Plants Used as Fibers in Pre-History

My degree in Anthropology/Archaeology and my interest in textiles and fibers go hand-in-hand. Fibers and textiles are rarely preserved, but there have been enough remains found to show us that people were using plants for fiber as far back as the Upper Paleolithic. People used branches and large plant materials to weave shelters. Later, plant fibers were twisted and plied to make cordage and rope. This progressed to knotting which produced fishing nets, nets for catching birds and other small prey, clothing, and bags for carrying things.

One of the most important plant fibers was linen. It comes from the flax plant, Linum usitatissimum. The wild flax plant was Linum bienne. Its use can be corroborated back to the Upper Paleolithic – a plied rope from Lascaux Cave in France is dated to 15,000 BP.

Textiles can be preserved by desiccation, freezing, bogs, mud, charring, and impressions. A famous Venus figurine from Lespugue, France and dated to 20,000 years ago depicts a woman wearing a string skirt.

Other important fibers in prehistory were cotton and hemp. The earliest evidence for the Old World cotton comes from the Harappan sites in India around 2000 BCE. In the New World archaeological evidence indicates that cotton was domesticated in South America and Mexico. Remains of cotton have been found at a site in South America and dated to 2500 BCE. It is believed that cotton was domesticated in Mexico ca. 3500 BCE.