Ropes, braids and string are things we take for granted but which came first? Hair brading? String making? Rope making? Maybe a leather lash or stip? Seems like each would have its own set of problems at the beginning for even a leather strip would would take a great deal of energy and the stone cutting face would spoil easily if the cuts were made on the ground.
Tying up captured explorers before cooking them in enormous pots.
Pulling themsleves out of quicksand traps.
Swinging through the jungles on their way to work.
Soon thereafter, man started weaving his own vines from supple vegetation. A developement almost as important as the discovery of fire & the invention of the wheel.