Fibers
Years: 25101BCE - 2115
Fiber is a rope or string used as a component of composite materials, or, when matted into sheets, used to make products such as paper, papyrus, or felt.
Natural fibers used in textile manufacture include, cotton, flax, hemp, and wool.
Fibers are often used in the manufacture of other materials.
The strongest engineering materials often incorporate fibers, for example carbon fiber and Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene.
Synthetic fibers can often be produced very cheaply and in large amounts compared to natural fibers, but for clothing natural fibers can have certain advantages over their synthetic counterparts.
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The Emergence of Fiber Crafting and Early Textile Technology (c. 26,000 Years Ago)
By approximately 26,000 years ago, women across different regions had begun using natural fibers to create a variety of essential tools and garments, marking a significant advancement in prehistoric textile and tool-making technologies. This innovation not only enhanced daily life and survival strategies but also reflected the growing ingenuity and adaptability of early human societies.
Fiber Crafting and Its Applications
- Baby Carriers – Early humans likely fashioned fiber slings or wraps to carry infants, allowing for greater mobility while ensuring the care and safety of young children.
- Clothing – Fibers were woven or knotted into basic garments, complementing the use of animal hides for protection against harsh climates.
- Bags and Baskets – Crafted for gathering, storing, and transporting food and tools, these items indicate an increased reliance on plant-based resources.
- Nets and Cordage – Some of the earliest evidence of fishing and trapping technology comes from the creation of fiber nets, which allowed for more efficient food procurement.
Significance of Fiber Crafting
- Represented an early form of textile production, laying the foundation for later innovations in weaving and spinning.
- Allowed for greater economic and social organization, as fiber crafting likely became a specialized skill passed down through generations.
- Expanded the role of plant materials in human survival, alongside hunting and stone tool-making.
The ability to manipulate and utilize plant fibers for diverse purposes demonstrated the ingenuity of Upper Paleolithic societies, highlighting their technological advancements and evolving cultural complexity. These innovations in textile and tool-making would continue to shape human societies well into the Neolithic era and beyond.
Remains of a basket dating to at least 10,900 BCE have been found at the so-called Meadowcroft rock shelter in present Pennsylvania.
Danger Cave, located in the Bonneville Basin of western Utah around the Great Salt Lakes region, features artifacts of the Desert Culture from about 9500 BCE until around 500 CE.
Through carbon-14 dating, it has been determined that there is very little evidence of human life in the Danger Cave area in 11,000 BP, but there is much evidence of human life by 9000 BP.
The extremely dry conditions in the cave proved ideal for the preservation of artifacts such as pieces of course fabric, twine, basket fragments, and bone and wooden tools that Jennings’ team uncovered.
Identifiable fragments of sixty-eight plant species that still grow within ten miles of site where also found among the artifacts.
While the preservation of the cave is excellent, the stratigraphy of the cave is muddled.
Prehistoric occupations throughout the history of the caves have led to repeatedly modified ground surfaces.
Occupants would dig into the previous layers for storage pits and create suitable living spaces.
The data collected from the cave suggested that the Desert Culture had a sparse population, with small social units numbering no more than twenty-five to thirty people.
The focus on survival prevented the inhabitants from building permanent structures, developing complicated rituals, or amassing extensive personal property.
The Desert Culture will persist for thousands of years despite the hardships they face, and eventually became the basis for other early Utah cultures such as the Fremont.
Late twentieth century linguists will suggest that Omotic, formerly called West Cushitic, constitutes a sixth branch.
Other regions in Africa independently develop agriculture at about the same time: the Ethiopian highlands, the Sahel, and West Africa.
Cattle herders flourish in the Sahara until 6000 BCE, after which time the region, featuring wide areas of semi-arid grassland and many shallow lakes that support a sparse hunter-gatherer population, begins to become much less wet.
The Nile Valley is a favored oasis for hunter-gatherer societies.
The period from 9000 to 6000 BCE has left very little in the way of archaeological evidence.
People of this period, unlike later Egyptians, bury their dead very close to, and sometimes inside, their settlements.
Weaving is evidenced for the first time during the Faiyum A Period.
Archaeological sites reveal very little about this time, but an examination of the many Egyptian words for "city" provides a hypothetical list of reasons why the Egyptians settled.
In Upper Egypt, terminology indicates trade, protection of livestock, high ground for flood refuge, and sacred sites for deities.
Neolithic settlements appear all over Egypt around 6000 BCE, as morphological, genetic, and archaeological studies show migrants from the Fertile Crescent returning during the Egyptian and North African Neolithic, bringing agriculture to the region.
Farming communities are widespread through the Nile Valley and in Nubia (the modern Sudan).
Egyptian farmers cultivate barley, the world’s oldest known domestic crop, and wheat.
“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.”
― Aldous Huxley, in Collected Essays (1959)