Washington: Archaeologists have discovered fibers used by prehistoric man a record 34,000 years ago to make clothes and rope, according to research published Thursday in the United States.
The flax fibers, found during the excavation of a cave in Georgia, are the earliest known to have been used by humans, who probably turned them into linen and thread, a US-funded research team told the weekly journal Science.
"The cloth and thread would then have been used to fashion garments for warmth, sew leather pieces, make cloths, or tie together packs that might have aided the mobility of our ancient ancestors from one camp to another," said a press release.
Items created by the fibers -- some of which had been twisted, indicating they were used to make ropes or strings -- would have increased the survival chances of the ancient hunter-gatherers, the excavation team said.
"We know that this is wild flax that grew in the vicinity of the cave and was exploited intensively or extensively by modern humans," said the team's co-leader Ofer Bar-Yosef, a professor of archaeology at Harvard University.
"This was a critical invention for early humans. They might have used this fiber to create parts of clothing, ropes, or baskets for items that were mainly used for domestic activities."
The fibers, some of which had been dyed, are invisible to the naked eye as the garments and items had long since disintegrated. They were discovered by chance as the team used a microscope to search through samples of clay from different layers of the cave.
"This was a wonderful surprise, to discover these ancient flax fibers at the end of this excavation project," said Bar-Yosef, who has been leading his team back to the Georgian cave every year since 1996.
The age of the fibers was determined by carbon-dating.
The earliest similar discovery hitherto had been imprints of fibers in small clay objects from 28,000 years ago found in the Czech Republic at the well known archaeological site of Dolni Vestonice.
The other co-leaders of the Harvard University-funded research team were Tengiz Meshveliani from the Georgian State Museum and Anna Belfer-Cohen from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Analysis of the soil samples that contained the flax fibers was conducted by Eliso Kvavadze from the paleobiology department of the National Museum of Georgia.
Bureau Report