Tools & manufacturing · c. 52,000 years ago

Cordage and rope

Twisted plant fibers become string, the humble backbone of craft.

A three-ply cord fragment from Abri du Maras, France, made by Neanderthals 41,000 to 52,000 years ago, is the oldest direct evidence. Cord enabled nets, snares, lashing, weaving and later pulleys.

See it in the living tree Wikipedia

Arcs above join it to what it stood on, arcs below to what it led to. The bar places this stretch on the tree's whole timeline.

What it built on 1

First stone tools 3.3M years ago

What it led to 3

Eyed needle 50k BCE
Weaving and the loom 7000 BCE
Pulley 1500 BCE

Related measurements

The dashed line marks when it first worked.

World population over a million years Latest: 6.27k million people (2000) Source: DeLong 1998, table 'Total World Population' (Kremer series); Kremer 1993, Population Growth and Technological Change: One Million B.C. to 1990, QJE 108(3)