Sewing, a tool of the weaver

True, not a weaving as the weavers would call it, but to early man it all came from the same pot. We learn from his first attempts at making mats, that sewing was his solution, at the start, to make the new idea work. From many samples of skin, or hide, recovered at the Zueberbueler shelter, that sewing was used to hold or bind. Additionally there are the bone and wood artefacts that suggest their use in sewing. So, until we find a better home to place them, our sewing skills of early man, will find a home in weaving. In addition to being used to bind the edge of early weaving we find sewing employed in several ways. The more common being to sew cactus pads together. These early beds for children or maybe playpens, were made using the pads of the Prickly Pear. Needles removed these were attached by sewing with a cord or narrow blade of grass. The result, a soft padded bed. Among our weavings, those made over the many millennium at the site, sewing was the common treatment for repair. A frayed edge or missing corner was held in shape by the wrapping or sewing with cord or grass. It would be hard to call sewing a craft at the shelter, there lacked all signs of it's use to make clothing, or as a stand alone skill. But it was employed from the start. For every rule, there is the exception. And at the Zueberbueler shelter this was to hold true many times. And why should sewing be any different. As was pointed out there was the lack of clothing in early man's life. Other than blankets it was go it the buff. But the one exception was recovered. Only small swath, but a bit of cloth. Possibly made with the wool of wild sheep, their dropping were noted at the site, but woven, and well done. On inquire with the University of Texas, the Texas state Archaeologist could find no prior recording of early man having cloth. A further check did find it's recovery in California. So we add it here for the visitor, while not evidence of local use. Indigo blue, man's first cloth. From the Zueberbueler data, it seems more that sewing was a tool of early man. True in time it would become one of man's modern crafts, but today we call it tailoring, and the tool remains sewing. The Pecos now offers you sewing from the Zueberbueler. Needles and thread