The oldest woven basket in the world found in Israel, dates back 10,000 years

The oldest woven basket in the world found in Israel, dates back 10,000 years

by
A large, perfectly preserved fabric basket dating back to around 10,500 years has been unearthed in the Judean desert, the Antiquities Authority announced on Tuesday.

Experts believe the artifact is probably the oldest of its kind ever discovered. It was excavated in a cave in the Judean desert by the IAA in cooperation with the Department of Archeology for Civil Administration.

“This is the most exciting discovery I have encountered in my life,” said Dr. Haim Cohen during a press conference at the IAA laboratory in Jerusalem.

Materials from four different parts of the basket have been analyzed to date. The researchers concluded that the object was manufactured about 10,500 years ago, during the Pre-Ceramic Neolithic period.

“The basket has a capacity of about 92 liters,” said Cohen. “We do not yet know what type of plant was used to do this, but we are investigating. However, we can already say that two people wove it and that one of them was left-handed ”.

The basket was found empty and closed with a lid. Only a small amount of soil has been recovered in it, and researchers hope it will help to identify what the ship contained.

According to Cohen, the ancients who made it probably did not live in the cave, but used it for storage.

Archaeologists have found evidence that looters of antiques probably reached about 10 cm. of the artifact, but they stopped digging just before reaching it.

The rescue operation aims to survey hundreds of caves in the Judean desert to track and preserve the antiques that are still hidden there before being recovered and sold on the private market, as has happened in the past.

“Organic materials generally do not have the ability to survive for such long periods,” said Dr. Naama Sukenik, of the IAA’s Department of Organic Material, to The Jerusalem Post. “However, the special climatic condition of the Judean Desert, its dry climate, has allowed dozens of artifacts to last for centuries and millennia.”

Among other items, archaeologists found fragments of fabrics still in their vivid colors from Roman times, parts of sandals, a small comb with a 2,000-year-old louse stuck between teeth, seeds and pieces of rope.

Dozens of parchment fragments from a biblical scroll dating from around 2,000 years ago were also unearthed in the first such discovery in decades.

About half of the area still needs to be researched and shed more light on life in Israel over the millennia.

Source