Figure 1.-- Archaeologists ecavating a cave in the country of Georgia have dicovered the oldest fibers ever found which they have dated to 34,000 years BP. The fibers are believed to be from wild, not cultivated flax. It would have been flax collected from the surrounding environment. Flax is the raw matrerial for linnen. Early humans did not have the trechnology for linen, but used these fibers to form garments providing the warmth needed once outside of Africa. They sewed leather pieces and animal skins together with the thread. The flaxthread was also used to tie packs, helping to aid in mobility and transport. One of the reserchers reports, "We know that this is wild flax that grew in the vicinity of the cave and was intensively or extensively exploited by modern humans." 【Bar-Yosef】 The fibers were twisted, suggesting that they were used make string and even rope. There is also evidence that the fibers were dyed using local plants.

The creation of garments beyond animal skins required he development of fibers. They at first could be used to sew animal skins and furs together and thus make increasingly complex garments. But only when weaving techniques could be mastered could textiles be created and used to manufacture what we would today recognized as modern garments. Neanderthals appear to be using twisted fibers in southeastern France (50,000 BC). We see the oldest known man-made fifers (32,000 BC). 【Bar-Yosef】 While ancient fibers ad textiles rarely survive, researchers have found Impressions of textiles and basketry and nets left on small pieces of hard clay in Europe (27,000 BC). Early clay sculptures (Venus figurines) have been found depicted clothing (25,000 BC). Flax cultivation begins in the Near East (25,000 BC). Flax is evidence of increasingly sophisticated clothing production (8,000 BC). Soon after evidence of weaving begins. Woven textiles were found being used to wrap the dead at Çatalhöyük in Anatolia (6,000 BC). We begin to see the breeding of domesticated sheep with a woolly fleece rather than hair in the Near East (3,000 BC). We begin to see the stultification of cotton in the Indian subcontinent (2,500 BC). Cotton like flax was a plant fiber used for making textiles. Linen cloth in being produced in ancient Egypt, along with other bast fibers including rush, reed, palm, and papyrus (2000 BC). Cherchen Man was buried with twill tunic and the earliest known tartan fabric (1,000 BC).

Sources

Bar-Yosef, Ofer. Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Created: 11:25 AM 4/29/2024
Last edited: 11:25 AM 4/29/2024