News story about 30,000 year old fibers

The first tailors? Researchers find ancient fiber


By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer Randolph E. Schmid,
Thu Sep 10, 2:00 pm ET
WASHINGTON – More than 30,000 years ago someone living in a cave in the Caucasus Mountains twisted wild flax together and dyed it, producing the earliest known fibers made by humans, scientists report.
"Making strings and ropes is a sophisticated invention," said Ofer Bar-Yosef, a professor of prehistoric archaeology at Harvard University. "They might have used this fiber to create parts of clothing, ropes, or baskets — for items that were mainly used for domestic activities."
The fibers were discovered in an analysis of clay deposits in Dzudzuana Cave in what is now the country Georgia, Bar-Yosef and co-authors report in Friday's edition of the journal Science.
The newly discovered fibers were made from the wild form of flax, not a plant that had been domesticated for farming.
These ancestors really had a clear idea and method of dealing with a useful plant in its wild form to provide good quality fibers for different uses, Bar-Yosef said via e-mail.
"Innovation was a trait of modern humans when compared to earlier populations," he added. "The invention of strings and ropes is an old one and probably helped to change the organization of transport from earlier times."
Some of the fibers appear to have been dyed using plant materials common in the area, the researchers said. The color range included yellow, red, blue, violet, black and green.
"The colored fibers may indicate that the inhabitants of the cave were engaged in producing colorful textiles," they reported. There was also evidence of processing fur and skin at the site.