Page 26 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

14 History and Science of Knots

The plentiful bamboo of the region would have provided material for bamboo
rafts, excellent craft for the large stretches of warm and usually calm waters
to the east of modern Indonesia. The greatest diversity of boat types can be
found in southeast Asia, suggesting that this might have been the region where
the use of watercraft first came to dominate any human societies [15, p. 188].
Sulawesi has been suggested as the centre of diffusion of the single-outrigger
canoe [15, p. 196].
Later again, crossings of 30-50 km to New Ireland occurred, still before
30 000 years ago, followed a bit later by even longer voyages of about 180
km to Buka Island, though a roundabout route using some intermediate small
islands and shorter distances is possible [32]. Bones of marine (not shoreline)
fish were first found in New Ireland middens, dating from about 20 000 years
ago. With open-sea fishing, the value of using the wind in some way would
have become clear, and perhaps sailing was first practised extensively here
[15, pp. 198-202]. By this time, it seems, the competence in systematically
traversing stretches of ocean would not have been significantly different from
that of modern hunting-foraging peoples.
All of this evidence is entirely indirect, however. The earliest direct
evidence of any form of watercraft is from the early Holocene: the paddles
recovered from peatbogs at Holmgaard, Denmark, and Star Carr, Yorkshire
(about 9500 years old); and the earliest known boat, the canoe from the peat
at Pesse, Netherlands, which is a little over 8000 years old.
Horses and other animals have provided transport on land for a much
shorter time, and again their use would require cordage and knots. The earliest
reliable evidence for horse use dates from only about 6000 years ago, and
consists of some teeth worn as from a bit. Portable engravings of horses'
heads marked as if wearing harnesses and dating from probably about 15 000
years ago have been found in France; the depictions are by no means clear and
this interpretation is not generally agreed.
Some Upper Palaeolithic rock art is thought by some to show lassos, nets
and pit traps in western Europe; if these highly dubious interpretations were
correct, cordage and knots would have been used.
Post holes remain to suggest that ladders or scaffolding could possibly
have been used during the production of some of the cave art in Europe from
around 17 000 years ago. Some fossilised fragments of probably two-ply laid
rope of about 7 mm diameter have been found in Lascaux Cave [16] from about
17 000 years ago. Perhaps the rope was used in conjunction with the extensive
scaffolding that seems to have been built there, or perhaps to facilitate entrance
to the cave. Access to several art sites and chert or ochre mines in caves is
difficult and may well have involved the use of ladders or ropes. These include
the entry down a sinkhole to Koonalda Cave in South Australia more than
20 000 years ago, and the 10 m vertical climb in Baume Latrone in France.