# Humanities & Anthropology > History & Civilisations >  When did humans first...

## Maciamo

Here is a list of the oldest evidence known to archaeology for things that humans did for the first time in prehistory. The purpose is to give a overview of the timeline of technological developments across prehistoric times.


- Humans made *stone tools* at least 2.6 million years ago in Ethiopia (source). Modern and ancient chimps have been known to make and use stone tools for multiple purposes too (source), so the use of tools may date from well before the split between the two species some 6 million years ago.

- Humans started making *stone-tipped spears* at least 500,000 years ago in South Africa (source) and 400,000 to 500,000 years ago in northern Europe (source).


==== Neanderthals appear in Europe c. 300,000 years ago / Start of the Middle Paleolithic ====


- Humans *cooked food in a hearth* at least 300,000 years ago in Israel (source).

- The earliest evidence of *religion* come in the form of totemism or animal worship (like bear cult) practised by Neanderthals, some time between 100,000 and 300,000 years ago.

- Neanderthals started *burying their dead* possibly as 300,000 years ago in southern Europe, and indisputably since 130,000 years ago (source).


==== Anatomically modern humans appear in Ethiopia circa 160,000 years ago ====


- Neanderthals made *string/rope* at least 90,000 years ago in France (source).

- Humans made *paint* from red ochre at least 75,000 years agoin South Africa (source).

- Humans may have made *bow and arrows* as early as 64,000 years ago in South Africa (source).

- Homo sapiens made *needles* at least 61,000 years ago in South Africa (source)


==== Homo sapiens sapiens appears circa 60,000 to 50,000 years ago / Start of Upper Paleolithic ====


- Humans started making *fish hooks* at least 42,000 years ago in Indonesia (source).

- Humans made the first* cave paintings* at least 40,000 years ago in Spain (source).

- The oldest known *musical instrument* is a flute from Germany dating from 35,000 years ago (source).

- Humans first *domesticated dogs* around 32,000 years ago in Belgium (source) and in the Altai mountains (source).

- Humans started to make *ceramic* at least 25,000 to 29,000 years ago in Central Europe (source).

- The first *pottery vessels* appear at least 20,000 years ago in Northeast Asia (source).


==== End of the Last Glacial period circa 12,000 years ago / Start of the Holocene ====


- The *cultivation of cereals* appear to have started at least 12,000 years ago in the Levant (source), and perhaps earlier in Northeast Africa.

- Humans started building *stone structures*, including *temples*, at Göbekli Tepe in Anatolia about 11,000 years ago (source).

- The use of *calendars* dates from at least from 10,000 years ago in Scotland (source).

- The world's first *bricks* were made in the Near East at least 9,500 years ago (source).

- *Metallurgy* may have started in the Balkans with copper working (c. 7500 years ago, source), followed by gold (7000 ybp), bronze (6500 ybp) and silver (6000 ybp).

- The oldest evidence of *writing* date from 7300 years ago in central Romania (source) and northern Greece (source).

- The world's first *cities* appeared in southern Mesopotamia some 6,500 years ago (source).

- The first *potter's wheel* appears in the Near East between 6,500 and 5,200 years ago, during the Ubaid period (source).

- The earliest evidence of *horse domestication*, and perhaps also horse riding, dates from 6,000 to 5,500 years ago in the Eurasian Steppe (source).

- The oldest trace of *glassmaking* comes from the Near East circa 5,500 years ago (source).

- Humans started making *swords and bronze weapons* in the Maykop culture in the northwest Caucasus c. 5500 to 5000 years ago.

- The world's oldest known *wheel* is approximately 5,200 years old and was found in Slovenia (source).

- The oldest known *horse-drawn chariots* date from the Sintashta and Petrovka cultures in the Eurasian Steppe, c. 4,000 years ago (source).



Feel free to contribute.

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## LeBrok

- first string/rope - neanderthal 90,000 year old. http://www.newscientist.com/article/...l#.Uvfld_ldUYk

- first paint, red ochre - Iron oxide is one of the most common minerals found on earth, and there is much evidence that yellow and red ochre pigment was used in prehistoric and ancient times by many different civilizations on different continents. Pieces of ochre engraved with abstract designs have been found at the site of the Blombos Cave in South Africa, dated to around 75,000 years ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ochre#cite_note-4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blombos_Cave





> - Humans started to make *pottery at least 25,000 to 29,000 years ago in Central Europe (source)*


I think this means first ceramic object. First pottery as pots and vessels were invented later.



