The use of tie-twined matting appears to be an old trait in the Desert Area and its cultures. It is known throughout the peninsula, where old traits were retained, and also in archaeological collections from various parts of the Great Basin and Southwest. A sampling of the literature reveals the following occurrences: Lovelock Cave (Loud and Harrington, 1929, pp. 56-60); Humboldt Cave (Heizer and Krieger, 1956, p. 57); Danger Cave (Jennings et al., 1957, pp. 242-243); Promontory Point (Steward, 1937, p. 29); Hueco Area (Cosgrove, 1947, p. 113; see also p. 114 for various other Southwestern locations); the Guadalupe Mountain area (Ferdon, 1946, pp. 15-16); and portions of Texas (Jackson, 1937, p. 157).
Netting
Hairnets.—Two complete hairnets (139534a and b) and one fragment (139534c) were found on crania in the cave ([pl. 16], a, c). All of these were tied with a single-element square-knot technique ([fig. 3]). Cordage is of the 2-ply Z-twist type with each single S-twisted. The cord is probably of agave fiber.
Fig. 3. Square-knot technique.
The two complete hairnets are begun with a center circle of discrete tied yarn. Ten large loops are cast onto this. In the next round, each of the large loops has three loops tied onto it with the continuous cord, making a total of 30 loops for the circumference of the net ([fig. 4]). The gauge of the succeeding 15 rows of knots is approximately 2.5 cm.
In order to gather the lower edge of the net for fitting purposes, the cord was doubled and two loops were gathered together and tied with the same square-knot technique ([fig. 5]).
The third net (c) has eleven loops cast onto the original circle; the technique of tying is the same, but the mesh gauge of 1 to 1.5 cm. is finer.