Page 46 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

34 History and Science of Knots

called) was found on 19 September 1991 in a glacier, on a high mountain pass,
in South-Tyrol, only about 90 m south of the Italian-Austrian border (much
to the chagrin of the Austrians). His whole body and most of his substantial
equipment were extremely well-preserved, because they had been frozen solid
during the whole period following the man's death-almost 5400 years. The Ice
Man is the only person from the European Neolithic who has been preserved
in a better state than as a mere skeleton, and one of the very few from the
whole of European prehistory. As for his equipment, the find is absolutely
without parallel, at least for this period. Of interest for knotters is that this
find shows how important was the role that knots played in the construction
of every-day articles, thus giving a glimpse of all that is lost. Among the
knot-bearing articles found on or near the body, there were: a sewn leather
quiver containing fourteen arrow shafts, some of which had points and feathers
attached; bundles of spare rope and yarn; bunches of spare arrowheads, kept
together by a piece of string; a belt-purse; an axe-shaft with a copper axe,
attached by leather thongs; a flint dagger with attached wooden handle; shoes
with strings of leather and vegetable fibres; leather clothing, neatly sewn and
coarsely repaired; a grass cloak; a bunch of tiny strings with a pendant/bead
attached to it. The material used for the ropes and strings was leather, sinew,
grass and other vegetable fibres.
The find is still under conservation and study, spread out over a number
of different laboratories and institutions in Europe. So far, two professional
publications on the Ice Man have appeared, both quite substantial.* But none
of the authors is a knotter, and accordingly nothing is said about knots. The
many published pictures do show that there are plenty of knots present, and
from them some information can be gleaned. Among the yarns, three types
could be identifiedt:
1. right-hand (Z) laid single-ply yarn used for weaving;
2. two-ply left-hand (S) laid cord made from two right-hand (Z)
laid yarns;
3. two-ply right-hand (Z) laid cord made from two left-hand (S)
yarns.
Among the knots, the following knots could be identified with some prob-
ability:
*Discounting all the more or less sensational publications , full bibliographies can be found
in [11] and [19]. The former is written mainly for a specialist audience; articles are in
German , English and Italian , all with short English summaries. The latter is accessible to
non-specialists; the original edition is in German, but an English translation is available.
tThe identification of the Ice-Man yarns and knots mentioned here was done by Charles
Warner, to whom I am most grateful.