Recovering Perishable Technologies through Use Wear on Tools: Preliminary Evidence for Upper Paleolithic Weaving and Net Making

Abstract

Recent research on textile impressions conducted in collaboration with Czech, German, and Russian scholars has documented that a wide range of plant-based perishable items was produced in Upper Paleolithic Europe by a number of additive methods (Adovasio et al. 1998, 1999, 2001; Soffer, Adovasio, and Hyland 2002). Similar evidence has also been recovered from Late Pleistocene sites in the New World, including both North and South America (Adovasio et al. 1998 with references). The Eurasian inventory includes diverse cordage, knotted netting, plaited wicker-style basketry, and textiles, including simple and diagonal twined pieces and plain woven and twilled objects. Furthermore, some of these pieces show conjoining of two pieces of fabric by a whipping stitch to produce a seam, or sewing. The widespread use