Page 55 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

CHAPTER 4

ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ROPE AND KNOTS

Willemina Wendrich

Introduction

Rope making and knotting were perhaps the first techniques available to early
man. Before man knew how to make pots or stone knives, he would have used
organic materials, such as wood, twigs, grasses and leaves. Knotting would
be necessary to connect wooden posts for making shelters. In many areas of
the world those shelters were probably made of matting, plant stems or twigs
tied with strings to form the sides and roof. For basket making, which was
a human invention pre-dating pottery, the same materials were used as for
rope making and knotting. Because stone and pottery survives to a much
greater extent in the archaeological context than organic materials, our image
of ancient cultures is undoubtedly lopsided: stone-age man did of course use
stone tools, but in daily life the use of organic materials must have been even
more important than the use of stone objects. `Basket-age' would probably
be a better modifier than stone-age, to indicate the most important artefacts
of that period. On the other hand, the indication `basket-age' is valid for the
most part of human history, with the exception of the last 40 years of our
history, in which the use of plastic is taking over rapidly the niche of basketry.
In Egypt, archaeologists are in a favourable position to catch a glimpse of
the importance of organic materials in daily life. Because rainfall is extremely
limited in large parts of the country, the preservation of rope, basketry, tex-
tiles and leather is extremely good. Until a decade ago, excavators have failed
to pay systematic attention to these materials, probably because their atten-
tion was focussed on pottery and written material. Furthermore, Egyptology
traditionally concentrated on palaces, temples, tombs and (religious) inscrip-

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