40,000 years old Mammoth Ivory Rope making tool Found in Southwestern Germany

The object was discovered at Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany during an archaeological dig , other objects similar to this have been found but they were thought to have been shaft-straighteners, decorated artworks or musical instruments but now thanks to the exceptional preservation of this specimen a team of experimental research scientists have been able to show the object is a tool for making rope from plant fibers.

Image of the sides and profile of the tool.


Close up image of the holes shows notches carved around part of the hole , the team believe the elaborate carvings are technological features to aid the rope making process rather than just decoration.

Rope and twine are critical components in the technology of mobile hunters and gatherers. In exceptional cases impressions of string have been found in fired clay and on rare occasions string was depicted in the contexts of Ice Age art, but on the whole almost nothing is known about string, rope and textiles form the Paleolithic. A key discovery by Conard’s team in Hohle Fels Cave in southwestern Germany and experimental research and testing by Dr. Veerle Rots and her team form the University of Liège is rewriting the history of rope.

The find is a carefully carved and beautifully preserved piece of mammoth ivory 20.4 cm in length with four holes between 7 and 9 mm in diameter. Each of the holes is lined with deep, and precisely cut spiral incisions. The new find demonstrates that these elaborate carvings are technological features of rope-making equipment rather than just decoration.
www.uni-tuebingen.de... html

40,000 years old technology , who would have thought we were so smart so long ago.

Video of researchers making rope with replica tool

Man has been a problem solving critter for a long time now.

Rope making is useful for all sorts of things--hunting, fishing, nets for carrying things...

Forty thousand years... That's a long ass time.

Cool pictures.

Thanks!!

I don't know ... how do they keep the rope from unwinding? Even the dried one on the table seems to be falling apart.

originally posted by: Shadoefax

I don't know ... how do they keep the rope from unwinding? Even the dried one on the table seems to be falling apart.

Basically it's like making thread or yarn from hair and fiber... only this is really, really,REALLY thick yarn.

What is always overlooked when something like this pops up is that we are no more intelligent than we were 40k years ago... we just apply the same intellect to improve upon what came before, over and over and over and over again... and that's how we got to the moon.

if they had the tool they had the thread to make rope, real rope, not plant vines.

originally posted by: rexsblues
What is always overlooked when something like this pops up is that we are no more intelligent than we were 40k years ago... we just apply the same intellect to improve upon what came before, over and over and over and over again... and that's how we got to the moon.

So what your saying is we evolved? Because grunting and living in caves is a long way from flying to the moon..

a reply to: Shadoefax

maybe they made knots every couple of feet or more ?

a reply to: Shadoefax

Its possible that they used a resin or some type of coating. Its not a whole lot different than how we do it now.
youtu.be...

^Thats a great video too with a short history of modern rope and how they make it from a guy in Netherlands.

a reply to: rexsblues

That's how we got to the moon? I thought it was satanic Nazis on meth

originally posted by: Misterlondon

originally posted by: rexsblues
What is always overlooked when something like this pops up is that we are no more intelligent than we were 40k years ago... we just apply the same intellect to improve upon what came before, over and over and over and over again... and that's how we got to the moon.

So what your saying is we evolved? Because grunting and living in caves is a long way from flying to the moon..

No. He is saying that we simply have more knowledge than 40k years ago. Take away this knowledge and there would be no difference between now and then. If nobody taught you how to speak, you'd be grunting too.

We're still trying to work out how humans as recently as a couple of millenia ago achieved the things they did. Seems humans were just as 'smart' quite a long time ago with inventions like writing, paper etc allowing the collective knowledge to grow and propagate more quickly, accurately than word of mouth. I get the feeling that the average human intelligence has actually decreased sometimes

a reply to: Shadoefax

I don't know ... how do they keep the rope from unwinding? Even the dried one on the table seems to be falling apart.

Maybe every so often during the winding, another smaller twist of string is tied around the main bundle being spun?

Could be either in sections of set length, like a string of sausages...or wound around the entire length as a complete spiral encircling the main rope being made...this should keep the large rope together somewhat.

originally posted by: MysterX
a reply to: Shadoefax

I don't know ... how do they keep the rope from unwinding? Even the dried one on the table seems to be falling apart.

Maybe every so often during the winding, another smaller twist of string is tied around the main bundle being spun?

Could be either in sections of set length, like a string of sausages...or wound around the entire length as a complete spiral encircling the main rope being made...this should keep the large rope together somewhat.

When I was in BSA, we regularly made rope by twisting three lengths of twine together. We used a machine we made out of two pieces of two by four and three bent pieces of wire.
It worked exactly like the one shown here, except the one in that pic would use five strands of twine where we only used three.

We never had problems with our rope untwisting, and we didn't coat it with anything.

Harte

a reply to: Harte

Thanks for that.

Interesting stuff, and a skill that would be worth passing on and keeping alive i should bet.

looks like a device for weaving maybe.. the fine notches for separating the yarns or similar..
when you look at the breach in the ivory..it is exactly where a vertical yarn would extend from it..
so if the tool was under pulling pressure somehow this would be the point of most pressure..