> Pottery originates during the Neolithic period. Ceramic objects like the Gravettian culture Venus of Dolní Věstonice figurine discovered in the Czech Republic date back to 29,000–25,000 BC,[6] and pottery vessels discovered in Jiangxi, China date back to 20,000 BP.[7] Early Neolithic pottery has also been found in Jomon Japan (10,500 BC),[8] the Russian Far East (14,000 BC),[9] Sub-Saharan Africa and South America.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pottery


- needle - A variety of archaeological finds illustrate sewing has been present for thousands of years. The earliest bone needle dates to 61,000 BC and was discovered inSibudu Cave, South Africa.[4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewing_needle


- stone structure - Gobekli Tepe? 11 k years ago. There is a claim that place in south Africa had some stone structure (Adam's Calendar) dating to 75k BP, though I couldn't find anything scientific to make it "real".
http://www.ancient-wisdom.co.uk/africaadamscalendar.htm





> - Humans may have made *bow and arrows as early as 64,000 years ago in South Africa (source).*


 Arrow yes, but I'm not sure about Bow part. The oldest arrows were thrown from one-handheld extension. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlatl
The oldest actuall bow fragments come from Europe (8,000BC). Although I find it very likely, looking at small arrowheads, that they were used for arrows shot with bows, which judging by age wouldn't survive being made of wood.

Looking at these first inventions, there is quite a bunch coming from South Africa. Most likely more to come from their sites.

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## Maciamo

Great finds, Lebrok. I will update the OP to add your input.

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## ebAmerican

The development of Sapiens clothing can be guessed around the same time clothing lice diverged from head lice between 83,000 and 170,000 years ago. I would guess around 100,000 years ago when naked Africans walked out of Africa and into colder climates in Eurasia. There may have been minimal clothing like penis pipes going back 3 million years in Africa. http://mbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/28/1/29.full

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## bicicleur

> - needle - A variety of archaeological finds illustrate sewing has been present for thousands of years. The earliest bone needle dates to 61,000 BC and was discovered inSibudu Cave, South Africa.[4]
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sewing_needle


to my knowledge, oldest needles discovered in Eurasia are more than 40000 years old in Kostenki near the river Don, by people who where there before Aurignacians came there from the Balkans/Central-Europe

in Western Europe, the needles were used only 20000 years later, during LGM

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## bicicleur

> Arrow yes, but I'm not sure about Bow part. The oldest arrows were thrown from one-handheld extension. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlatl
> The oldest actuall bow fragments come from Europe (8,000BC). Although I find it very likely, looking at small arrowheads, that they were used for arrows shot with bows, which judging by age wouldn't survive being made of wood.
> 
> Looking at these first inventions, there is quite a bunch coming from South Africa. Most likely more to come from their sites.


archery seems to have develloped from the atlatl , around LGM and spread all around the world very fast - tough there is no solid proof : The oldest actuall bow fragments come from Europe (8,000BC)

looks like Howiesons Poort technocomplex was way ahead of his time 60-70000 years ago, but strangely, everything seems to be have been lost again afterwards

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## LeBrok

> looks like* Howiesons Poort technocomplex* was way ahead of his time 60-70000 years ago, but strangely, everything seems to be have been lost again afterwards


 That's a news to me. I have to read up more about this part of world and history. I heard that people had to hide in south Africa couple of times during terrible droughts in Africa, during Ice Ages. However I didn't have a clue about high development of this civilization, or almost civilization.

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## bicicleur

> That's a news to me. I have to read up more about this part of world and history. I heard that people had to hide in south Africa couple of times during terrible droughts in Africa, during Ice Ages. However I didn't have a clue about high development of this civilization, or almost civilization.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_modernity

*Great leap forward[edit]*
Middle Stone Age bifacial points, engraved ochre and bone tools from the c. 75 - 80,000 year old M1 & M2 phases at Blombos cave[_citation needed_](Staged photo - not as they were found)
_See also: Upper Paleolithic and Late Stone Age_
Most advocates of this theory argue that the great leap forward occurred sometime between 50-40 kya in Africa or Europe, or perhaps simultaneously throughout the occupied world; however some argue for an earlier date and a slower radiation, urging evidence for advanced tool-making (e.g., pyrolithic and bone tools) and abstract designs at Blombos Cave and other sites along the South African coast by at least 80 kya.[1]


personally I don't believe that what happened 40-50 kya in Europe has anything to do with what happened 80 kya in South Africa

