Weaving

The imprints on the fragments of Botai clay indicate that Botaians knew how to fabricate cloth by weaving the material from treee branches.


Fabric imprints in the clay.


Tree branches were available in Kazakhstan.

Weaving Procedure
Take a branch of wood

Crush the stem off
Divide the stem into lengthwise quarters
Break woody part into lots of little bits

Carefully peel bits from the bark/fiber part Do not peel the fiber off the woody bits. You will get more short and broken fibers which are not desirable.
Work the fiber back & forth over an edge, like a table or a board, to remove the bark.
Wet the fiber by running it through your mouth, avoiding the corners.(water does not work as well)
Take a cleaned segment and grasp it between thumb & forefingers of both hands, off-center and about 4-6 inches apart.

With your dominant hand, roll the fiber away from you, simultaneously rolling it toward you in the non-dominant hand.
When it is fully twisted and kinking back on itself, brings your hands together so that the fiber winds up into a 2-ply cord.
Hold the end loop in your non-dominant hand, pinched between thumb & forefinger, with 1 end higher than the other.
Roll the top piece (#1) away from you between your thumb & index finger, then holding it & the lower segment (#2) under tension, twist the top piece toward over the lower piece.
#2 is now on top, and #1 on bottom.
Repeat from * until you have miles of cordage.
Keep moving the non-dominant hand down after every few twists, to keep the place where the cord forms pinched tight.
The wider the angle of the V between the 2 segments of the cord as you twist toward you, the tighter the cord.
As one end starts to thin or run out, add another segment so that it overlaps the old piece & gets caught in the V.
Always keep the ends uneven so that you don't have to add more fiber on both sides at once--makes it weak, and lumpy.
Smooth good, lumpy bad, especially if the end product is wanted for weaving clothing.