How Ancient is the Practice of Wearing Clothing?

[painted wolf]

Lol... I was going to mention the lice studies but I see I was beaten to it.

I might go for the older date as it seems to be a shared technology with Neanderthals. But we may have abandoned it in part or whole living in the tropics.

wa:do

 

[Bismillah]

Ever since the amount of body hair needed to protect humans from inclement weather was no longer sufficient. Though I know a couple of people who could walk through the wastes of Canada buck bare and still be none the worse for the wear

 

[ChristineES]

Christine's stupid question of the day: If all we found were the fossils, how would we know if they had fur on their bodies or not? (Neanderthals, that is)And another stupid question: If they did have any animals skins as clothes, wouldn't those have turned into dust long ago, too?

 

[painted wolf]

We wouldn't be able to tell entirely from the fossils... but with Neanderthals they left behind tools that are typical for making clothing. Not fine needles but hole punchers and other skin working tools.
Add this to the fact that Neanderthals had extremely worn front teeth, the same type of wear seen in native peoples who chew animal hides to soften them for wearing... is IMHO convincing evidence that they were making clothing to keep warm in their frozen homelands.

wa:do

 

[Nepenthe]

Neanderthals left behind a lithic culture utilizing stone blades and awls (the Stuttgart-Untertürkheim site has a wealth of material) suggesting these tools were used for making clothes. They also had a dentition that indicated chewing on hides to soften them as well as micro wear suggesting they held the hides between their teeth while scraping and preparing the animal skin.

Also, the image of Neanderthals draped in loose fitting furs is likely false- Bent Sorenson has an excellent paper on energy conservation, the elements, Neanderthals and clothing/footwear (Trinkhaus has also written extensively on the earliest footwear based on his analysis of foot anatomy from the Middle and Upper Paleolithic):

An analysis of energy use by Neanderthals in Northern Europe during the mild Eem interglacial period is carried out with consideration of the metabolic energy production required for compensating energy losses during sleep, at daily settlement activities and during hunting expeditions, including transport of food from slain animals back to the settlement. Additional energy sources for heat, security and cooking are derived from fireplaces in the open or within shelters such as caves or huts. The analysis leads to insights not available from archaeological findings that are mostly limited to durable items such as those made of stone:
Even during the benign Eem period, Neanderthals faced a considerable heat loss problem. Wearing tailored clothes or some similar measure was necessary for survival. An animal skin across the shoulder would not have sufficed to survive even average cold winter temperatures and body cooling by convection caused by wind. Clothes and particularly footwear had to be sewn together tightly in order to prevent intrusion of water or snow.​

The La Folie Mousterian site also has evidence of Neanderthal constructed wind breaks which would also be an indispensable aid against the cold (here's the original paper which is only available in French).​

I spent a lot of thesis time on Neanderthal dentition. I do love me some Neanderthals. ​

 

[painted wolf]

Neanderthals are amazing!

wa:do