JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Around 12,000 years ago, near the end of the last ice age, people living in what is now central Oregon were sewing.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
And we know that thanks to materials that were found in cave sites in the area that ended up being some of the oldest sewn materials ever found.
RICHIE ROSENCRANCE: My name is Richie Rosencrance, and I'm currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Nevada, Reno in anthropology. And I'm also a research affiliate with the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History.
SUMMERS: Rosencrance is one of the researchers who analyzed wooden tools, braided cord made from bark fibers, bone objects and strips of animal hide made from a surprisingly wide range of plants and animals.
ROSENCRANCE: We found over eight different wood species in the wooden objects, four or five different plants species in fiber items. The bone and hide were made from elk and bison and mountain sheep. And so just all of that together gives this kind of glimpse into ecology and traditional ecological knowledge 12,000 years ago that's really unmatched in a lot of places.
KELLY: But Rosencrance says one finding stands out.
ROSENCRANCE: What we think is the oldest physical remains of sewn hide that's ever been found is really just kind of two fragments of processed animal hide that are kind of matted, and, you know, you can imagine this as a scrap. And the top margin has a small cordage made out of animal hair and plant fiber that's twisted together, and then it's, you know, sewn into the margin of that leather piece and then comes out, goes into another fragment of sewn hide and then is knotted.
KELLY: They were found in dry rock shelters that kept them from decomposing.
SUMMERS: Researchers say this may be the oldest known physical evidence of something sewn ever found, though not the earliest sewing itself.
ROSENCRANCE: There's evidence of sewing in Eurasia going back at least 45,000 years ago. And what we have is just the oldest physical remains of something sewn.
KELLY: The stitching could have been part of clothing, footwear, even a bag used to survive harsh winters at the end of the ice age.
SUMMERS: The study also identified woven fragments made using a technique called twining, still used today to make baskets and mats.
ROSENCRANCE: There's few places in the world where you can trace a technological tradition, you know, that closely through time, and it really underscores what Native people have been telling scientists forever, which is that they have always been here.
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