Narrow-necked baskets waterproofed with pine pitch would lend gatherers extra mobility in their search for provisions. With the rise of organized agriculture, basketry represented an important asset. Without the presence of utilitarian containers, there would have been limited means of long-term storage for the large caches of foodstuffs that were the result of agricultural production. The best-preserved evidence for early basketry is found in very wet, even submerged, conditions or in dry caves and shelters, such as those of Mexico and the American West. Worldwide, the earliest evidence for the use of basketry comes from an area in Yugoslavia and dates to roughly 30,000 years ago.
Some archaeologists suggest that early societies employed baskets extensively.
Certain types of vegetable material, such as seed-bearing plants and tall grasses, contain significant amounts of silica, which leaves behind a clear, hardened residue on a cutting implement used over an extended period. It would not have been long before early agriculturalists used the large quantities of straw leftover from the harvest to expand basketry production. North America's most ancient basket remains are between seven and nine thousand years old. The high degree of technical development displayed in the earliest examples of basketry yet found on this continent hint at this possibility. As the making of baskets was incorporated into the lifeways of early peoples, need, diligence, creativity, and curiosity were the driving forces behind innovation.