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## Maciamo

> looks like Howiesons Poort technocomplex was way ahead of his time 60-70000 years ago, but strangely, everything seems to be have been lost again afterwards


Or remains undiscovered by archaeologists... I don't think that the most creative of Palaeolithic humans only lived either in Europe, Israel or South Africa. That's only what the archaeological shows because these regions have a substantial number of archaeologists. The biggest part of Africa still needs to be explored and surely will hold a lot of invaluable data.

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## LeBrok

Possible *first net* for catching small animals. 




> Dolní Věstonice (often without diacritics as Dolni Vestonice) refers to an *Upper Paleolithic archaeological* site near the village of *Dolní Věstonice, Moravia in the Czech Republic*, dating to approximately 26,000 BP, as supported by radiocarbon dating. The site is unique in that it has been a particularly abundant source of prehistoric artifacts (especially art) dating from the *Gravettian period, which spanned roughly 27,000 to 20,000 B.C. In* 
>  Contrary to popular beliefs regarding the hunting practices of people living in the Upper Pleistocene, the inhabitants of this site did not solely chase mammoths with spears. *Indentations of netting on the clay floors of the huts found at the site were preserved in the archaeological record when the structures burned down,* *hardening the clay. These indentations strongly suggest that these people were using nets to catch smaller prey in addition to hunting mammoths with spears.* Finally, shells found at the site have been shown to originate from the Mediterranean, suggesting these people either traveled to collect them or were trade partners with other groups nearby.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doln%C3..._(archaeology)

Gravettians might have been the *first* to construct *HUT*S. Walls built of wood with proper floor, grass mixed with clay, and hearth for cooking.

Another example from same time frame:



> Nadel and his team have been exploring Ohalo II, a 23,000-year-old fishermen-hunters-gatherers camp on the shores of the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret).The site was uncovered several years ago after the lake had receded drastically because of years of little rainfall in the region.The oval-shaped "mat" that was found is made of grass. Found in the largest of the six brush huts uncovered, the most ancient in the world, the floor covering measures 4.5 meters long. It was located close to the hut wall, around a central hearth.The mat was meticulously crafted from bundles of grass. The charred stems and leaves were covered with a thin, closely pressed layer of clay. According to Nadel, this was apparently intended to preserve the structure and order of the sheaves


https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org...fabedding.html


*First Harvest*
From same site we learn about high consumption of wheat and barley, 23k years ago.



> Some 90,000 seeds and fruit from more than 100 species of trees and plants have been identified so far.* Among the grains, wild wheat and barley stand out.* These were among the first that humans cultivated at a much later period.



PS. This confirms my conjecture (made in other threads) that humans consumed wheat grains long before it got cultivated. Especially consumption of it was high among women and children, the gatherers.

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## LeBrok

*First known weaved basket.*  




> The oldest known baskets have been carbon dated to between *10,000 and 12,000* years old, earlier than any established dates for archeological finds of pottery, and were discovered in *Faiyumin upper Egypt*.[1] Other baskets have been discovered in the Middle East that are up to 7,000 years old. However, baskets seldom survive, as they are made from perishable materials. The most common evidence of a knowledge of basketry is an imprint of the weave on fragments of clay pots, formed by packing clay on the walls of the basket and firing.


However, the basket is made of soft organic materials, therefore very perishable. I'm expecting date for first basket to be moved far back, possibly 50-100k years ago.

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## LeBrok

World's oldest leather shoe discovered in Armenia.



> The 5,500 year old shoe, the oldest leather shoe in the world, was discovered by a team of international archaeologists and their findings will publish on June 9th in the online scientific journal


http://phys.org/news195326766.html

They are also very perishable in archeological sense, and the invention might be way older, on a scale of tens of thousands of years. There could be a good (long tradition) reason why women love their shoes? :)

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## Angela

> World's oldest leather shoe discovered in Armenia.
> 
> http://phys.org/news195326766.html
> 
> They are also very perishable in archeological sense, and the invention might be way older, on a scale of tens of thousands of years. There could be a good (long tradition) reason why women love their shoes? :)


I meant to respond to this but got distracted by nonsense...

