12,000-Year-Old Scraps of Elk Hide May Be the World’s Oldest Known Examples of Sewing

[Inglesport]

World's Oldest Known Examples of Sewing | Smithsonian Magazine

Indigenous groups in present-day Oregon stitched the fragments together using cord made from plant fiber and animal hair. Experts think they may have been part of a garment, bag, container or portable shelter

Researchers say they may have identified the world’s oldest known evidence of sewing: two pieces of elk hide stitched together with cord. Found in a cave in Oregon, the tattered artifact was made around 12,000 years ago, during the end of the last Ice Age.

The fragment may have been “the margin of a piece of tight-fitted clothing, moccasin, bag or container, or part of a portable shelter,” though the researchers can’t “unequivocally confirm” its purpose, according to a new study in the journal Science Advances.

 

[wellyjen]

They've not considered the possibility it was part of an oversuit, or tackle bag that disintegrated during an ice age caving trip. Calling it a tattered artifact is reminiscent of my own caving kit.