When Did We Stop Being Naked?

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Of course, the ancient Egyptians were probably not the first people to ever wear clothing, but we haven’t found any clothes older than the Tarkhan Dress. So how can we figure out when we first started wearing clothes? Well, it turns out that some of our best evidence for clothing in the past comes from a pretty unlikely - and kinda gross - place.
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References: docs.google.com/document/d/13...

[@eons]

Hi Comments Section! Don't forget you can follow human evolution over the course of 12 months with the 2024 Eons calendar. Available right now at dftba.com/Eons

[@waterbottle82730]

love the vids

[@WaterPickle]

Don't forget Mitochondrial DNA from nine samples showed that Ötzi's getup consisted of hides from five different species: goat leather leggings, a sheep hide loincloth, a roe deer quiver, cattle hide shoelaces, a brown bear fur hat, and a heavy coat made of goat and sheep hides haphazardly stitched together. 5300 years ago Ötzi the ice man.

[@drstone3418]

​@@WaterPickleEvery Wonder why no selection on the Mitochondrial side the emphasis on female choice should have gone out with spermatism if they still see one sided bias would some mean spermatism is thing going but what. RNAs gene blockers& inhibitors energy in the tail amount of sperm doesn't make it

[@drstone3418]

Imagine if the covid lock downs went for a generation. We be excited intransed by seeing mouths. Showing moves would be seen as in decent exposure

[@drstone3418]

How come nudism never caught on In human history

[@AaronSaysSKOL]

What if we never stopped 😏

[@jeffreyrivers1983]

That's hot!

[@Soap_Eater_2024]

Nah 💀

[@oldcountryboy]

There are tribes in the rainforest In South America That run around naked

[@Alte.Kameraden]

Sad world it would be. Clothing rules.

[@oldcountryboy]

Also the sentinel tribe That live on that island near India They don't have clothing

[@HarryTheArchaeologist]

Whilst working in archaeology the only 'clothing' I found were buttons and usually bits of leather. But finding those items always felt so much more personal than the usual pot and such you pull out the ground

[@ctenophoras]

I love this little comment. Amazing perspective

[@studiosraufncingr6965]

I love this big comment. Amazing perspective

[@baird5682]

Knives are personal.

[@sonwig5186]

In Welsh Early Mediaeval sites we don't even get pots for the most part...

[@patreekotime4578]

I was a bit surspired she didnt mention buttons, beads, clasps and broaches as those are AFAIK the most common evidence for clothing in grave sites.

[@scaber]

I a bit surprised they didn't reference the 5300 year old "Otzi the Iceman" find since he was found to be wearing clothing and using equipment from five mammal species including goat leather leggings, brown bear fur hat, and a goat and sheep overcoat.

[@lilsleepy1969]

true

[@AwesomeReshiram]

pre-historic drip

[@A1un9ine]

He must’ve been the hypebeast of his days

[@ForsakenBacon89]

And his clothing had rad patterns too!

[@TheWorldsprayer]

making clothing out of hides is a MUCH simpler process than making something out of linen. The linen outfit implied a significant level of technology and availability compared to what was needed to make clothing out of leather.

[@DoingItOurselvesOfficial]

I think we’ve been making and wearing clothing as long as we haven’t had full body hair. There’s no other way we could keep ourselves warm and protected from the sun. I don’t think we’ve ever been naked.

[@JeantheSecond-ip7qm]

I wonder if wearing clothing reduced our body hair. What if we realized we could be warmer draped with animal skins, then started losing body hair? Why would humans stop having body hair while the hair was still necessary to keep warm?

[@koreyb]

I am, right now!

[@Riddlewizard]

I would propose that clothing probably originated around the same time as blankets. Because somebody had to have thought "I like this warm thing. I need to figure out a way to bring it with me without holding it in place. If I did that, I could go to other places and still be warm.".

[@brianpinion5844]

dand , rough times

[@lmao2302]

Lowkey I think were made first cause of this logic. They're probably easier to make then clothes too.

