Cordage and plaiting of the fourth millennium BC

Eight samples of cordage along with a unique fragment of miniature birch bark plait, recovered from the classic wetland site of Sārnate in coastal western Latvia, together provide a rare insight into fibrework and plaiting in northeastern Europe in the late fourth millennium BC. Technical analysis of these finds is supplemented by stereomicroscopic examination of the decorative plait imprints that occur on the contemporaneous pottery of the region, potentially offering an additional window into the interlacing techniques practised by these hunter-fisher communities – although the analysis of these shallow and indistinct impressions has proven methodologically challenging.