Page 34 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

Why Knot? Some Speculations on the Earliest Knots 21

(i) Conglomerations are haphazard collections of two or more units
of structure. The units are often well separated, so that the knot can slip as
the units work closer together under load. The normal tendency would then
have been to add more units until the knot appeared secure. It is unlikely
that the identical conglomeration would have been repeated when the need
arose for a similar knot, even by the same person: the procedure would have
been to simply add tucks, twists and hitches until the knot seemed secure.
The average modern person with little training or interest in knotting is much
more likely to make a conglomeration when tying up bundles or the like than
anything else.
(ii) Composite knots are deliberate sequences of two or more units of
structure. Because the whole thing is deliberate, we may usefully talk of an
algorithm or detailed method of tying the knot. Once a Composite knot was
found by someone to be suitable for a given purpose, that person was very
likely to try to tie the identical knot whenever a similar need was recognised,
and to deliberately teach the knot to others, particularly others in the same
family group.
If the longer estimates of the period during which knots have been used
are correct, it is possible that the first ordered composite knots were tied
instead of conglomerates at about the time that the crude, randomly cracked
stone tools called Oldowan began to be replaced by the much more deliberately
regular Acheulian tools, perhaps as much as 12 million years ago. When stone
tools became more and more finely made, their manufacture became more and
more the job of specialist knappers, with ordinary people making only crude
tools. Similarly, as composite knots became more and more finely made, they
would probably have been made more and more by specialist knot tiers, with
ordinary people content with conglomerates, as they still are today.
The design of stone tools changed only very slowly until late in the Stone
Age, when creativity blossomed in many crafts, including rock art. Consid-
erable manual dexterity was demonstrated, together with some originality of
design and an obvious capacity to recognise patterns. It is possible that around
this period, perhaps 30 to 20 thousand years ago, there was also a blossoming
of creativity in the making of both working and decorative knots. The making
of a wide variety of composite knots probably had to wait for the appearance
of robust, flexible cordage; we know that twisted and laid cordage have been
known for a period approaching 20 000 years and perhaps more.

Some Definitions

It is often useful to consider families of knots, differing only in the handedness
or alignment of particular elements, and often dependent on the chance of
tucking an end over or under, or to the right or left, of particular structures.