[@Laura-kl7vi]

I tend to agree. It doesn't seem it takes a hairless hominid much intelligence to feel cold and look at his naked skin, and all the animals he kills who have fur. Then he takes the skin off the fur to get to the meat. How could he not think "I wish I had fur. Maybe I can put on the animals fur". It's a step beyond copying what other animals have/do. Apes and some birds learn from watching incredibly well. And make modifications to natural objects to suit a purpose (make and modify tools). I don't think you have to be nearly as intelligent as a Neanderthal to at least grasp the concept even if you can't yet execute it. The guy who has a hide but can't shape it to his body and is cold may look in envy at the deer with it's close fitting warm hide.

[@danielzhang1916]

that's probably how they made warm clothing as they migrated out of Africa, they needed it the further north they went to Europe and Asia, skinning animals for fur has long existed in ancient cultures, or else you freeze in the cold

[@solracer66]

@@Laura-kl7vi It would not surprise at all if evidence is eventually found that clothing predates Homo Sapiens/Neanderthalensis.

[@YoungGandalf2325]

The Tarkhan Dress survived for 5000 years. Dang... I'm lucky if a shirt lasts me a year! Vintage clothing is so much higher quality.

[@cleverusernamenexttime2779]

😂😂😂You win the day! 😂😂😂❤

[@pretty7545]

Linen is built different.

[@EeeEee-bm5gx]

Too true 😂

[@Frau_Brotchen]

Imagine instead of wine it was shirts. "how old do you like your shirts?" "vintage" "so will 1980s do?" "no no, Gilgamesh Collection, 4000BCE vintage"

[@probablynovideoshere]

I’m gonna save this comment as my favorite example of survivor bias

[@annefoley6950]

Sometimes I find it hard to relate to ancient history and deep time, but this instantly reminds me what humans have always been. It makes my heart sing!

[@davidroddini1512]

Yeah, I find wearing clothes to be highly relatable. 😉

[@fcv4616]

@@davidroddini1512You guys wear clothes?! 😟 😜

[@wendybutler1681]

All these comments are wonderful! Asking pertinant questions and adding pertinant info. Lifetime learners are curious souls!

[@MrBrew4321]

That bit about the neanderthal clothing likely being draped got me thinking about the difference between a cloak and a blanket. I'd say it becomes clothing once it is modified to stay on the shoulders more easily so you can walk about with the blanket cloak. And all that got me thinking about the invention of blankets themselves. Imagine that first guy freezing to death near a pile of dead mammoth or wolf, and being like... ima crawl under that dead stuff so I don't die, then later when the sun is up and he is moving on dude is smart enough to be like hmm I might need some of this tonight, and starts skinning it, and walks away with the first blanket.

[@GholaTleilaxu]

Humans wore clothes thousands of years before leaving Africa.

[@DizzyBusy]

Lol!! I think the instinct to cuddle for affection and for warmth must be older than the invention of blankets

[@brianedwards7142]

The difference between a toga and a blanket is how you fold it. Same with a great kilt and a sari (if a thin piece of silk or cotton could be called a "blanket".

[@KonradTheWizzard]

Look up the "full highland dress" on Wikipedia (and other sources) - it is essentially a wool blanket carefully folded around the body and held together with a pin and a belt. Highland Scots wore it a few hundred years ago and it was super successful in this environment (until the English outlawed it for reasons, probably envy). If clothing is difficult to make (without industry) and heavy, while you need to move around a lot, then something that can be a warm dress as well as a blanket is the most useful item one can possess. Apart from one's knife (sgian dubh) of course.

[@loco_tom]

@@KonradTheWizzard Interesting thread! Cambodians wear a krama, a head scarf which I've seen can be used in a myriad of ways: a towel, baby hammock, skirt, welder's face mask, tying an axle under a truck, etc... Very versatile fabric and it's barely over a meter long.

[@michaelcaffery5038]

As a tropical species we must have had clothing to move north into Europe and Asia. I watched a tv program about Brazilian government workers charged with taking care of the interaction between native tribes and loggers and farmers etc. They contacted some who had had bad experiences with incomers. What was interesting (to me) was they wore no clothes but were given some when they asked. After a while the interviewer was talking to one man who said he now felt embarrassed to be without clothes. Whether this was from some sort of modesty or that he felt inadequate compared to the culture of the 'developed' world was unclear.

[@MrCmon113]

That's hilarious. They infected them with their own afflictions by accident.

