Stone Age Rope and Twine: The Invisible Technologies of Prehistoric Humans
- An abstract ivory artifact discovered in Germany's Hohle Fels cave in 2015 is shedding light on Stone Age fiber technology that left behind virtually no physical traces, according...
- When archaeologists first unearthed the rod, it featured four small holes and was initially categorized as a symbolic object denoting prestige or power.
- The survival of the ivory tool underscores a major blind spot in how scientists study prehistoric human innovation.
An abstract ivory artifact discovered in Germany’s Hohle Fels cave in 2015 is shedding light on Stone Age fiber technology that left behind virtually no physical traces, according to archaeological research published by Knowable Magazine. Fashioned from a mammoth tusk more than 35,000 years ago, the 20-centimeter perforated rod demonstrates how prehistoric humans manufactured ropes and textiles long before organic materials could survive in the fossil record.
Uncovering the Hohle Fels Perforated Baton
When archaeologists first unearthed the rod, it featured four small holes and was initially categorized as a symbolic object denoting prestige or power. However, Nicholas Conard, an archaeologist at the University of Tübingen in Germany, noticed carefully carved spiral grooves lining each of the baton’s perforations. According to Conard, pushing material through a hole and rotating it quickly enters the world of fiber production. When researchers threaded cattail fibers through the artifact, the spiral grooves successfully oriented the strands, allowing the team to weave five meters of strong rope in just 10 minutes.
The Preservation Bias in Prehistoric Artifacts
The survival of the ivory tool underscores a major blind spot in how scientists study prehistoric human innovation. According to Emma Finestone, a paleoanthropologist at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, researchers face a heavy preservation bias because they focus on durable materials like stone tools and bone while organic items decay. Bruce Hardy, a paleoanthropologist at Kenyon College in Ohio, notes that humans miss more than 90 percent of daily prehistoric activities because soft technologies disintegrate over millennia.
Tracing the Ancient Roots of Human Cordage
Despite the fragility of organic items, rare specimens survive to push back the timeline of fiber technology. According to Hardy and his colleagues, the oldest known human-made fiber is a six-millimeter-long piece of string crafted by Neanderthals approximately 50,000 years ago and discovered at the Abri du Maras rock shelter in France.
