Its authors include archaeologists who write on knots found in digs of ancient sites (one describes the knots used by the recently discovered Ice Man); practical knotters who have studied the history and uses of knots at sea, for fishing and for various life support activities; a historian of lace; a computer scientist writing on computer classification of doilies; and mathematicians who describe the history of knot theories from the eighteenth century to the present day.

In view of the explosion of mathematical theories of knots in the past decade, with consequential new and important scientific applications, this book is timely in setting down a brief, fragmentary history of mankind's oldest and most useful technical and decorative device — the knot.

Contents:

• Prehistory and Antiquity:
• Pleistocene Knotting
• Why Knot? — Some Speculations on the First Knots
• On Knots and Swamps — Knots in European Prehistory
• Ancient Egyptian Rope and Knots
• Non-European Traditions:
• The Peruvian Quipu
• The Art of Chinese Knots Works: A Short History
• Inuit Knots
• Working Knots:
• Knots at Sea
• A History of Life Support Knots
• Towards a Science of Knots?:
• Studies on the Behaviour of Knots
• A History of Topological Knot Theory of Knots
• Trambles
• Crochet Work — History and Computer Applications
• Decorative Knots and Other Aspects:
• The History of Macramé
• A History of Lace
• Heraldic Knots
• On the True Love Knot
• and other papers

"... it is a veritable compendium of information about every aspects of knots, from their links with quantum theory to attempts to measure their strength when tying climbing ropes together ... the huge scope of this book makes it one I have turned to many times, for many different purposes."

“I enjoyed browsing through all the chapters. They contain material that a mathematician would not normally come across in his work.”