[@KlavierMenn]

Yeah, we're a tropical species, alright. I imagine that Homo Erectus was butt-naked until they moved to Asia and Europe, then the chill made em invent clothing. See that natives from Brazil and Sub-saharan Africa do not use clothing at all, but the Inca did (They even wove textiles from llama fur, not unlike we do to modern sheep ) Brazilian Natives, like the Tupi, Guarani and other may use accessories made of twinned grass and bone and head plumage and paint their skins but that's it.

[@tomcollins5112]

Being naked means you're poor. And I think that might be where the shame of being naked originally came from. Clothing was probably expensive for stone age people so nudity indicated poverty.

[@JosukeUrameshi]

@@GholaTleilaxu you don’t have to dehumanize them for wearing less clothing??

[@JD96893]

@@MrCmon113 i don't find it hilarious but i agree, we are far to opinionated and embarrassed by nudity even though we see it literally every day because animals don't use clothes. there is nothing wrong with nudity, we also associate it too much with sex, funnily as we more often than not are nude doing things other than sex or even do it with clothes on...

[@2btpatch]

I liked the info about the bast fibres. I made my first twine out of common reed grass. Then I used corn husks, sweetgrass, dogbane fibres and even wild iris leaves. I knitted, wove and crocheted the twine into cloth or bags. No one taught me to twist rope; a lot of experimentation was involved. I like to imagine our ancestors doing something similar. Once you discover a technique, then it becomes easy to expand on it. Thanks for a thought-provoking presentation.

[@kyrab7914]

And once you can twist and knot rope, you can create a loom of sorts

[@enbyfairyyy]

So incredible!! Thank you for the textile history focus in this episode!

[@megansfo]

I think ancient textiles are fascinating, but I'd never heard of the 5000 year old egyptian shirt dress. That is amazing! Id love to see the actual clothing the ancients wore, but never will. It's too bad so little of it lasted.

[@3nertia]

I'll be great when we can time travel as ghosts (to avoid paradoxes) and witness this stuff for ourselves wont it :D

[@jaspertuin2073]

This is the thing about us humans I have a love-hate relationship with - The fact that so many recognizable features of past civilizations will never be seen again in their full glory (buildings, clothing etc) which is a shame because I would love to experience them in my short time on Earth, but at the same time it is also very cool that we can still peer into that time with the hints we are given.

[@3nertia]

@@jaspertuin2073 Don't worry, eventually we'll be able to send our consciousness back in time and observe these events as "ghosts" :) Though I doubt you or I will live to see it, sadly

[@jaspertuin2073]

@@3nertia As far as I know (im a physics geek lol) nature doesn't allow time travel of any kind to the past, so whatever is gone is gone in a very real sense. This is why I think preservation of artifacts, knowledge and culture is so important. Would be cool to become these ''ghosts'' you mention after we die tho, but who knows haha

[@3nertia]

@@jaspertuin2073 I'm not an expert either but as I understand it, the multiverse is self-correcting for paradoxes and that's why we surmise that time travel is impossible, but IF we could travel back as ghosts, only observers, unable to affect anything, I think it may be possible :) Blackholes even emit "information" even though they're said to "swallow" even light - this "information" is just energy in varying states and energy never dies, it can only transform xD

[@writingtotortureyou]

I like to think the earliest use of clothing was for a prank: so an ancient hominid either kills a lion or finds one dead. They then strip the hide off the body and drape it around themselves and sneak up on a tribe member and roar like a lion and scare that other member of the tribe. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[@frantisekvrana3902]

Like what Heracles did after his first labor.

[@writingtotortureyou]

@@frantisekvrana3902 haha yeah man

[@forrestredd2706]

This is now canon. Thank you.

[@michaelvaladez6570]

Maybe the very first Halloween...lol

[@IndriidaeNT]

5:23 That’s correct, clothes that people were even today have been food for the caterpillars of clothing moths who after eating a lot of it, become pupas and emerge as the adult moths to breed and start the cycle all over again/

[@BryanJamesGang]

Although a lot of the pictures are constantly reused in all of these eon videos it was really nice to see some new ones as well. Thanks for all the insane amount of times you have made me the smart person in the room for repeating the information in these videos.

[@andrzejmaranda3699]

FASCINATING, VRTY INFORMATIVE video!

