When Did Humans Start Wearing Clothes?

Why did humans start wearing clothes, and when? Almost every ancient garment has rotted away. The oldest sewn piece of hide anyone has found is only about 12,000 years old. So in this video we follow four clues that don't rot. A louse: clothing lice live in clothes and lay their eggs in the seams, and their DNA says they split from head lice at least 83,000 years ago, possibly 170,000 (with huge error bars). Our naked skin: a skin-pigment gene suggests bare skin goes back at least about 1.2 million years. The tools: in a cave on Morocco's Atlantic coast, bone scrapers from about 120,000 to 90,000 years ago, and foxes, jackals and wild cats that were skinned but not butchered. And the holes: bone awls, a nearly 40,000-year-old punched seam, and eyed needles that came later than you might think. We also look at what Neanderthals probably wore, and why the needle may mark the moment clothes began to say something about who you are. The answer is not one date but three: simple coverings, everyday clothing, and fitted, sewn clothes. A note on the pictures: stick-figure illustrations are reconstructions, not portraits. Real photos and scientific figures are credited below. Question for you: what came first, clothes to keep warm, or clothes to show who you are? 0:00 A Louse That Lives in Clothes 1:15 Why the Clothes Are Gone 2:23 Clue 1: The Louse 5:19 Clue 2: Our Naked Skin 7:19 Clue 3: The Tools 10:08 Clue 4: The Holes 12:33 The Timeline 13:58 Back to the Louse Sources (also shown on screen): Toups M.A., Kitchen A., Light J.E., Reed D.L. (2011). Origin of clothing lice indicates early clothing use by anatomically modern humans in Africa. Molecular Biology and Evolution 28(1): 29-32. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msq234 Kittler R., Kayser M., Stoneking M. (2003). Molecular evolution of Pediculus humanus and the origin of clothing. Current Biology 13: 1414-1417 (erratum 2004). Li W. et al. (2010). Genotyping of human lice suggests multiple emergencies of body lice from local head louse populations. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases 4(3): e641. Reed D.L., Light J.E., Allen J.M., Kirchman J.J. (2007). Pair of lice lost or parasites regained: the evolutionary history of anthropoid primate lice. BMC Biology 5: 7. Rogers A.R., Iltis D., Wooding S. (2004). Genetic variation at the MC1R locus and the time since loss of human body hair. Current Anthropology 45(1): 105-108. Hallett E.Y. et al. (2021). A worked bone assemblage from 120,000-90,000 year old deposits at Contrebandiers Cave, Atlantic Coast, Morocco. iScience 24(9): 102988. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.1... Soressi M. et al. (2013). Neandertals made the first specialized bone tools in Europe. PNAS 110(35): 14186-14190. Hardy B.L. et al. (2020). Direct evidence of Neanderthal fibre technology and its cognitive and behavioral implications. Scientific Reports 10: 4889. Wales N. (2012). Modeling Neanderthal clothing using ethnographic analogues. Journal of Human Evolution 63(6): 781-795. Collard M., Tarle L., Sandgathe D., Allan A. (2016). Faunal evidence for a difference in clothing use between Neanderthals and early modern humans in Europe. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 44: 235-246. Gilligan I., d'Errico F., Doyon L., Wang W., Kuzmin Y.V. (2024). Paleolithic eyed needles and the evolution of dress. Science Advances 10: eadp2887. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adp2887 Doyon L. et al. (2023). A 39,600-year-old leather punch board from Canyars, Gavà, Spain. Science Advances 9(15): eadg0834. Kvavadze E. et al. (2009). 30,000-year-old wild flax fibers. Science 325: 1359; and the comment by Bergfjord C. et al. (2010), Science 328: 1634. Graf K.E. et al. (2026). Highlights from an early base camp in Beringia 13,800 years ago. Science Advances 12(42): eaeh0802. Image credits (some cropped; licences: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... , https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... , https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... , https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Body louse photos: CDC / James Gathany (PHIL #9217, #9202, #10854), public domain. Head louse and louse egg: Gilles San Martin, CC BY-SA 2.0 (Wikimedia Commons) Bone awls (Blombos), punch board (Canyars) and eyed needles: Gilligan et al. 2024, Science Advances, CC BY 4.0 (photos F. d'Errico, L. Doyon) Neanderthal cord: Hardy et al. 2020, Scientific Reports, CC BY 4.0 (photo M.-H. Moncel) Neanderthal bone lissoir: Martisius et al. 2020, Scientific Reports, CC BY 4.0 Fort Rock sandals: Ian Poellet, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Tarkhan Dress: Nic McPhee, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Blombos Cave: Vincent Mourre / Inrap, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Denisova Cave: Alexei Demin, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Denisova ornaments: Thilo Parg, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Magdalenian bone needle: Didier Descouens, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Mal'ta artefacts: Lapot, CC0 (all via Wikimedia Commons) #prehistory #archaeology #earlyhumans