Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/04/13/420000-year-old-string-may-h.html
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Tho the ties that bind are strong
With Neanderthals we couldn’t get along
Was their fate such a mystery
Or down to Covid-42K BC
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I thought it was established that Neanderthals had larger brains than modern humans?
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Thog’s flint tools with Genuine Neandercord Grip failed to take off due to a lack of Instagram influencers.
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“Scientists Believe Neanderthal Tech Advances Sidetracked By Attempts To Develop String Theory”
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42,0000+ year old string may have been made by Neanderthals
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it made me giggle 
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“42,0000+ year old string may have been made by Neanderthals”
I’m not sure you have the right title to discuss this…
Ah - weaving - another huge technological advancement that is traditionally woman’s work. Like many cultural advancements that moved humans into civilization.
If you have weaving - you don’t just have weapons and tools being fashioned. You have baskets, packs, clothing etc.
Reminds me of this:
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Math is hard.
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It seems silly, but the development of string was a hugely important early technological advance, that had massive utility and changed human society:
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string theory
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Your point is good and well made, although weaving fibres and string-making (twisting) are not quite the same thing. But Mrs Neanderthal probably deserves more credit than she gets, nonetheless.
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If you have string you also can make nets and use them in a sort of battue hunt for small-ish animals. Which is something that makes a lot of sense economically, i.e. in terms of resources used versus actual gain.
More or less the whole group can work together and bag meat that has little chance to maim or kill you (basically anything smaller than a fawn) close to where the group lives. Much more efficient and safer than having a small fraction of the group roaming around and stalking big game, aka beasts than can easily maim or kill you.
Besides, Neanderthals were spread pretty wide, and depending on where they lived and what was available to them, you’ll find the whole spectrum from ‘almost exclusively vegaterian diet with the odd animal thrown in’ to ‘almost exclusively meat-based diet with maybe some herbs’.
The ‘hairy guys with spears kill mammoths’ trope is mostly wrong.
But then the early palaeontologists/anthropologists not only made up their own field as they went along; most of them basically wrote fanfic from their perspective of bourgeois men who thought of themselves as the pinnacle of creation. Which still seems to be lurking to some extent under the scientific veneer.
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Ah neanderthals. Intelligent, creative, and nurturing. It’s no wonder humans killed and ate them all.
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Yep. And if you have strung you have snares and rope. Which is good for all manner of uses.
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Exactly. String technology is a big leap forward. It’s just that it doesn’t survive the ages as well as rock or bone, or even pottery. So, few samples, especially if everyone is only looking for rocks and bones. I think string and what you can make with it has been overlooked far too long when considering prehistoric development.
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Me: “Can I yo-yo with it?”
40,000 year old string: “I’m a frayed knot.”
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