[@FloozieOne]

The idea that early clothing was made of bast fibers is a very reasonable one. Bast are long flexible fibers that help to support the stems of plants and are sometimes called "inner bark". Some of the plants that have them include flax (from which linen is made), hemp, jute, kenaf, kudzu, linden, milkweed, nettle, okra, paper mulberry and ramie. It is not difficult to collect these but it is very time-consuming. Ancient peoples must have known every plant in their area well so it isn't surprising that they learned there were many uses for them.

[@Laura-kl7vi]

This is a very interesting comment. Thanks for your contribution!

[@yokhawanha]

I lived in bali, some part of the island kinda slow in modernization, i remembered when i was a kid a lot of grown up women in the more remote village rarely wear a top, and nobody questioned it, it just how it was normal there, later everyone started to wear a top, i asked one of the villager, they said they felt embarrassed when their family that lived in the city visited wearing fully clothed modern clothes, or because the family gifted them modern clothes, or they said when they visited the city, they felt different.

[@keouine]

Makes sense. Even today, there's the desire to dress like those in the group you wish to be part of .

[@Skarpo89]

That is so sad

[@MarkGilliam-er7rs]

When the police let me know they were being serious

[@allaroundyoo]

What a captivating exploration of our ancient sartorial history! The quest to trace the origins of clothing is not only enlightening but also a testament to human ingenuity. The Tarkhan Dress's significance as a historical artifact is truly awe-inspiring. It's amazing how unexpected sources can provide crucial clues about our early practices. This video brilliantly combines curiosity and historical insight. Kudos for bringing this unique perspective to light

[@aldunlop4622]

Not only does it inspire thought about clothing, but tool creation and also hunting. By looking at clothes, we can deduce what they hunted for raw materials, so one thing leads to another. I love science!

[@user-ul7fq8zw8o]

I spent a lot of time in the woods when I was a kid. I found naturally splintered trees had super sharp points, and also found certain types of bark peeled off in thin strips. I used the splinters as weapons and wrapped the handles with the bark to protect my hands. Nobody taught me this, I just saw something cool and found a use for it. If a 6-year old can think it up then it must be natural. I didn't say "I need a sharp tool" then figure out a way to make one from scratch. I think figuring out how to make rope was a small step from swinging on vines, and finding a bird nest or a spider web would give you the idea of weaving. It apparently was long ago when it started though. Cool episode!

[@danielzhang1916]

Humans are the most adaptive species, considering there are 8 billion people on the planet, we have a huge capacity for invention and creation, that's how we went from hunter-gatherer to medieval to modern in a few thousand years, our progress resulted in cars, trains, phones, computers today

[@UGNAvalon]

And from flight to space travel within a single lifetime!

[@MossyMozart]

@user-ul7fq8zw8o - Naturally occurring shale can splinter into sharp points as can splintered bone. Viola! An awl that can be used to pierce holes in skins so that a strip of leather can be laced through to bind 2 pieces together = an early seam.

[@user-ul7fq8zw8o]

@MossyMozart First they would have figured out leather though, right? But maybe it didn't take long to notice that insects ate everything but the bones and hide off a carcass. How long would it have taken for someone to have an "ah-ha!" moment with that one?

[@piotrberman6363]

@@MossyMozart I think shale is too brittle for tools, at least the shale I know. Nevertheless, humans had to adapt to many environments, with different types of stones, plant materials and animal materials. Some thorns are sharp, long and strong, e.g hawthorns. Some fish have strong and sharp fishbones, and even teeth -- but no sharks inland :-(. One guess is that humans and perhaps ancestors could make traps with vines and ropes, and shelters from rain, and as they were moving to colder ecological zones, they had mental and material toolkit to connect pieces into clothing.

[@tunneloflight]

Indirect evidence with needles goes back further yet to 50,000 years ago with Denisovans. And those needles are astounding in their technology, indicating that needles existing for a very long time before that.

[@DogmenHardcastle]

It's like when homo sapiens migrated into Eurasia and encountered Neanderthals and denisovans, they were clothed and we were not. We no we weren't because of relic populations of that OOA wave in the Andaman islands and Oceania... All nude.

