Some much older sites have tools that suggest human relatives could have worn clothes hundreds of thousands of years ago, but the evidence is far less certain.
In that period of time personal ornaments appeared in the lives of Pleistocene humans. Contrebandiers Cave, for example, is littered with tiny shells that could have produced no nutritional benefit but may have been valued for other reasons.
The lice that live in human clothing are a distinct lineage that evolved from those that live on our scalps. By using DNA sequencing to trace when these clothes-loving lice first appeared, genetically diverging from their relatives, scientists can learn when humans started wearing clothes in the first place.
A decade ago Reed authored a genetic study of clothing lice that traced their lineages far back in time and suggested that H. Sapiens in Africa may have been wearing clothing as long as , years ago—a date that corresponds nicely with the facts found in the ground in Morocco.
Hallett is planning experiments in making and using bone tools to better understand how Paleolithic clothing was sourced—a process far more involved than online ordering or even a trip to the mall on a Holiday weekend.
After all, humans had to first hunt and kill dangerous predators, develop skills in crafting and using ever more specialized tools and labor through time-consuming processing of handmade fur and leather. The bones of cattle-like animals showed different markings, suggesting they were processed for meat.
And my hope is that archaeologists working in much older sites also start looking for this pattern," she said. It's challenging to figure out when the use of clothing began. It's highly likely early humans like Neanderthals that lived in cold climates long before Homo sapiens arrived on the scene had clothing to protect themselves from the extreme weather, but there's not much hard evidence.
Genetic studies of lice indicate that clothing lice diverged from their human head louse ancestors at least 83, years ago and possibly as early as , years ago, which suggests humans were wearing clothes before major migrations out of Africa. These ancient climate change events helped early humans migrate across the Arabian desert. Hallett said that one of 98 ,year-old tools made from elephant bone and recently discovered in Italy may have been used to smooth leather.
They were likely used by Neanderthals. Principal investigator David Reed , associate curator of mammals at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus, studies lice in modern humans to better understand human evolution and migration patterns. His latest five-year study used DNA sequencing to calculate when clothing lice first began to diverge genetically from human head lice. The data shows modern humans started wearing clothes about 70, years before migrating into colder climates and higher latitudes, which began about , years ago.
There have been several different theories based on what archaeologists have been able to find. For instance, based on genetic skin-coloration research, humans lost body hair around one million years ago—an ideal time to start wearing clothes for warmth.
Eyed needles started appearing around 40, years ago, but those tools point to more complex clothing, meaning clothes had probably already been around for a while. All that being said, scientists have started gathering alternative data that might help solve the mystery of when we humans started covering our bits.
A recent University of Florida study concluded that humans started wearing clothes some , years ago, lining up with the end of the second-to-last ice age. How did they figure that date out? By studying the evolution of lice. Scientists observed that clothing lice are, well, extremely well-adapted to clothing.
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