Purpose of Mysterious Ice Age Tool Revealed

ExplorersWeb ^ | February 4, 2024 | Martin Walsh

[SunkenCiv]

A few years ago, archaeologists working in Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany unearthed some mysterious ice-age objects. The team found 13 pieces of carved mammoth ivory that fit together to form what they described as a "perforated baton, with four holes containing precisely carved spiral grooves." ...archaeologists Nicholas Conard (from the University of Tubingen in Germany) and Veerle Rots (from the University of Liege in Belgium)... argue that the 35,000-year-old ivory baton is a tool for making rope. Researchers were fairly sure that Paleolithic people used rope or twine, but the evidence was limited to depictions in art and a few impressions in clay. While evidence that ice-age people used rope was limited, there was no evidence illuminating how they manufactured it. Therefore the paper's conclusion is a major breakthrough... Microscopic examination revealed fiber remnants around the grooves. Conard and Rots compared these fibers with sediment samples from around the artifact to rule out simple contamination from the environment. They found that the soil contained few plant fibers. As a final test, Conard and Rots made a perforated baton of their own and tested it. Using the grooved holes they found that they could twist thick cords of up to four strands quickly and efficiently. They tested a few materials believed to be common during the period including deer sinew, flax, hemp, and others. They found cattail and willow fibers produced the best results.

[SunkenCiv]

Probably originated on the Lost Continent of Moo.

[SunkenCiv]

Fun thread.

[null and void]

Larson was unhappy about that cartoon, as too many people thought it was a bow.

[Sequoyah101]

An early Swiss Army knife?

[Red Badger]

Udderly ridiculous.....................

[SunkenCiv]

Necessity, the mother of invention.

https://www.instructables.com/Fire-without-matches-or-metal/

https://www.loc.gov/item/2003652888/

https://vilda.alaska.edu/digital/collection/cdmg21/id/952/

[Dr. Sivana]

I miss The Far Side!

We all do. However, I am glad it never turned into a zombie strip (e.g. "Garfield"). Even "Peanuts" ran out of steam for the last couple of decades, and Schulz' run was among the greatest ever.

[higgmeister]

That was great except for the perfume commercial breaking the flow.

[SunkenCiv]

We should be grateful that it wasn’t on smellivision.

[rlmorel]

The funniest misunderstood one was this one:

IIRC, he had no caption on the bottom (where it says "When Car Chasers Dream") and a firestorm broke out across the country...

People were outraged, this picture of a dog humping a car!

He was baffled, because that interpretation had never occurred to him.

He added the caption, but as he sadly pointed out, once you have to explain a joke, the damage is already done.

He said people were writing letters to syndicated newspapers demanding his perverted comic strip be banned...

(By the way, I read this from my books years ago and I might be remembering details incorrectly, but this was how I received it then!) I could just see all of this!

[thinden]

amazing! life before cell phones & google.

thanx for the links.

very interesting (as with all your posts)

[Fledermaus]

What is it? I don’t get it.

[piasa]

Probably a drill made of wood with a chert tip. Could have been spun with bare hands, a pump drill or a bow drill.

[thinden]

interesting how they got along back then

[Fledermaus]

Okay, I got it now.

Had to look harder.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!

[Scrambler Bob]

Ahah, its not some space alien horns.

And with my kids (and me) I should have been quicker.

[higgmeister]

Making and Using a Fire Piston

For anyone interested in how to make charcloth: Get yourself an old Prince Albert Tobacco can. An Altoids tin works good too, but it just doesn't hold as much. Punch a hole in one end with a nail. Get yourself some 100% cotton cloth. Fold it up and fill the can. Not packed super tight, but full. Close the can and put it on a good heat source. I use a gas cooktop or camp stove. But a small campfire's fine too

I was amazed but it's one of those things for when TSHTF.

[thesearethetimes...]

Mark!

[HandyDandy]

“Do you have Prince Albert in a can?”