[@clairekurdelak2913]

So interesting! Also speaking of clothes, your style looks great today, Cali

[@dougsinthailand7176]

Excellent! If I may add that some clay idols from the Paleolithic had the impression of something woven on their base - either fabric or basketry. So some sort of weaving - ephemeral otherwise - might have provided some sort of clothing.

[@Beryllahawk]

I follow a lady doing experimental archaeology and she's recreated bone textile tools and lots of other stuff - I think she's working from evidence found in the Swiss Alps, Paleolithic sites and so on. It's REALLY fascinating what you can do with strips of bark, nettles, and all sorts of other plant materials, not just flax!!!

[@Reticulating-Splines]

Mind sharing the source?

[@ebonyblack4563]

​@@Reticulating-Splines Seconded! Would love to know if she's sharing the work somewhere.

[@SugarandSarcasm]

@@ebonyblack4563Thirdled

[@libertystuffnthingsreviews829]

I ask 3rd for link. Thanks.

[@derdlerimdashayazilasidoyul]

one reserve too for me

[@PAVANZYL]

The first man that walked into a thorn bush invented the loin cloth.

[@palynaike]

This is such an interesting video. I’m sure a lot of us had never wondered about this before😅

[@michellesirois6954]

I live in Northern Maine...-40 in the winter without clothes equals death😆

[@magesalmanac6424]

Fun fact. What we know about how clothing was made isn’t always from clothing itself. There are impressions made on clay jars from the person making the jar, that tells us about how the fibers were woven!

[@stinew358]

I used to live near a bunch of wild sheep and when it's time for them to shed it all goes everywhere and gets stuck in the trees. Big clumps. It felts up. Birds collect it for their nests. Why wouldn't humans? We slept somewhere and we're careful observers of animals. I thought about it later while I was visiting a paleolithic cave and mammoth hunting pit in France and those things would have shed mountains of hair. After hunting a mammoth, it would be a waste (not to mention an inconvenience) to let that padding fly about. Even if you just piled it up on the floor, eventually it's a textile. Plus it was cold

[@Laura-kl7vi]

Interesting ideas. Felt, or rudimentary forms of it, would be the start, no weaving needed.

[@Brasswatchman]

Thing is, haven't we selectively bred sheep for wool by this point? Ancient sheep might not have shed as much.

[@TheMuffinator3]

1:20 I came here for a relaxing video before going to sleep and I’m suddenly feeling very called out right now

[@Basil_o_brouzos]

Thanks for answering my questions I had when I was little and no one gave me an answer to

[@BardovBacchus]

I imagine a primate adorning itself with various things. I saw a video of an orangutan that liked to have a large canopy leaf on his head. Not clothing exactly, but that may have been the start of the idea

[@bjarkiengelsson]

The beginning of hat culture

[@Ezullof]

Maybe it's a very early ancestor of clothing, but the thing is that clothing requires a full process of creation and long-term thinking. It's not really that comparable to finding a cool leaf and putting it on your head.

[@patreekotime4578]

​@@EzullofThat complex system didnt just come into being. It started somewhere. Likely simple hide capes.

[@bjarkiengelsson]

@@Ezullof Maybe. I usually envision the "first clothes" to be similar to a serape or poncho. A simple cloth with a hole in it for your head. Doesn't even need that, can just be wrapped around you. Early Man probably decided to tie it around themselves, which led to them making more fitted and comfortable clothing over millenia.

[@digitaldivelabs4310]

@Ezullof Why spend weeks harvesting material and weaving it with specialized tools when I have this cool leaf though? Orangutan Gang all the way

[@salty82ndveteran]

I'm an archaeologist and I think the presence of multiple tools shows us indirect evidence of clothing. It's nice to have a tool bag and poncho 🤠

[@thecommenter9678]

(whats the point of a needle without clothes) Sewing leather together to form tents and sacks for carrying things, or tying together complicated knots.(needles can help pass string through tight knots) While we think of needles as purely of sewing, it's not always clothes. I think the most likely explanation for the advent of clothes was when our use of animal furs for bedding and shelter were modified for mobile use.

[@DezMarivette]

Absolutely astounding and not where I was expecting the journey to take us 😂

[@rodrigogonzalezgt]

I love this channel. Shout out for the hosts, writers and producers, etc. for the quality content.

[@mkhanman12345]

I just love content. Content piff.

