From discovery.com: Coils of Ancient Egyptian Rope Found in Cave.
The ancient Egyptian’s secret to making the strongest of all rigging ropes lies in a tangle of cord coils in a cave at the Red Sea coast, according to preliminary study results presented at the recent congress of Egyptologists in Rhodes.
Discovered three years ago by archaeologists Rodolfo Fattovich of the Oriental Studies University of Naples and Kathryn Bard of Boston University, the ropes offer an unprecedented look at seafaring activities in ancient Egypt.
"No ropes on this scale and this old have been so well preserved in their original context — in Egypt or elsewhere," Bard told Discovery News.
Carefully wrapped in coils by ancient Egyptian sailors almost 4,000 years ago, the ropes were found in a hand-hewn cave at the ancient Red Sea port of Marsa Gawasis, 23 kilometers (14 miles) south of Safaga. [continue]
Imagine. Some 4,000 years ago an ordinary seaman coiled up ropes after a voyage, as he no doubt had done before (they are very professionally stowed) never thinking that a couple of millenia onward we would be wondering about them. They were just the tools of his trade and he embedded in his time and place. What about us and our tools? Will I put away my husband’s specialized knife and fork only for them to be found in my storage space millenia hence? Will someone wonder, as I do, about the ordinary person who cleaned them, wrapped them in their bag, and put them away?