Scientists find evidence of humans making clothes 120,000 years ago:
[...] Now researchers say they have found some of the earliest evidence of humans using clothing in a cave in Morocco, with the discovery of bone tools and bones from skinned animals suggesting the practice dates back at least 120,000 years.
Dr Emily Hallett, of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Germany, the first author of the study, said the work reinforced the view that early humans in Africa were innovative and resourceful.
"Our study adds another piece to the long list of hallmark human behaviours that begin to appear in the archaeological record of Africa around 100,000 years ago," she said.
While skins and furs are unlikely to survive in deposits for hundreds of thousands of years, previous studies looking at the DNA of clothing lice have suggested clothes may have appeared as early as 170,000 years ago – probably sported by anatomically modern humans in Africa.
The latest study adds further weight to the idea that early humans may have had something of a wardrobe.
Writing in the journal i Science, Hallett and colleagues report how they analysed animal bones excavated in a series of digs spanning several decades at Contrebandiers Cave on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. The cave has previously been revealed to contain the remains of early humans.
Journal Reference:
Emily Y. Hallett. A worked bone assemblage from 120,000–90,000 year old deposits at Contrebandiers Cave, Atlantic Coast, Morocco, iScience (DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2021.102988)
(Score: 5, Interesting) by DannyB on Friday September 17 2021, @08:46PM (3 children)
From reading the bible, it is clear that in ancient times, clothing appears to have been quite valuable. The clothes you wore might be one of the most valuable things you owned.
There are various examples. Without even looking, two come immediately to mind. Samson made a bet regarding a large number of sets of clothing. Elisha's sidekick Gehazi ran after Naaman and tricked him into giving him two sets of clothing. IIRC.
A third example, mentioned in old testament, when Jesus on the cross, soldiers gambling over his meager clothing, which was the only thing recorded that He ever owned.
I would assume 120,000 years ago, clothing might be as or more valuable than a few thousand years ago.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Thexalon on Saturday September 18 2021, @03:12AM (1 child)
In general, yes, clothes were expensive until quite recently. Not your basic caveman furs, which an average person could stitch together reasonably easily from stuff readily available, but once you get into cloth it becomes a massive chore.
Which makes perfect sense if you think of the labor involved:
1. Grow or gather some kind of soft fiber, whether that be wool, flax, cotton, or something else. Hours of labor required, just like any other agricultural good.
2. Spin that fiber into thread. If you've ever tried doing that by hand either twisting with your fingers or using a drop spindle or some other very simple tool, you'll get some idea of how much work that is to get enough together to make something useful with it.
3. If you're trying to get fancy, you might consider dyes for your thread at this point. Or alternately, do the dying after the next step. But either way, you're talking about a complex chemical process likely done by a professional.
4. Weave that thread into cloth. Hours and hours more of work there.
5. Tailor the cloth into the shape you want your clothes. Without any silly things like sewing machines. A relatively small pain in the butt compared to spinning and weaving, but still not an easy task, and you're trying to be very careful to not waste cloth because of how hard it is to make it.
We get lots of accounts of even high-society women doing a lot of fiber processing as a regular chore.
Typical Roman citizens would have had about 2 outfits, total. Roman slaves in the same period would have had just 1 unless their owner was very rich. Your typical peasant in 1000 CE *might* get a new outfit in a year, if there wasn't trouble like warfare or plague or crop failure. It wasn't until the mid-1800's that industrial production had gotten to the point where even aristocrats owned more than a few sets of clothes, and even then a good coat was on the same kind of expense level as a car today.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday September 19 2021, @02:43PM
Internet expert on ancient clothing manufacturing.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday September 18 2021, @03:23PM
You have to remember that there were no cotton gins or looms. Every article of clothing took an incredible amount of labor to create. Even as late as the depression, clothing, rugs, blankets were very expensive. My grandmothers made their own clothes, and made quilted blankets and rugs out of rags.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @09:17PM
Impossible. The earth is only 6000 years old. Adam and Eve had no clothes until their eyes were opened by the forbidden fruit! /s
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @09:42PM (7 children)
My ancestors didn't wear clothes, cook, or farm until a few hundred years ago, if you can trust the spanish to tell it.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 17 2021, @10:13PM (4 children)
Yeah, well, the Spanish are some kinda kin to Anglos. You can't trust a word that any of them say. The only Europeans you can believe, are the ones in their graves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @10:38PM (3 children)
Wow, I knew Europe was hated by rightwingers but this is some eyebrow raising levels of triggered!
(Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 17 2021, @10:42PM (2 children)
And your post paints you as an idiot leftwinger. Even leftwingers know that leftwingers and Euros lie all the time. White man speak with forked tongue, remember?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @10:55PM (1 child)
He triggered Runaway.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @11:04PM
He also shaved his eyebrows.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 18 2021, @09:24PM (1 child)
You're welcome
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 18 2021, @10:30PM
For what?
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Friday September 17 2021, @10:16PM (3 children)
Was it freezing cold where they found the lice, in which case the clothes (furs) made sense.
Or was it a primitive bible belt in a tropical climate where seeing each others' naughty bits was OH MY GOD NO!!!!?
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @10:21PM
It was Morocco, so the clothes were burqas because that's what Mohammed says you have to wear.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Friday September 17 2021, @10:50PM (1 child)
“The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.”
Shroedinger's quote, I guess. Either Mark Twain said that, or he didn't say that. It's not far from the truth, either way. You can freeze your ass off in places you never expected to be cold. And, keep in mind that 120,000 years ago, early humans didn't enjoy our modern warm climate.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday September 18 2021, @03:30PM
In August 1973 I was in the Air Force and flew to Thailand, where I was stationed for the next year (I missed streaking and Watergate, the headline when I got back was NIXON RESIGNS. I'd had no clue).
In Thailand, it's so close to the equator that is almost never gets below 80 F. One night it got down to the seventies, and the local media claimed that three people had died from the cold.
When I reached Fairbanks in the middle of the night in August 1974, it was 65 degrees. I was never colder in my life, not even trying to change my car's heater hose at ten below zero a couple decades later.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @10:27PM (1 child)
1. Put lice on innocent Afghan civilians
2. Drone strike
- Uncle Joe's 101 Uses for Dead Afghans, 2021
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday September 19 2021, @10:09AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 18 2021, @01:59AM (2 children)
The archeologists really should've specified "North Africa" rather than just "Africa". It's a huge continent.
I thought it was unlikely that any sign of advancement was likely to be found in sub-Saharan Africa, and, as always, that was correct. That place stands out among all others in the world for its primitiveness.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 18 2021, @10:24PM
That time frame, around 100,000 years ago, was when East Africans born below the Sahara savanna started their migration around the world.
Are you assuming haplotypes of current day Moroccans existed one hundred thousand years ago? Your likely haplogroup didn't exist one hundred thousand years ago.
I understand your post is an expression of your feelings of inadequacy. Posts like this one of yours justifies your self-hatred.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday September 19 2021, @09:07AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 18 2021, @05:26AM (2 children)
It's interesting to speculate that the first clothing to move beyond adornment might have been a response to people moving in to climates where it gets colder. What we think of as simple skins, or crude early fibers may have been their equivalent of expedition gear.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by maxwell demon on Saturday September 18 2021, @09:59AM (1 child)
There are also other advantages of clothes: They can protect from the sun, they can protect from injury by thorns or sharp rock edges, and some might give at least a bit of protection from enemy spears.
I can also imagine completely different origins. Maybe initially the fur of an animal was worn as a trophy for killing the animal. That would mean prestige for the wearer, and therefore the leaders would want to get a fur even if they didn't kill the animal themselves, making it into a status symbol. Quickly, just wearing the fur as is would not be enough; it would start to be treated, ultimately making it into clothing. As soon as clothing was a status symbol, also clothing from other materials would be made. Over time, being naked would be looked down upon, as a sign that someone could not afford clothing. That would over time naturally lead to nakedness being considered something to be ashamed of (anything associated with poverty tends to go that way).
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday September 18 2021, @03:04PM
Hiding an injury or other unfitness may be another reason. Certainly the suit is designed for that. Of course, if the wearer has to do something vigorous, that can give away that there's a problem. Therefore, everyone understands that you mustn't engage in any vigorous activity or get dirty while wearing a suit, because that would ruin it. Consciousness of that helps wearers behave in an appropriately stately manner.