[@GaryBickford]

Woolly mammoths are still occasionally found in the permafrost. It may be that hominids might be found in the same way, buried in permafrost with their clothes on.

[@TheYoli182]

I would love too see that.

[@achimwokeschtla7582]

Ötzi

[@GaryBickford]

@@achimwokeschtla7582 Yes! But also, just maybe, much older. Can we find somebody from 12,000, 20,000, or even more years back? Ötzi was pretty much a modern human. Imagine if we found someone from when Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons were interbreeding, lost in a frozen cave under the ice.

[@whirving]

12,000 years old has been found, I'm sure older too. Understand that 12,00 years ago there were "civilizations" that were creating massive structures in Turkey. Not everywhere of course, but certainly they had clothing by then.@@GaryBickford

[@AA_-1113]

LOVE your channel guys💕. Also an arabic captions will be great!

[@beachem1]

Fascinating. Thanks 😊

[@tanaymehta7603]

This is just awesome. If you can make an episode for clothing so interesting, can you make one on jewellery? I’d love to know the history

[@dihe1392]

There's nothing much to say except other animals also like shiny things

[@Apes_are_monkeys]

​@@dihe1392There's always something to say about these kinds of things, and I think that the history of both jewelry and clothing are fascinating. Just like today, it probably had social meanings, like an indicator for masculinity or femininity, or a person's role/ job in their community. I would be interested to know more about it in individual cultures.

[@edule1]

That video would be dope

[@bbartky]

Great idea! I think that would be fascinating.

[@fugithegreat]

Yes please, I'd love to know more about this too. I've watched some videos about bronze age jewelry, but that is relatively recent and they'd developed complex technology like metalworking by that point.

[@nicholashylton6857]

Thanks for giving us the bare facts!

[@Badficwriter]

Angry upvote

[@reggie18b]

If you ever find yourself in the vicinity of King's Cross station in London, the Tarkhan Dress is in the Petrie collection about ten minutes walk away. It's free to view and there are lots of other interesting exhibits in there as well!

[@toplaycool21]

I think swimming naked should be the norm again. I’ve read online that being naked is actually healthy. Not at every moment but at certain times such as being home alone, nature hike, swimming, and even places where you can exercise unclothed. The human body needs to breathe sometimes. My plan one day is to go to a nature trail that has a waterfall and wear absolutely nothing. Just relax and enjoy myself.

[@ADMusic1999]

There are several places to hike naked and then there are also nude beaches and nudist resorts. There’s an entire nudist community. Not my cup of tea, but it is an interesting concept. I don’t want the guys being jealous though 😏

[@JasonTaylor-po5xc]

@@ADMusic1999 Always wondered how people dealt with the frequent and involuntary expression of sexual interest from men. Loose clothing makes covering that up pretty easy.

[@JasonTaylor-po5xc]

@@11235but Perhaps but I would think that requires a lot of conditioning. Men are wired for sex and thus have a response when they see attractive women - especially naked.

[@Aztonio]

@@JasonTaylor-po5xc It's thougher with puberty but else it just becomes an habit and nudity itself loses its sexual conotation. Or in the worst cases, there's a thing called understanding and acceptance of something likely to happen almost randomly to anyone.

[@MontgomeryKing-uj7ot]

Same

[@audreymuzingo933]

As a biologist and amateur seamstress this subject has always been a fun one to me. For a while I researched it with the idea of writing a children's book, a sort of 'pre-historical fiction' story about a young girl who was the first in her tribe to figure out how to make a rudimentary needle, then uses it to create a simple seam between two pieces of animal skin, and then a basic garment. She would have a backstory of being bored and frustrated, too old to play with the younger kids but too young to be trusted with women's work, and too creative to want to anyway, so her invention comes out of that alienated angst, and in the end she's the hero who brought clothing to her people. It would be titled 'The First Stitch' or 'Ula's Dress' or something like that. I still have fun conceptualizing it, but the problem comes when trying to picture the illustrations ..... for a children's book about pre-clothing humans. 😆

[@OriginalContent89]

Just do what they do on tv and have everyone always conveniently standing behind bushes and other shrubbery

[@GregorBarclay]

She was bored, frustrated….and sick of being unavoidably exposed to dad’s Neolithic ballsack every day.

[@MrCmon113]

Another problem is what the string is supposed to be made of.

[@EeeEee-bm5gx]

No

[@EeeEee-bm5gx]

​@@MrCmon113hedgehog guts work well

[@breanneohare302]

My husband paused this at around 3:28 (when the presenter was explaining how we can deduce clothing from the steps it took to get there), to wave emphatically at my spinning wheel, upon which I am currently producing thin yarn which will eventually become clothing, by twisting dyed fibers together! In fact the reason we had youtube on in the first place was as a sort of audiobook equivalent, so I had something to think about while spinning!

[@NickRoman]

ha ha But, I think a spinning wheel is a relatively recent invention.

[@suchnothing]

@@NickRoman They could be as old as 1000 years, which I guess is pretty recent in terms of human history. But there are other ways to make fibers into thread, and into garments. It's been a long time since I watched, but I think Primitive Technology did a video about making rope/string out of grass to sort of "automate" the process of starting a fire by rubbing sticks together, and to make grass mats/blankets.

[@b991228]

In her quest for warmth, my cat has evolved this peculiar adaptation of burrowing into my electric blanket. Perhaps our adaptation was no more sophisticated than our similar quest to seek warmth. All you need is to cut a hole in the middle of a hide and use a strip of leather as a belt. Not electric but it could still be considered a portable blanket. The tools needed to make such an outfit would be very limited and hard to differentiate from standard tools for butchering food. You would still have the tools needed for warmth, nutrition and a great habitat for parasites.

[@dace9590]

damn, the fact that i though abt this question today randomly without saying it out loud and youtube STILL somehow managed to hear me

[@neomerckel6118]

Thank you for this informative channel. Im South African and honestly had no idea such important finds of clothing and subsequent tools were found here. Really proud of my home thanks to your channel. Go SA

[@nellym46664]

I mean we do have a place called "The Cradle of Humankind", so finds like this are to be expected.

[@aperinich]

Proud? These artefacts existed MANY MANY THOUSANDS OF YEARS BEFORE SOUTH AFRICA DID, which is a rather modern concept. You can't claim ownership and had no part in it, so where does pride come in? Strange!

[@mikehawk6918]

I'm guessing you're of bantu origin in which case you have nothing in common with these people and your ancestors actually tried to exterminate their descendants when they fist invaded south Africa 700 years ago.

[@AnimeShinigami13]

There's an experimental archeologist on youtube who specializes in textiles that I'd love to see you interview. Her name is Sally Pointer. She recreated paleolithic tools for processing flax based on archeological finds. She even made a bronze age dress out of stinging nettle for a reconstruction event!!!! As a fibercrafter myself I can tell you bast fiber is not just from trees. It refers to a similar layer on plants like flax and nettle. Fibercrafters today use the term "bast" to refer to any fiber that comes from that part of a plant. Even as I write this I'm working on processing bast fibers from Common Milkweed. I've also got linden and dogbane fibers to process as well.

[@shivamjaiswal439]

Thank you for introducing me to her channel.

[@MrClawt]

Absolutely fascinating.

[@sk8razer]

When I was in college, I wrote a term paper about why the Neanderthals died out. Clothing was one of the reasons I presented. And I learned all about how modern researchers rate the warmth of different types of clothing. There's even a unit of measurement called a "clo". The idea at the time (10 years ago) was that anatomically modern humans were making warm clothing that had ratings ~5 clos while neander garments were closer to 1 or 2 clos. If anyone is interested, the other two reasons I presented were: less expensive social networks relative to anatomical modern humans and far less dietary diversity. Neanderthals prefer big game to *anything else* by a wide margin. But one isolated group of Neanderthals that seems to have lived for 5000 to 10000 years following the demise of the rest of the species likely consumed a diet much more similar to that of anatomically modern humans. Surprisingly, intermixture with anatomically modern humans only played a small role. Which helps explain why having 2% neanderthal DNA is considered a very high amount in genomics.

[@atimelongforgotten5166]

I imagine the day someone went "It's cold as balls out here"was when we collectively decided to put something on,not because we didn't feel cold but because someone finally had the stones to say what everyone else was thinking but hadn't the courage to say

[@travisearly7879]

Assuming they had invented saying things yet, which based on the timeline in this video seems highly dubious.

