What if we called it the Flax Age instead of the Iron Age?

Re:What if we called it the Flax Age instead of the Iron Age? by Cyberdog on Wednesday November 20, 2019 @02:05PM (#21587257)

> Intriguingly, a 2013 discovery in southeast France has led to tentative suggestions that Homo sapiens may not have been the first species to have made string. A tiny sliver of twisted fibers—just 0.028 inches long—was found in a site occupied by Neanderthals 90,000 years ago, well before sapiens arrived in Europe.

Is "0.028 inches" a typo here? How would anyone find a thread that short, and, if found, how could one tell that the thread was intentionally woven instead of just fibers lying next to each other and getting twisted together by random chance?

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Re:What if we called it the Flax Age instead of the Iron Age? by Swenrekcah on Wednesday November 20, 2019 @02:10PM (#21587309)

Seriously, that’s only 0.7 mm. It could be the diameter?

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Re:What if we called it the Flax Age instead of the Iron Age? by morelisp on Wednesday November 20, 2019 @04:08PM (#21588527)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S02773... is apparently the relevant paper.

The fiber was some remnants found on stone tools, apparently. I don't have the archaeological background to say if the claim it's not possible to twist in nature in plausible or not.

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