Ah, there's nothing like a good obsession to keep you focused and on task. Especially when it's one that's both entertaining and informative. Way more fun than crazy recluses or beer swilling wack jobs.
Tonight's topic, lucky us, is rope. Binder of fair maidens and securer of ships at harbour. And unfairly under reported.
So then, to the beginning, rope's dawn. Earliest known rope makers seem to be the Egyptians. They left hieroglyphics showing a rope making process around 4000 BC. However evidence exists that some very rudimentary braided rope was around thousands of years before that. In fact the Lascaux Caves in France (famous for the cave paintings) produced some fossilised 2 ply braided rope, circa 15,000 BC. Rope being a pretty handy thing doesn't surprise me. Probably used it to keep the visitors out.
The Egyptians needed the rope to help in the building of their cities and monuments. It was no doubt made from plant matter, very possibly reeds or palm fronds. Because they didn't really have an effective way of twisting long strands at that time, and rope making by hand just didn't meet the demand, most ropes were a series of ropes tied together.
It would take medieval craftsman to move rope making forward. Next time on Rope- Twisted History.
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