Posted on 09/14/2009 9:20:55 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
The flax, which would have been collected from the wild and not farmed, is believed to be more than 34,000 years old, making these fibers the oldest known to have been used by humans... The items created with these fibers increased early humans' chances of survival and mobility in the harsh conditions of this hilly region. The flax fibers could have been used to sew hides together for clothing and shoes, to create the warmth necessary to endure cold weather. They might have also been used to make packs for carrying essentials, which would have increased and eased mobility, offering a great advantage to a hunter-gatherer society. Some of the fibers were twisted, indicating they were used to make ropes or strings. Others had been dyed. Early humans used the plants in the area to color the fabric or threads made from the flax. Today, these fibers are not visible to the eye, because the garments and items sewed together with the flax have long ago disintegrated. Bar-Yosef, Kvavadze, and colleagues discovered the fibers by examining samples of clay retrieved from different layers of the cave under a microscope. The discovery of such ancient fibers was a surprise to the scientists. Previously, the oldest known were imprints of fibers in small clay objects found in Dolni Vestonice, a famous site in the Czech Republic some 28,000 years old. The scientists' original goal was to analyze tree pollen samples found inside the cave, part of a study of environmental and temperature fluctuations over the course of thousands of years that would have affected the lives of these early humans. However, while looking for this pollen, Kvavadze, who led the analysis of the pollen, also discovered nonpollen polymorphs -- these flax fibers.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.harvard.edu ...
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Helen Thomas finds her Sweet 16 party dress...
Willendorf Venus Figurine (24,000 years old)
Is That A Sock Cap On Her Head?
Wasn’t a human that used those fibers, twas Rumplestiltskin.
Stylized hair. :’)
No, that's her curly hair. I have a soap mold in this shape. It's practically a self-portrait.
Maybe this isn’t a sculpture at all — maybe it’s just a really old bar of soap.
Ooh, I faux pas’d... my apologies... uh, although, uh, your nickname, well, never mind... [blush]
Ha! Gotcha. ;-) Just kidding! I really was making soap 34,000 years ago. Well, sometimes it seems like it. We have bought no soap since 1999.
I really like the Willendorf Venus, and I love seeing pictures of archeological finds. I wish these articles had a lot more pictures with descriptions and locations of the finds.
But I guess that they get so excited when they find something that they just publish it right away, before they’ve uncovered everything and gotten it all cleaned up and photographed. Sigh...
UCL Petrie Museum’s Tarkhan Dress: world’s oldest woven garment
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0216/150216-tarkhan-dress
TAU Discovers Extensive Fabric Collection Dating Back to Kings David and Solomon
https://www.aftau.org/news-page-archaeology?=&storyid4677=2256&ncs4677=3
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