were used for utilitarian and ceremonial purposes. They were well suited to a seasonal subsistence lifestyle once practiced by many Indian tribes because they were light and durable. Various basketry forms were used in the gathering, processing, and cooking of food resources. Important events such as rituals, weddings, and other rites of passage were celebrated with gifts of beautiful baskets decorated with feathers, beads, wool and shell pendants. In all of their forms, these baskets demonstrated the great artistic skill and attention to detail that went beyond their actual usefulness.

Whether coiled, twined, or plaited, baskets were woven from a variety of native plant materials, with little more than an awl and knife. Weavers and their families tended and harvested numerous plants on a yearly basis throughout basket-making communities. 

The preparation of weaving materials often took as long as the actual weaving process itself.

__________________________________________________________________

FOOTNOTES

NOTE:
Many of my sources and ideas were inspired by the following excellent work:
Wigforss, Eva. "Perished Material - Vanished People Understanding variation in Upper Palaeolithic/Mesolithic Textile Technologies." Master Essay, Lund University, 2014.

[1] Bahn, Dr. Paul. (2001). "Palaeolithic weaving – a contribution from Chauvet." Antiquity, 75:271-272.

[2] Dawkins, William Boyd. Early Man In Britain And His Place In The Tertiary Period. Macmillan, London, 1880, p. 185.
https://archive.org/details/earlymaninbritai00dawkrich/page/n7

[3] Department of Archaeology, Durham University. "Palaeolithic art and archaeology of Creswell Crags, UK." 2020.
https://www.dur.ac.uk/archaeology/research/projects/all/?mode=project&id=639    Accessed 09/23/2020.

[4] Hyland, David C.; Zhushchikhovskaya, I. S.; Medvedev, V. E.: Derevianko, A. P.; Tabarev, A. V. "Pleistocene Textiles in the Russian Far East: Impressions From Some of the World's Oldest Pottery." Antropologie: Xl/1 • Pp. 1–10 • 2002, p. 1.

[5] California Department of Parks and Recreation. "American Indian Basketry." 2020.
https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=24166  Accessed 09/23/2020.

[6] Morse, T. Vernette, Mrs., Basket Making (How To Do It Series). Art Craft Institute, Chicago, 1902, p. 2.

[7] Chauvet, Gustave. 1910. Os, ivoires et bois de renne ouvrés de la Charente. Hypothèses palethnographiques. (Bones, ivories and worked reindeer antlers from the Charente.) Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société archéologique et historique de la Charente (8° série) I: 1–184.

[8] Soffer, Dr. Olga; Adovasio, Dr. James. "Perishable Industries from Dolní Vestonice I: New Insights into the Nature and Origin of the Gravettian." Archaeology Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia, January 2001. (Available online: DolniVestonice.pdf)

[9] Soffer, Adovasio, 2001.

[10] Menon, Shanti. "The Basket Age." Discovery Magazine, January 1996 Issue. http://discovermagazine.com/1996/jan/thebasketage619

[11] The University of Cambridge. "Farmers have less leisure time than hunter-gatherers." ScienceDaily, 21 May 2019. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190520115646.htm>. Accessed 09/23/2020.

[12] Grömer, Dr. Karina. "An Introduction to Prehistoric Textiles." Brewminate.com, Natural History Museum, Vienna, March 01, 2016,
https://brewminate.com/an-introduction-to-prehistoric-textiles  Accessed 09/23/2020.

[13] Aura Tortosa, J., Pérez-Jordà, G., Carrión Marco, Y. et al. "Cordage, basketry and containers at the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary in southwest Europe. Evidence from Coves de Santa Maira (Valencian region, Spain)." Veget Hist Archaeobot 29, 581–594 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-019-00758-x  Accessed 09/23/2020.

[14] Soffer, Adovasio, 2001.

[15] Lucas, C., Galway-Witham, J., Stringer, C.B. et al. "Investigating the use of Paleolithic perforated batons: new evidence from Gough’s Cave (Somerset, UK)." Archaeol Anthropol Sci 11, 5231–5255 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00847-y Accessed 09/23/2020.

[16] Doble, Rick. "Paleolithic Evidence Shows That Homo Habilis Could Have Learned Weaving From Weaverbirds (Ploceidae)." Blogger.com, 2019. 
https://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2019/10/paleolithic-evidence-for-early-weaving_27.html

[17] Doble, Rick. "Evidence That Paleolithic Hominins Lived in Close Association With Weaverbirds and Their Basket Making Skills." Blogger.com, 2020. 
https://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2020/04/oldowan-weaverbirds-homo-habilis-basket-making.html 

[18] Doble, Rick. "The Invention of Right-Angle Construction in the Paleolithic Era." Blogger.com, 2020. 
https://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2020/08/invention-of-right-angle-in-paleolithic-era.html

[19] Doble, Rick. "The Importance of Processes in the Paleolithic Era." Blogger.com, 2019. 
https://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2019/11/the-importance-of-processes-in.html

[19A] Doble, Rick. "The Tribal-Wide Use of Processes in the Paleolithic Era." Blogger.com, 2019. 
https://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-tribal-wide-use-of-processes.html

[20] Schick, Kathy, and Toth, Nicholas. "THE OLDOWAN: Case Studies into the Earliest Stone Age."  Stoneage Institute Publication Series, Schick, Kathy and Toth, Nicholas (Eds.). Stone Age Institute and Indiana University, Stone Age Institute Press, 2006, p. 35.

