How dirty were ancient humans actually?

How dirty were ancient humans, really? Most people picture cavemen caked in mud, crawling with lice, with a smell you'd notice from far away. The finds say otherwise. A 1.77-million-year-old jaw from Dmanisi carries the oldest toothpick grooves we know of. Lice moved in once humans started wearing clothes, and 3,700 years ago someone carved a wish against them into an ivory comb. At Blombos Cave, people mixed ochre and fat into a paste 100,000 years ago, close to the otjize the Himba still use against the sun. Then the story moves to your own bathroom: soap that was made for wool long before it was made for skin, the weekly trip to the public bathhouse, and the 1930 Lifebuoy ads that taught people to fear "B.O." 0:00 A boy and his stick 0:30 The picture is wrong 0:57 A groove in a jaw 2:30 A wish cut into a comb 4:35 A red paste in a shell 6:40 The fear that sold soap 8:25 What they could only wish for Every study behind this video is listed below. 📚 RESEARCH & SOURCES: ▸ The grooved jaw: "Tooth wear and dentoalveolar remodeling are key factors of morphological variation in the Dmanisi mandibles" by Margvelashvili, Zollikofer et al. (2013, PNAS) : 1.77 million years. ▸ Lice in old hair, as reported by "A head louse egg found in a louse comb excavated in the Christmas Cave" by Mumcuoglu, Gunneweg (2012) : 9,000 years; half the combs. ▸ The body louse: "Origin of Clothing Lice Indicates Early Clothing Use by Anatomically Modern Humans in Africa" by Toups, Kitchen et al. (2011, Molecular Biology and Evolution) : 83,000 to 170,000 years. ▸ The Lachish comb: "A Canaanite's Wish to Eradicate Lice on an Inscribed Ivory Comb from Lachish" by Vainstub, Mumcuoglu et al. (2022, Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology) ▸ The same comb, as reported by the Hebrew University: "First Sentence Ever Written in Canaanite Language Discovered at Tel Lachish" (2022) ▸ Sites by water, as reported by abstracts: "Hominin Footprints from Early Pleistocene Deposits at Happisburgh, UK" by Ashton, Lewis et al. (2014, PLOS ONE) and "Resolving the Issue of Artefact Deposition at Star Carr" by Taylor, Elliott et al. (2017, Proc. Prehistoric Society) ▸ Blombos: "A 100,000-Year-Old Ochre-Processing Workshop at Blombos Cave, South Africa" by Henshilwood, d'Errico et al. (2011, Science) ▸ The Himba paste: "Evaluating the Photoprotective Effects of Ochre on Human Skin by In Vivo SPF Assessment" by Rifkin, Dayet et al. (2015, PLoS ONE) : equal parts. ▸ Baths in Amsterdam, as reported by a Dutch drinking-water thesis (ch. 3), citing Leeflang (1974) ▸ Bathhouses, as reported by the International Institute of Social History, "Public bathing" ▸ The 1965 rule, as reported by Buiting (isgeschiedenis.nl) ▸ The shower: "Watergebruik Thuis (WGT) 2021" by CBS (2022) : 57 litres. ▸ Soap for wool, as reported by the Open University, "The history of soapmaking" (2019) : over 4,000 years. ▸ Lifebuoy: "Lifebuoy turns 130" by Hubberstey (Unilever Archives) ▸ The B.O. ad: Lever Brothers advert, Barrier Miner, 7 October 1930 (via Trove) ▸ "Advertising the American Dream" by Marchand (1985), as reported by book snippets ▸ "b.o." in Green's Dictionary of Slang by Green ———————————————————— PEOPLE & SITES MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO: ▸ Dmanisi: site in Georgia of the jaw. ▸ Ann Margvelashvili: read that jaw. ▸ Kosta Mumcuoglu: lice researcher. ▸ Nahal Hemar: cave with louse eggs. ▸ Melissa Toups: dated the body louse. ▸ Tel Lachish: city of the comb. ▸ Yosef Garfinkel: led the Lachish dig. ▸ Madeleine Mumcuoglu: found the letters. ▸ Daniel Vainstub: read them. ▸ Blombos Cave: site of the shell paste. ▸ Christopher Henshilwood: took the paste apart. ▸ The Ovahimba: Namibian people, wearers of otjize. ▸ Riaan Rifkin: measured its sun protection. ▸ Leeflang: Dutch author behind the Amsterdam bath figures. ▸ Lever Brothers: makers of Lifebuoy. ▸ Roland Marchand: advertising historian. ▸ Jonathon Green: slang lexicographer. ———————————————————— 🎨 Animation by Fulcrum ———————————————————— #ancienthumans #hygiene #prehistory #humanhistory #archaeology #dmanisi #lice #soap #history #explainer