The museum displays of clothing, jewelry, household artifacts, are some of my favorites...

These are some images of Roman footwear...

Good design is obviously timeless, lol.


And yes, our love affair with shoes (and bags and scarves) is a longstanding one...:)

Ed. And one can steal from the ancients without fear of copyright infringement!

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## LeBrok

*First boat.*
- circumstantial evidence suggest that simple logboat or a raft was invented 900,000 years
- oldest surviving logboat 10,000 years old
- boat made of reed, 7,000 years old in Kuwait
- boat made of planks - probably copper age with first wood cutting tools made of metal, copper axe. (my guess)






> Dugouts are the oldest boats archaeologists have found, dating back about eight thousand years.[2]
> Boats have served as transportation since early times.[3] Circumstantial evidence, such as the early settlement of Australia over 40,000 years ago, findings in Crete dated 130,000 years ago,[4] and findings in Flores dated to 900,000 years ago,[5] suggest that boats have been used since prehistoric times. The earliest boats are thought to have been logboats,[6] and the oldest boats found by archaeological excavation dating from around 7,000–10,000 years ago. The oldest recovered boat in the world is the Pesse canoe, a dugout, or hollowed tree trunk from a _Pinus sylvestris_ and constructed somewhere between 8200 and 7600 BC. This canoe is exhibited in the Drents Museum in Assen, Netherlands.[7][8] Other very old dugout boats have also been recovered.[9][10][11] A 7,000 year-old seagoing reed boat has been found in Kuwait.[12] Boats were used between 4000 and 3000 BC in Sumer,[3] ancient Egypt[13] and in the Indian Ocean.[3]
> Boats played a very important part in the commerce between the Indus Valley Civilization and Mesopotamia.[14] Evidence of varying models of boats has also been discovered in various Indus Valley sites.[15][16] The Uru wooden big boat was made in Beypore a village in south Calicut, Kerala, in southwestern India. These have been used by the Arabs and Greeks since ancient times as trading vessels. This mammoth wooden ship was constructed using teak, without any iron or blueprints and which has transportation capacity of 400 tonnes.
> The accounts of historians Herodotus, Pliny the Elder, and Strabo suggest that boats were used for commerce and traveling


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boat

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## Engel

I don't really fully agree with OOA theory.
God made Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Adam and Eve Sinned, so God cast them out in the outer darkness where
we now live and here OOA may have happened.
So now science has to locate the dam an Eve from the Garden

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## Aberdeen

> I don't really fully agree with OOA theory.
> God made Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
> Adam and Eve Sinned, so God cast them out in the outer darkness where
> we now live and here OOA may have happened.
> So now science has to locate the dam an Eve from the Garden


I think this thread is a discussion of documented fact, rather than mythology.

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## Engel

> I think this thread is a discussion of documented fact, rather than mythology.


Are you not aware that the bible is an authentic document

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## LeBrok

> Are you not aware that the bible is an authentic document


Yes, it is an authentic document of prophets, poets and visionaries of way back. It is not a document of historians and scientists. Other words not a book to blindly follow.

Listen to this documentary with historians and scientists telling how your god was created and went through evolution of character:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yzpaIrTFMc

When you know the time when first god was create, or any other human invention, post it here. Otherwise use appropriate threads, please.

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## Aberdeen

> Are you not aware that the bible is an authentic document


Are you not aware that the Havamal is an authentic document? Sacrifice to Odin while you still can. But when we talk about scientific evidence, that's something different and is about things that can be confirmed by the use of the scientific method. The ways of the Gods are inscrutable and cannot be understood through the use of the scientific method, so we should discuss their stories in another thread.

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## Aberdeen

I know that clothing must have been invented long before the first example of clothing that has survived to the present, but I'm curious as to whether anyone knows the date of the oldest textiles found so far.

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## LeBrok

> I know that clothing must have been invented long before the first example of clothing that has survived to the present, but I'm curious as to whether anyone knows the date of the oldest textiles found so far.


One of oldest proof of textiles are imprints of textiles on ceramic vessels. It happened accidentally when fresh clay pots were touched with fabrics, clothes of pot makers, and their texture got imprinted and as such found by archeologists. I'm not sure where is the article I read it in.

