Archaeologists Are Reconstructing the 'Invisible' Technologies of the Stone Age

There is a great quote:

"The Egyptians built using stone but wrote day to day on papyrus.

The Sumerians built with mud and wrote on clay tablets.

This is why we have lots of Egyptians buildings but not much of their writing and the opposite with the Sumerians."

I had one of the best sleeps of my life on a bed of soft sand, in the curve of a dry creek that I really should not have slept in due to flash flood risk. Since then I've wondered if ancient people might have made mattresses of sand, but they were so simple and evanescent that they left no trace.

Related: "Rope, twine and thread: Invisible technologies of the Stone Age (knowablemagazine.org)" 11.sep.2026 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49662246 57 comments

It would be in fact quite amusing if the technology the Neolithians were actually most proud of had nothing to do with stone, just didn’t last. Better fabrics? Waterproof clothing? Elaborate wooden tools made using “dumb” stone ones?

Rope is one thing that I wonder how to make from scratch if you'd be dropped somewhere in nature. I know it's about weaving plant fibers, but, how can it get so long?

They could have explained that the fancy word Lochstab just means hole rod in German

If you've never watched Clickspring's Youtube videos you're in for a treat.

He has a long-running series where he works to make a new Antikythera mechanism using ancient (bronze age) technologies. He's a master machinist, so he has fabulous insight into workholding, precision, etc. https://www.youtube.com/show/VLPLZioPDnFPNsHnyxfygxA0to4RXv4...

His skeleton clock build is one of my favorite pieces of internet content ever, up there with Bartoz's gorgeous webpages: https://ciechanow.ski/cameras-and-lenses/

Y’all might enjoy Virginia Postrel’s _The Fabric of Civilization_ , which mostly covers the last few thousand years.

And when they say 'Stone Age' they mean 'for most of our time on earth'

The rope-making video clip is very cool. Sounds plausible.

Stefan Milo did a long one on these objects:

https://youtu.be/Q8X9l42ZgsU?is=hW5M_JXqsPtiuHVk

Rope making is possible but not really likely.

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Let me guess, it's the boring stuff.