[21] Doble, Rick. "The Invention of Right-Angle Construction in the Paleolithic Era." Blogger.com, 2020. 
https://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2020/08/invention-of-right-angle-in-paleolithic-era.html  

[22] Pasch, Katherine. Basketry and Weaving in the School. A. Flanagan, Chicago, 1904, p. 16.

[23] Doble, Rick. "Evidence for a Basket Weaving and Woven-Fiber Technology in the Paleolithic Era." Blogger.com, 2019. 
https://deconstructingtime.blogspot.com/2019/09/evidence-for-basket-weaving-technology.html 

[24] The Tigris expedition: A National Geographic Special (documentary about Thor Heyerdahl's expedition). National Geographic Society, broadcast on PBS 04/01/1979.

[25] Lakeside Pottery. "Clay and Pottery - Brief History." 2020. 
http://www.lakesidepottery.com/HTML%20Text/brief%20history%20of%20clay_pottery.htm  Accessed 09/23/2020.

[26] Schick, Toth, 2006:35. 

[27] Holmes, William Henry. "Prehistoric Textile Fabrics Of The United States, Derived From Impressions On Pottery." Third Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1881-82, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1884, pages 393-425, p. 396.

[28] "Oldowan and Acheulean Stone Tools." Museum of Anthropology, University of Missouri. 
https://anthromuseum.missouri.edu/exhibit/oldowan-and-acheulean-stone-tools  Accessed 09/23/2020.

[29] Handaxe. Flint. Acheulean industry, Lower Palaeolithic, 800,000 - 300 000 BP. Abbeville, St. Acheul, Somme, France. 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Acheulean_implements._Flint._Abbeville,_St_Acheul._Neues_Museum.jpg  Accessed 09/23/2020.

[30] Benguigui, Macarena, and Miguel Arenas. “Spatial and temporal simulation of human evolution. Methods, frameworks and applications.” Current genomics vol. 15,4 (2014): 245-55. doi:10.2174/1389202915666140506223639 
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4133948/  Accessed 09/23/2020.

[31] Hardy, M. 1891. "The quaternary station of Raymonden in Chancelade (Dordogne) and the burial place of a hunter from Rennes." Bulletin of the Historical and Archaeological Society of Périgord 18, p. 24. 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_station_quaternaire_de_Raymonden_(...)Hardy_Michel_bpt6k5567846s_(3).jpg 

[32] Picture information: Grotte du Trilobite, Arcy-sur-Cure, Yonne, Burgundy, France. Taken from Abbé Alexandre Parat, Les Grottes de la Cure (côte d'Arcy): La Grotte du Trilobite, plate 3 (between pp. 32-33). Bone tools. 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Grotte_du_Trilobite_-_Arcy_-_os_ouvr%C3%A9s,_planche_3.jpg

Pictures from the book:
Parat, M. l'abbe A. Les Grottes de la Cure (cote d'Arcy). Auxerre, 1903.
https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k141509c/f38.item.zoom 

[33] Lochstab_Kostenki.jpg "Perforated rod made of Kostjonki, mammoth ivory, approx. 25,000 BP." 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lochstab_Kostenki.jpg

[34] Handwerk, Brian. "A Mysterious 25,000-Year-Old Structure Built of the Bones of 60 Mammoths." Smithsonianmag.com, March 16, 2020. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/60-mammoths-house-russia-180974426/

[35] Frazer, Sir James George. The Golden Bough: A study of magic and religion. Macmillan and Co., London, 1890. 
http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3623/pg3623.txt  

[36] Charles Singer, E.J. Holmyard, A.R. Hall. A History of Technology, Volume I: From Early Times to Fall of Ancient Empires. Oxford University Press, 1954. (Kindle location = 8905)

[37] Hyland et al, 2002:1.

[38] Boule, Mary Null. "Hupa Tribe." Kahle/Austin Foundation, 1992.

[39] Porter, Barbara Nevling. Trees, Kings, and Politics Studies in Assyrian Iconography. Academic Press Fribourg Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht Göttingen, 2003, pp. 50-51. Porter_2003_Trees_Kings_and_Politics.pdf




 

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