美国哈佛大学和格鲁吉亚国家博物馆等机构的考古人员9月11日公布研究成果称，他们在格鲁吉亚境内发现了距今3.4万年的亚麻纤维，这可能是人类使用过的年代最久远的植物纤维。
考古人员在1996年就开始了挖掘工作。他们利用显微镜研究样品时发现了这些野生亚麻纤维，并利用放射性碳测定了其年代。这些纤维中有些留有纺织的痕迹，另有一些被染成黑色、灰色、粉红色等。
考古人员据此推测，3万年前，高加索地区的人们已经在从事纺织和染色，利用这些纤维制作日常用品。考古界此前发现的最古老植物纤维出土于捷克境内，距今2.8万年。
考古人员还在考古点发现了动物毛发及生长在纺织物上的真菌。他们认为，这些可被视为早期人类对皮毛和布料进行加工的证据。
这项研究成果已发表在11日出版的新一期美国《科学》杂志上。（生物谷Bioon.com）
生物谷推荐原始出处：
Science 11 September 2009:DOI: 10.1126/science.1175404
30,000-Year-Old Wild Flax Fibers
Eliso Kvavadze,1 Ofer Bar-Yosef,2,* Anna Belfer-Cohen,3 Elisabetta Boaretto,4 Nino Jakeli,5 Zinovi Matskevich,2 Tengiz Meshveliani5
A unique finding of wild flax fibers from a series of Upper Paleolithic layers at Dzudzuana Cave, located in the foothills of the Caucasus, Georgia, indicates that prehistoric hunter-gatherers were making cords for hafting stone tools, weaving baskets, or sewing garments. Radiocarbon dates demonstrate that the cave was inhabited intermittently during several periods dated to 32 to 26 thousand years before the present (kyr B.P.), 23 to 19 kyr B.P., and 13 to 11 kyr B.P. Spun, dyed, and knotted flax fibers are common. Apparently, climatic fluctuations recorded in the cave’s deposits did not affect the growth of the plants because a certain level of humidity was sustained.
1 Institute of Paleobiology, National Museum of Georgia, Tbilisi 380007, Georgia.
2 Department of Anthropology, Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
3 Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91905, Israel.
4 Radiocarbon Dating and Cosmogenic Isotopes Laboratory, Kimmel Center for Archaeological Science, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel, and Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 59100, Israel.
5 Georgian State Museum, Department of Prehistory, Tbilisi 380105, Georgia.
