Science Literature

A cave in the Republic of Georgia has yielded over 1000 fragments of flax that are being interpreted as the oldest example of humans using textile fibres in utilities and garments. The samples come from various dated horizons, the oldest considered to be about 34,000 years before the present. Whereas other archaeological sites of a similar (slightly younger) age have provided impressions of textile materials, the new find pin-points flax and carries the implications of humans gathering the stems, removing the fibres, processing the fibres to make yarns and then using the yarns to either sew skins, to create ropes or even to weave textiles for use in garments.

"This was a critical invention for early humans. They might have used this fiber to create parts of clothing, ropes, or baskets - for items that were mainly used for domestic activities," says Bar-Yosef. "We know that this is wild flax that grew in the vicinity of the cave and was exploited intensively or extensively by modern humans."

A selection of fibres from Dzudzuana Cave, Georgia (Source here)

There are two evidences to support weaving. The first is that a "few of the fibers are colored and appear to have been dyed". "The color range includes yellow, red, blue, violet, black, brown, green, and khaki." The range of colours suggests intentional colouration rather than chance contact with colourants. The second line of evidence relates to organisms that are associated with decaying textiles, as well as the "spores of the Chaetomium fungus, usually growing on clothes and other textiles and unfortunately destroying them". Michael Balter summarises this point as follows:

"The team thinks the flax was used to make garments as well as woven baskets, because it was associated with skin beetles and moth larvae that infest decaying textiles, as well as spores of a fungus known to grow on clothes. The team also found a few twisted and colored fibers of wool from a goat species whose bones were found in the cave."

The significance of the find is that it contributes to the discussion of "when hominins started looking modern and when they began acting modern". In a blog on reports of shells used as jewellery, Michael Balter describes two positions:

"[S]ome scientists [. . .] argue that modern human cognition, including language and other complex symbolic behavior, needed the additional kick-start of a genetic mutation about 50,000 years ago. Yet an increasing number of researchers have come to think that Homo sapiens was capable of modern behavior from the very beginning of its history. Whether those behaviors show up in the archaeological record, these researchers say, depends on a variety of factors unrelated to genetics, such as how big and widespread early human populations were and what environmental challenges they faced."

Ultimately, underlying philosophies influence the way researchers think: some are evolutionary gradualists and predict the slow transformation of culture from animal to human traits. These people are happy to invoke a mutation that switches on self-awareness, or consciousness, or similar. A mutation is, after all, a link in the chain constructed by gradualism. Others go with punctuated equilibrium and abrupt appearance. They typically do not have a mechanism, but they argue they are doing justice to the evidence. It hardly needs to be said, but the history of studies of Palaeolithic culture shows that examples of human traits and human behaviour are being found earlier and earlier in time. The newly reported research is just the latest example of this.

ID thinking has a bearing on these debates. Humanity cannot and should be explained purely in terms of physics and chemistry. Yet Darwin's portrayal of the descent of man was calculated to by-pass design. Evolutionary gradualists are in the Darwinian tradition and they bring this philosophical position to their science. They are not free to follow the evidence wherever it leads, because they 'know' that complexity has to be constructed incrementally. ID does not forcefit design to be the solution to every question researchers ask, but it does allow non-naturalistic avenues to be explored. If Homo sapiens is the product of design, then our species should have been capable of modern behavior from the very beginning of its history. Furthermore, if research confirms modernity, then we do not need to apologise for not invoking a material cause. Those waving a magic wand are those who conjour up a "mutation" or some other simplistic device to transform an ape into a human.

30,000-Year-Old Wild Flax Fibers
Eliso Kvavadze, Ofer Bar-Yosef, Anna Belfer-Cohen, Elisabetta Boaretto, Nino Jakeli, Zinovi Matskevich, and Tengiz Meshveliani
Science, 325, 11 September 2009: 1359.

A unique finding of wild flax fibers from a series of Upper Paleolithic layers at Dzudzuana Cave, located in the foothills of the Caucasus, Georgia, indicates that prehistoric hunter-gatherers were making cords for hafting stone tools, weaving baskets, or sewing garments. Radiocarbon dates demonstrate that the cave was inhabited intermittently during several periods dated to 32 to 26 thousand years before the present (kyr B.P.), 23 to 19 kyr B.P., and 13 to 11 kyr B.P. Spun, dyed, and knotted flax fibers are common. Apparently, climatic fluctuations recorded in the cave's deposits did not affect the growth of the plants because a certain level of humidity was sustained.

See also:

Balter, M., Clothes Make the (Hu) Man, Science, 325, 11 September 2009: 1329.

Balter, M., Drawing a Bead on Ancient Symbolic Behavior, Origins Blog, 28 August 2009

Archaeologists discover oldest-known fiber materials used by early humans, EurekAlert (10 September 2009)