New research shows that clothes from 8,000 years ago were made from trees


New research shows that Neolithic people in the ancient city of Çatalhöyük used an unexpected source of fibers – trees – to make clothing.

Clothing fragments found at Çatalhöyük were made from bast fibers from oak trees, according to a study published in the journal Antiquity. The authors of the new work analyzed some of the oldest known woven materials in the world, suggesting an unappreciated material used in the Stone Age.

This work subsequently resolved the long-standing debate over whether the fabrics in Chatalhöyük were made of linen or wool, because the study showed that they were made of neither material. Lisa Bender Jorgensen of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology is the first author of the study.

Çatalhöyük (pronounced cha-tal-ho-ök) – which appeared about 9,000 years ago in what is now Turkey, is among the oldest settlements in the world. At its peak, the Stone Age city accommodated between 3,500 and 8,000 people, and its time of origin in the early Neolithic (the last ice age had just ended) blurs the line between the hunter-gatherer culture and the emergence of agricultural communities. Moreover, Chatalhöyük, despite its antiquity, experienced many modern problems, such as overcrowding, sanitation problems and interpersonal violence.

Since excavations began at Çatalhöyük in the 1950s, archaeologists have studied 18 different layers of deposits. Artifacts such as baskets, thin ropes, mats and textiles attest to the sophistication of the inhabitants of Çatalhöyük, some of whom wore human teeth as jewelry. The city ceased to exist about 7,950 years ago for reasons that are not entirely clear.

Some of the aforementioned textiles were discovered in the 1960s. Immediately there was controversy as to whether they were linen (fiber from linen) or wool (fiber from sheep and lambs). The late British archaeologist James Mellaart argued in favor of wool, pointing to the remains of rams and sheep found at the excavation site (incidentally, Mellaart was later accused of selling artifacts on the black market, and after his death it became known that he had fabricated evidence – though not for these fabrics). Research conducted in the 1980s claimed that the fibers were made of linen, further intensifying the debate.

Excavations at Çatalhöyük have continued over the past few decades, including those led by Jan Hodder. An archaeologist at Stanford University helped uncover new evidence of textiles at the site, which were found to be between 8,500 and 8,700 years old. Bender Jorgensen and Antoinette Rast-Eicher of the University of Bern, the latter of whom is an expert in determining the source of the fabric fibers, participated in the subsequent study of these textiles. Using a scanning electron microscope, the researchers found evidence that the fibers were made from oak bast, and that the bast was sourced locally.

“These results shed new light on early Neolithic textile production, suggesting that wood bast played a more significant role than previously thought,” the researchers write in their paper.

Bast fibers are found between the bark layer and the wood of trees, and are usually derived from willow and linden, as well as oak. It is important to note that oak wood was used in the construction of some Chatalhöyük dwellings.

“In the past, researchers have largely ignored the possibility that the fabric fibers might have been something other than wool or linen, but lately the other material is getting more attention,” Bender Jorgensen told Norwegian publication SciTech News, which reports on the STNU research. “Basta fibers have been used for thousands of years to make rope, thread, and then yarn and fabric.”

This finding is consistent with other evidence – or, rather, the lack of evidence, namely the near absence of flax seeds in Chatalhoyuk, the article says. These Stone Age people do not seem to have grown flax or imported it from other places.

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