Page 33 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

20 History and Science of Knots

the filaments together into yarns would have enabled gradual insertions of ex-
tra filaments to increase the length and made a satisfactory medium for many
purposes (the filaments were mostly stiff and had rough surfaces, and would
consequently tend to adhere together). In the course of twisting three fila-
ments together, people might have come across the 3-ply Common Sennit ([1],
#2965), which could also be used as a yarn; this would have been particularly
likely for someone specially attracted to the decorative appearance. The mak-
ing of laid rope by twisting several yarns together would have been a major
invention. We do not know how old these techniques are; as seen in Chapter
1, samples of twisted filaments have been recovered from 19 000 years ago,
and of two-ply laid rope from 17 000 years ago. Because these media are very
much subject to decay, these figures can be taken as minimal ages.

First Attempts at Knots

We can now start speculating on how the knotting process might have started,
what could have suggested to the early hominids that the process we call
knotting could be useful.
Tropical forests have many plants that wrap around other plants, some-
times strangling them, splitting them, or pulling them over, and sometimes
forming Overhand Knots or Half Hitches in the process. Spider webs can
be large and thick, able to net and trap large insects. Some nesting birds
and rodents can shred the fibres in palms and bark to weave into their nests.
Entanglements of vines, brambles or saplings can be found in many jungles,
obstructing movements.
All these things could have inspired a deliberate making of entanglements,
ambushes, snares and traps, using at first vines and other media naturally
present at the site, but eventually collecting the materials where they were
common and moving them to a suitable site. At some times and places, traps
and snares may have provided much more animal food than active hunting.
Entanglements could also have been used to make fences and shelters, and
media could have been used to make slings to carry objects and ornamental
or symbolic necklaces, armlets, belts and the like.
Binding knots, lashings and perhaps hitches and bends would have been
needed. The use of simple binding knots to help make entangling traps, or
fences, or shelters could readily have suggested the use of similar bindings on
hafted tools.
We postulate that the first knots consisted of random tucks of an end in
somewhere, producing such partial knots as Overhand Knots and Half Hitches.
A single such tuck or unit of structure is often insecure; the obvious remedy is
to make one or more additional tucks, either similar or different, as necessary.
We can distinguish two kinds of such compound knots: