1,20,000-year-old discovery hints at earliest clothing evidence of pre-historic humans

Archaeologists, to date, have discovered remains of pre-historic animals and humans that have acted as a window to the past. However, the recent discovery by a team of researchers has reportedly found the earliest evidence of humans using clothing from a cave in Morocco. Media sources suggest that the findings date back to as far as 1,20,000 years. 

Skinned animal bones hint at cloth used by humans

According to a report by The Guardian, the researchers have discovered 62 bones from the Contrebandiers Cave on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. It suggested that the bones, including those of Sand fox, golden jackal and wildcat had cut marks that pointed towards fur removal by humans, which would have been used as a covering.  

Published in the journal iScience, the study was led by Dr. Emily Hallett from Germany’s Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. Media sources stated that the bones recovered by Hallett and her team dated between 1,20,000 and 90,000 years ago and also showed signs of having been turned into tools. However, the purpose of many tools are still unknown. Surprisingly, previous studies that analysed the DNA of clothing lice pointed towards the origin of clothes to as far as 1,70,000 years ago, despite the unlikely survival of skins and furs for thousands of years, as per the report.

While talking with The Guardian, Hallett said that the discovery by her team has added another piece in the list of hallmark behaviour of humans that are locked in the archaeological record of Africa around 100,000 years ago. These revelations have surfaced nine years after Hallett first started studying the bones in 2012. As per Hallett, she became interested in analysing the fossils after coming across the idea of reconstructing diet of early humans and observe if any change occurred with changes in stone tool technologies. 

Although Hallett concluded that the combined evidence suggests that the bone tools would have been used for fur removal to prepare leather for several uses, the researchers are still clueless about their appearance and their utilities. However, Hallett stated that the European Neanderthals and those living in temperate and colder climates were using animal fur long before 1,20,000 years. She further added that it was the clothing and the expanded toolkits of early humans that led to the adaptive success of humans globally and in climatically extreme regions.

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