Remains of a 6,500-Year-Old Flax-fiber rope

Organic materials are among the rarest and most valuable archaeological finds from late prehistory. Therefore, discovering ancient textiles or plant fibers is always a true event—and sheer luck. During the excavation of the remains of a burned Late Chalcolithic house, we came across an extraordinarily valuable find: fragments of a rope made of flax. Despite the millennia spent underground, the rope's weave is remarkably well-preserved—composed of what appears to be two intertwined strands of flax fibers. The rope was discovered between the fired wall plaster of the structure, which had fallen face-down onto the floor of the second story. The location of the find suggests that it was used to hang an object on the wall. Research on the remains of the house is ongoing.