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30,000 Years Old Wild Flax Fibers - Testimony for Fabricating Prehistoric Linen

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2009

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10.1126/science.1175404

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American Association for the Advancement of Science
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Kvavadze, Eliso, Ofer Bar-Yosef, Anna Belfer-Cohen, Elisabetta Boaretto, Nino Jakeli, Zinovi Matskevich, and Tengiz Meshveliani. 2009. 30,000 Years old wild flax fibers - Testimony for fabricating prehistoric linen. Science 325(5946): 1359.

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Abstract

A unique finding of wild flax fibers from a series of Upper Paleolithic layers at Dzudzuana Cave, located in the foothills of the Caucasus, Georgia, indicates that prehistoric hunter-gatherers were making cords for hafting stone tools, weaving baskets, or sewing garments. Radiocarbon dates demonstrate that the cave was inhabited intermittently during several periods dated to 32 to 26 thousand years before the present (kyr B.P.), 23 to 19 kyr B.P., and 13 to 11 kyr B.P. Spun, dyed, and knotted flax fibers are common. Apparently, climatic fluctuations recorded in the cave’s deposits did not affect the growth of the plants because a certain level of humidity was sustained.

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http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:4270521

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30,000 Years Old Wild Flax Fibers… : DASH Story 2013-11-13
Information matters. Life began when some information got a way to replicate itself. Since then, life has evolved by quantitative (and somehow qualitative) increases in the replication, storing and transmission of information. Eventually, original replicators got a way to produce complex organisms with organs to store, process and transmit information by their own: brains. Open Access is only one of the last links in this vital and universal chain. Given that information matters a lot, open access to information matters a whole world.
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I am an attorney who pursues information about the history of clothing. Articles like this are helping me build an understanding of the development of clothing from humankind's beginning. I aspire to being able to publish original research that will aid, at least in a small way, the reshaping of the history of clothing by archaeology.
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30,000 Years Old Wild Flax Fibers… : DASH Story 2014-03-12
I am involved in historical education including stone age and being able to read about the precise finds is invaluable. I can now show pupils how to twist flax fibres into cordage as part of their stone age experiential learning, as well as use natural plant dyeing. This information is just too important to keep secret, so thank you for sharing!