How it began
Dzudzuana Cave lies in the foothills of the Caucasus in present-day Georgia. In 2009 Eliso Kvavadze, Ofer Bar-Yosef and colleagues reported in the journal Science that clay samples from a series of Upper Paleolithic layers in the cave held wild flax fibers. Radiocarbon dates place the oldest of these layers at 32 to 26 thousand radiocarbon years before the present. The people who made the fibers long predate any modern nation. The find is recorded here for Georgia because of where the cave is.
How it works
The fibers were found under the microscope during analysis of 86 clay samples. In the oldest unit the team counted 488 flax fibers, of which 13 were spun and 58 dyed. A later unit yielded 787 fiber fragments, including a string with numerous knots, and some fibers were plied in a relatively complex twisted pattern. Colors included black, gray, turquoise and one pink. The authors note that a wide range of natural pigments from roots and other plant parts was available to the occupants.
What changed first
The authors concluded that prehistoric hunter-gatherers were making cords for hafting stone tools, weaving baskets or sewing garments. The colored fibers may indicate that the inhabitants produced colorful textiles. Hair of the tur, some of it colored and twisted, was found too, together with remains of moths and of a fungus that usually grows on clothes, which supports the idea that skins and cloth were worked in the cave.
What lasted
Flax fibers were present through the whole sequence of layers, which suggests the plant grew near the cave during each period of habitation despite changes in climate. The History of Information timeline lists the find as evidence of making materials from flax between about 32,000 and 28,000 BCE, and notes that cord and sewn hides for clothing and packs would have helped mobility and survival in hard environments.