Otherwise textiles must have showed up right after net (for catching animals) invention. It is roughly same idea of weaving pattern, just much denser than when making nets or baskets.

I wonder what was invented first, the weaving pattern or making threads/strings out of fine fiber. 

Maybe inspecting ancint cave paintings or figurines would shine some light if they wore textiles of just skins.


This is interesting:



> The earliest dyedflax fibers have been found in a prehistoric cave in the Republic of Georgia and date back to 36,000 BP


But they don't give a source.

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## Taranis

> Are you not aware that the bible is an authentic document


_Which_ bible? _Which_ version?  :Rolleyes: 

The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, the New Testament was written in Greek, and Jesus himself probably spoke Aramaic in everyday life. Which version do you use, which, if any, books that are commonly called "Apocrypha" (both intertestamental and new testament) do you consider to hold authority, or do you agree with the decisions of First Council of Nicea to render them non-canonical?

Also, have you ever wondered yourself why we call the first and second books of Moses respectively "_Genesis_" and "_Exodus_", and not "_Bereshīt_" and "_Shemot_"? These names come from the Septuagint, a translation of the Old Testament into Greek from the Hellenistic period. There are differences between it and the Masoretic version (written in the original Hebrew), were you even aware of that?

One of the most beautiful examples is the story of the Deluge, which is not an originally Jewish story, it is Sumerian in origin was taken from the much older Epic of Gilgamesh (in some cases, taken to the to the word from the Akkadian standard version).

We can continue the discussion of the origin of the various parts of the bible in another thread, but that certainly doesn't belong here.

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## Angela

> _Which_ bible? _Which_ version? 
> 
> The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, the New Testament was written in Greek, and Jesus himself probably spoke Aramaic in everyday life. Which version do you use, which, if any, books that are commonly called "Apocrypha" (both intertestamental and new testament) do you consider to hold authority, or do you agree with the decisions of First Council of Nicea to render them non-canonical?
> 
> Also, have you ever wondered yourself why we call the first and second books of Moses respectively "_Genesis_" and "_Exodus_", and not "_Bereshīt_" and "_Shemot_"? These names come from the Septuagint, a translation of the Old Testament into Greek from the Hellenistic period. There are differences between it and the Masoretic version (written in the original Hebrew), were you even aware of that?
> 
> One of the most beautiful examples is the story of the Deluge, which is not an originally Jewish story, it is Sumerian in origin was taken from the much older Epic of Gilgamesh (in some cases, taken to the to the word from the Akkadian standard version).
> 
> We can continue the discussion of the origin of the various parts of the bible in another thread, but that certainly doesn't belong here.


Ah...what a pleasure to read something by someone who knows of what he speaks as to these matters! 

@Aberdeen...totally agree.

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## Tabaccus Maximus

The Lembombo Bone of Swaziland near South Africa is the oldest example of mathematical computation at approximately 37 years ago.

http://books.google.com/books?id=nnp...20bone&f=false


On a side note, use some common sense Eupedia posters.

Don't respond to individuals with avatar's named "Engel" with race shown to be "Aryan". He is obviously an agitator from another website as shows up here from time to time. 

Stay on topic.

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## Aberdeen

> The Lembombo Bone of Swaziland near South Africa is the oldest example of mathematical computation at approximately 37 years ago.
> 
> http://books.google.com/books?id=nnp...20bone&f=false
> 
> 
> On a side note, use some common sense Eupedia posters.
> 
> Don't respond to individuals with avatar's named "Engel" with race shown to be "Aryan". He is obviously an agitator from another website as shows up here from time to time. 
> 
> Stay on topic.


Good advice. But I think you have a small error in your own post. Shouldn't that be 37,000 years ago and not 37 years ago?

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## FrankN

The first evidence of *wheeled cars* *or pushbarrows* is wheel tracks found at the Flintbek megalith tombs near Kiel, Germany (*ca.3.400 BC*). The wheels were 5-6 cm wide, the wheelbase measured 1.1-1.2 m, which is similar to the measures of the first wheel found in Slovenia. The Flintbek tracks predate the Slovakian wheel by around 200 years.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+Ne.....-a0268601224
http://webcl3top.rz.uni-kiel.de/ufg/...pearch_web.pdf

Flintbek_1.jpg
Flintbek_2.jpg
Edit: Looking at the papers in more detail, it appears that while the Flintbek tracks are the first material evidence of wheel use, depictions of wheel carts on a pot from Boronice (near Krakow, Poland), and on Late Uruk clay tables are at least contemporary, possibly a century older.



