Archaeologists found the world's oldest piece of string. They are happy because the string is about 50,000 years old. The string also shows that early humans called Neanderthals were very intelligent. Neanderthals became extinct 35,000 years ago, but the string shows they understood plants and textiles. The Neanderthals may have used the string to make clothes, bags, rope, mats and other things. They were probably as intelligent as humans today.
The string is very small but it shows how people lived 50,000 years ago. A researcher said she could learn many things from the string. It had three different fibres in it. Nature does not make this naturally. The Neanderthals could make things like rope from different fibres. They also knew about plants and trees. The researcher said the Neanderthals had the intelligence, "to use different parts of the environment".