Page 20 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

8 History and Science of Knots

a staff, no doubt with cordage and knotting. Perhaps this is the first such
indirect evidence we have.
About the same time, at Bilzingsleben and elsewhere, evidence of possible
dwellings begins; although there is no proof that cordage was involved in their
construction. At Terra Amata, near Nice, there are 10 sites with stones and
post holes presumably outlining dwellings, with occupational litter and hearths
inside, dated at around 380 000 years ago [33]. The poles may have been
covered with skins or thatch; cordage may have been used to stabilise the
structure or fasten the covering.
Cordage is also likely to have been used for suspending perforated objects.
Beads or pendants begin around 300 000 years ago, the two oldest known
specimens having been excavated in an Austrian cave, the Repolusthohle. One
is a nicely drilled wolf incisor, the other is a triangular, flaked bone point,
perforated at the base (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. The two oldest perforated objects known to man: a bone point and a wolf's
incisor, from the Repolusthohle in Styria, Austria. Thought to be almost 300 000
years old.
Spherical stones occur frequently in Lower Palaeolithic occupation sites up to
at least 500 000 years old, in both Africa and China. They are usually from 6
to 12 cm in diameter, and it has been suggested that they may have been used
as bola weights in hunting. If that were correct, it would undeniably prove the
use of both cordage and knots, indeed probably some sort of bag or netting to
hold the stones as well.
Other hunting tools, such as slings, snares, traps and nets for fish or birds,
and fishing lines are also possible very early inventions, but there is no evidence
at all for any of these until the late Palaeolithic.

Archaic Homo sapiens , including Neanderthals

The first signs of human species later than Homo erectus seem to have ap-
peared about 500 000 years ago, but anatomically modern Homo sapiens did
not become universal until about 35 000 years ago. The intervening period is a