HISTORY
Thousands of years old
Baskets from a Spanish cave are about 9,500 years old, and fibre crafts in Europe reach back far further.
See the evidence- Gather the stems
- Build a frame
- Weave it tight
- Soft parts, strong whole
00ONE OF THE OLDEST CRAFTS
Basket weaving.
One of the oldest crafts.
For thousands of years, people have woven plants into containers.
Baskets rarely survive, yet some from a cave in southern Spain have been dated to about 9,500 years ago. Here is what archaeologists know, what baskets are made from, and how the basic weaves turn soft stems into something strong.
Plain English, with the sources linked.
Find the weave01Principles
02THE SHORT STORY
Old, simple, clever.
Plant fibres seldom survive,
so every ancient basket is a lucky find.
MATERIALS
Willow, rattan and grass
Almost any flexible stem or leaf will do: willow rods, rattan cane, reed, hazel or esparto grass.
Meet the materials
TECHNIQUE
A few basic weaves
Coiling, plaiting, twining and stake and strand cover most baskets you will ever see.
Try the weave finder03WEAVE FINDER
How is a basket
held together?
Pick a technique to see how it builds a basket. The descriptions follow the technique notes published by UCL's Digital Egypt museum resource.
Many baskets combine more than one technique, for example a different weave for the base, the sides and the rim.
04TWO PIECES OF EVIDENCE
Fragile things,
long history.
Two places where the record
of basketry is unusually clear.
9,500 years old
Hunter-gatherer baskets, carbon-dated
Researchers ran 14 radiocarbon dates on 76 plant-based objects from Cueva de los Murciélagos in Granada. They span about 7500 to 4200 BCE, making them the oldest known hunter-gatherer baskets in southern Europe. They were made from plants including esparto grass, reed and wood.
SOUTHERN SPAIN · 2023 STUDY
Coiling first
The main early technique
In Egypt's predynastic periods coiling was the most important basket technique. Plaiting, sewn plaits and stake-and-strand baskets were introduced much later, in the Ptolemaic Period (305–30 BC).
ANCIENT EGYPT · 5000–3000 BC
Both finds depend on dry conditions. In damp ground, baskets usually rot away and leave nothing behind.
05LOOK CLOSER
Four ways to read
a basket.
Turn it over
Start with the base. A spiral points to coiling, a checked grid to plaiting, and spokes radiating from the centre to a stake-and-strand frame.
Follow one strand
Trace a single strand with your eye. If it passes over and under, it is woven or plaited; if it twists round a partner, it is twined.
Guess the material
Round, tapering rods suggest willow; smooth glossy strips suggest rattan cane; fine bundles suggest grass or rush.
See it in a museum
Rural life and archaeology museums often show baskets beside the tools used to make them, which makes the techniques easier to follow.
06BASKET FACTS
Five things worth
knowing.
Fibre crafts may be far older
Sophisticated textile technologies date back 30,000 years or more in Europe, and some researchers argue that basketry may have roots older still.
Found by miners
The Spanish baskets came to light in the 19th century, when miners dug into Cueva de los Murciélagos. The cave had been used as a burial site.
Rattan is a climbing palm
There are around 600 species of rattan in 13 genera, all in the tropics and subtropics of the Old World. The stems are solid, strong and flexible.
Willow is grown for its rods
The common osier, Salix viminalis, grows to 6–7 metres and is widely cultivated and coppiced for its twigs, which are used in traditional basket-making.
Museums keep the craft on record
The Museum of English Rural Life in Reading holds over 620 baskets, basketwork objects and basket-making tools.
07QUICK QUESTIONS
Baskets, answered.
Short answers to the questions people ask most.
How old is basket weaving?
Very old, though the exact start is unknown because plant fibres rarely survive. The oldest well-dated hunter-gatherer baskets in southern Europe, from Cueva de los Murciélagos in Spain, are about 9,500 years old, and fibre technologies in Europe go back 30,000 years or more.
Why are ancient baskets so rare?
Fibre-based technologies do not preserve well in the archaeological record. Baskets usually rot away, so finds survive only in unusual conditions, such as the very dry cave in southern Spain where the 9,500-year-old examples were found.
What is the difference between coiling, plaiting and twining?
In coiling, a bundle of material is wound into a spiral and stitched together. In plaiting, strands are interlaced over and under crossing strands. In twining, two strands twist around each bundle as they pass it.
What are baskets made from?
Almost any flexible plant material. Willow rods are the traditional British choice; rattan, a climbing palm from the Old World tropics, is widely used for furniture and baskets; and the oldest Spanish baskets were made from plants including esparto grass.
What is rattan?
Rattans are climbing palms. There are around 600 species in 13 genera, found in the tropics and subtropics of the Old World. Their solid, strong and flexible stems are used for everything from baskets to furniture frames.
08Sources
Where the facts come from
- The earliest basketry in southern Europe: Cueva de los Murciélagos (Martínez-Sevilla et al.)Science Advances, 2023
- Basketry techniques in ancient EgyptUCL Digital Egypt
- Impressions and expressions: searching for the origins of basketry (Anderson, 2020)British Museum research repository
- Rattan: species, distribution and uses (Sunderland and Dransfield)FAO
- Common osier (Salix viminalis)IUCN UK Peatland Programme
- Stakeholders: new baskets for the collectionMuseum of English Rural Life, University of Reading