Native American Cordage

[tamrock]

I was going through some drawers looking for something and came across a find I've never posted. It's a grass cord I found in an area I call Mano hill. It is a place that has a great vantage point that overlooks where two small creeks merge below. I have often road my bike from my suburban neighborhood to this place to hunt artifact. It is a place that's never been developed or cultivated ever. Sure cattle did graze at one time and folks ejected rifle and shotgun shell all over within the last 100 or so years. Probably was a great place to hunt coyote at one time as I came across many dark patina .222 shells scattered about. I also believe Im not the first artifact hunter to scan this pace. Now is within city limits to go shooting off your guns. As far as native artifacts go, I've picked up debitage of many colors and types from far and wide. I found this wonderful Mano stone and sandstone abrader. Only 3 broken, once complete points is all. Nothing I've collected around this hill I consider was deposited by natural forces, but instead the hand of man. When I found this cord, my first impression was it was blown in on the wind in more modern times, but maybe not I also thought. Looking closer I now wonder, because it does compare to other images of found nativeAmerican grass cordage. Was this cord a surviving artifact made by the native peoples who would frequent this hill many years ago. That I wonder 🤔

 

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[GDub62]

Would be hard to believe but not impossible considering the other artifacts you've found. Beautiful colors btw. Local college or museum could help with i.d.

 

[pepperj]

I would assume if grass was like hemp rope, a season in the elements pretty well rots it up.
Then again who knows.

 

[newnan man]

I have no experience with cordage, nothing like that would survive here in Florida's rain & humidity. It certainly looks old. Nice artifacts too.

 

[CreekSide]

No experience in historical artifacts but if it’s old I would think it would have had to be in a cave to of lasted to be still intact. Maybe Older the better will know.

 

[tamrock]

Yeah I think it's a long shot. I first thought it was hemp and never really looked at it all that close. Now that I have its clearly grass. There are no caves, but it's a very dry climate here. I have picked up pieces of bone dug up by the prairie dogs and I suspect they are very old and likely antelope. deer or maybe bison. I guess radiocarbon dating would be the way to tell. It just looks like other NA mcordage that has survived many years or so it seems to me. One other odd find on this hill is the broken stem of a clay pipe. I believe native American occupation in this area pretty much ended in the 1870s. At that time there was pretty much nothing from the whites. They were all up in the Rockies chasing gold and silver for around 10 to 15 years already. Around the 1980s coal was found, ditches were dug for irrigation and white settlement pretty much began to increase all up and down these high plains dry and barren terrain. This area I hunt is like I said, never been touched and is like it's been that way for hundreds of years, with the exception of evasive plants that began to arrive with European expansion.

 

[magua]

The cordage looks way fresh.

They've found some ancient cordage in some caves in Europe...not dry environments on some of them but they were protected from elements. Generally, the main cordage signs you find are on pottery shards.

I love the other items. I would have to say the cordage is too fresh as a NA artefact but people use new cordage to highlight old items/beads, etc. You may have found remnants of some old items that were put on modern display or worn...who knows.