On Tuesday 15 March 2022 at 12:54:16 UTC, DD'eDeN aka note/nickname/alas_my_loves wrote:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/aug/01/mammoth-tusk-drill-holes-make-rope-change-history-stone-age
40ka German cave, tusk with drilled holes and spiral cuts to feed
fibers through, made by AMHs. 15ka similar artifacts in Britain of
reindeer antler.
Rope & twine can be made only by hand, but is a slower process.
These tools would usually have been
made of wood -- much easier to find
or make in the right shape, and then
to drill. Presumably, in this case, the
rope-maker decided that his/her
wooden tools were wearing out too
quickly, and s/he went for a stronger
material. So s/he was probably a
'professional' -- someone who made
and sold rope.
Or would you reckon that it was part
of a whole culture -- a skill (of using
this kind of bone tool) passed on
through the generations? In any
case, there would have been 'rope-
making specialists' in the society.
So it's highly likely that wooden rope-
making tools would have gone back
a few hundred thousand years. They
didn't survive in the fossil record --
like virtually all wooden tools.
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