> The earliest evidence for wheels and wagons is spread over large distances. However, we probably underestimate the occurrence of wheels and thus their functions within Neolithic societies because of the poor preservation of wooden artefacts (cf. Johannsen & Laursen 2010). More finds can be expected in the future and better dates (for example of the Majkop and Boleraz specimen) may come in earlier than 3400 or even 3500 BC.

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## LeBrok

First cloths dated to 170 thousands years ago by evolution of specialized louse which live only in cloths. Unlike its cousins who live in head and pubic hair.
Textiles were not invented yet, therefore we are talking only about leather cloths, furs, skins.
*
Clothing*
While the evolutionary history of lice helps us trace our deep past, we can also use them to explain more recent developments, such as the advent of attire. Body lice hang out—literally—in clothing, and pinpointing when this _Pediculus_ subspecies separated from its head-bound brethren may have helped pinpoint when _Homo sapiens_ decided to put on some clothes. Fig leaves aside, the question has been wide open, with ranges from 40,000 years ago to 3 million.* But recent work indicates a divergence between the Pediculus subspecies at 170,000 years ago*. This timing puts clothing far earlier than many estimates and well before humans would have needed them for warmth. It’s also well after humans lost their body hair, so for awhile there, our ancestors were wandering around naked and smooth, until a snake came out from behind a tree and…oh, never mind.
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/...itchy-history/



It means that it must had happened during second to last Ice Age. It must have gotten a bit chilly during this time in Africa, or the clothing lice are of Neanderthal's heritage.

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## FrankN

What's the timeline on cultivating textile fibres? I know that linseed has been found near to the Lake Constance in settlements dated to the 5th millennium BC, but I suppose the cultivation and use of linen (flax) dates back far earlier (Ethiopia? Egypt?). Cotton may have been around the Indus valley for a long time. Anybody having a clue?

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## LeBrok

> What's the timeline on cultivating textile fibres? I know that linseed has been found near to the Lake Constance in settlements dated to the 5th millennium BC, but I suppose the cultivation and use of linen (flax) dates back far earlier (Ethiopia? Egypt?). Cotton may have been around the Indus valley for a long time. Anybody having a clue?


It will be hard to find out. Linens decay rather quickly, so the earliest signs of clothing fibers come from imprints of pottery makers' garment on some pots they were making.
My guess would be at the beginning of Neolithic in Near East.

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## Angela

Flax is native to the eastern Mediterranean all the way to India. Some scholars believe the earliest cultivation, based on the diversity of the seeds, is India. Others look to Iran and a spread in all directions from there.

The earliest indication (30,000 ybp)of the use of flax fibers is from a cave in Georgia. The flax grew wild in the vicinity of the cave, apparently. I have my doubts that they were actually weaving the flax fibers, as in weaving with a loom, although it's clear that they dyed the fibers. They could easily have braided them or used them to make macrame like decorations, or perhaps as thread to sew skins together. 
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...rs-discovered/

The earliest example of actual woven linen cloth is, to my knowledge, from Gobekli Tepi in Anatolia, 7,000 B.C.
"Renewed work within B.52 uncovered a burial containing a cloth made from flax. This cloth was actually wrapped around an infant."

http://www.catalhoyuk.com/downloads/Catal_News_2013.pdf

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## FrankN

> It will be hard to find out. Linens decay rather quickly, so the earliest signs of clothing fibers come from imprints of pottery makers' garment on some pots they were making.
> My guess would be at the beginning of Neolithic in Near East.


As concerns linen, I'd rather think of Ethiopia. Linseed is a key element of the traditional diet, and flax is being planted in one phase of their traditional seven-years crop rotation cycle (though I don't have an idea when that cycle was established).

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## Angela

World's oldest pants found in a site in the Tarim Basin dated to 3300 to 3000 B.C. They were made of loomed woolen cloth and the scientists associate them with the development of horseback riding by steppe peoples.

http://www.archaeology.org/news/2157...-yanghai-pants

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