The Crucial Importance of Basket Weaving Technology for the World's First Civilizations

The rise of the world's first civilization, that of Sumer in Mesopotamia, could not have occurred without a fully developed basket weaving technology that was available from the beginning. This technology may have reached a high point thousands of years earlier as shown by the Ain Ghazal statues which had a sophisticated woven reed core. While this was not the only developed technology at the time, it was crucial. In this article, I make two main points.

#1. There is now clear physical evidence of basket weaving technology or reed craftsmanship (as the Sumerians also called it) long before the start of the Sumerian civilization. I list three examples of this evidence.

#2. The Sumerians were able to use their highly developed reed craftsmanship to establish the world's first civilization in part because of their weaving skills and because they had access to an unlimited number of reeds, plus mud, clay, and bitumen. In this article, I cite numerous studies and experts to further my argument. I cover sea-going reed ships, irrigation, agriculture, home building, mass-produced bricks, the importation of copper, and more. I also include an appendix in which I list more than 100 words relating to basket weaving technology, words that were used for thousands of years in Mesopotamia, indicating the importance of this technology.