[@the-lm1ir]

@@travisearly7879 If the invention of clothing is on the newer side of the timeline then i'm mostly sure we already had some form of language.

[@MrCmon113]

You first have to get somewhere, where it actually gets cold. In African savannahs you can comfortably sleep outside butt naked. That's why humans evolved to be hairless in the first place.

[@LordOceanus]

@@travisearly7879 Actually language likely dates back to homo erectus or even earlier. Coming up with new words is an exceptionally easy task so while different groups may not be able to communicate with each other individuals from the same group would be raised to use the same language as their parents.

[@DizzyBusy]

Naked people would cuddle together for warmth. Not in a sexual way, just to survive. This instinct must be older than even language and I feel like you all in the comments forgot that the option to cuddle with people and companion animals exists

[@cube2fox]

One leading theory for why early humans lost their body hair is that they didn't strictly need it (they lived in some warm climate in Africa) and because not having boey hair prevented overheating during persistence hunting. So the invention of clothing was likely not the reason we lost our body hair in the first place, as we likely lost it before that time. But humans would easily succumb to hypothermia if they didn't use something like animal fur once they moved to areas with a colder climate. Another point: Cave paintings sometimes show humans. Some might be detailed enough to infer whether they wore clothes or not. I surprised this line of evidence wasn't mentioned.

[@MrCmon113]

Yeah you can just sleep outside in the African savannah butt naked. Elephants have minimal bodyhair and so do warthogs.

[@jeannerogers7085]

Neoteny - likely lost hair when we grew big brains.

[@ThePowerLover]

@@jeannerogers7085 But cubs do have fur! Babies being mostly "without hair" is a new thing, and neonates tend to have more hair than older babies.

[@Laura-kl7vi]

She mentioned the "not having body hair prevents overheating". She doesn't suggest that clothing was the reason we lost our body hair (which makes no sense anyway).

[@AS-qg1xu]

​@ThePowerLover true! My son who is currently 6 months old, had more hair on his head and body (his body had little patches of fuzzy fur-like hair) when he was born than he does now! He quickly lost all of that even most of his head hair :(

[@tommylee2894]

And because the dynamic "Oxidation" going on of planet Earth itself, just imagine all of the Human history...and for that matter any other organism's history we will never have physical evidence of. We are very lucky to have the physical evidence we do, especially anything more than about 5 thousand years.

[@ilovetotri23]

So cool! Thanks.

[@TheBlueB0mber]

This episode helped me to relate with our ancestors in a way I never have before. Envisioning a bustling market with people shopping for clothing 30,000 years ago is truly *mind blowing!*

[@aperinich]

Shopping 30,000 would be something incredible, as there's no evidence of consumer commerce. People MADE their clothes, they didn't fkn buy them/. This was still the case less than a hundred years ago for many people in developed countries, and is still the case today for many many people.

[@TheBlueB0mber]

@@aperinichquote from the episode: “local industry” and by definition industry is economic activity.

[@brooklyna007]

@@TheBlueB0mber industry in the archeologial sense just means the process of construction, it does not imply a market.

[@Spearca]

Did everyone have to make their own clothes, their own everything? Or was there sharing and barter?

[@deborahrochefort9794]

Very nice presentation, and you have limited time for each episode, but it might be nice to mention that another piece of indirect evidence of clothing is the impressions of cloth on prehistoric pottery. (And I was puzzled by the mention that the fibers thought to be flax might instead be tree bark because the fibers were bast fibers? Linen is a bast fiber...) But would love to hear more about early clothing!

[@CarlDillynson]

I love the host of this episode so much. She seems like a fab and hilarious person

[@azptoch]

Saw the miniature and i think the title of the video was "When Did We Stop Pooping in the wild with friends ?" Still was the video and it was very interesting thank you !

[@VesSaphia]

1:23 I'm literally naked as you say this. Then again, I'm almost always naked.

[@Miamcoline]

Incredibly cool research by these scientists, historians and anthropologists! And great video, framing and explanation by you guys! Thank you!

[@Ladieboogie527]

Omg this question pops up in my head at least once a week

[@jackcotner8981]

I would surmise those living in the warmest climates likely adapted clothing later than those in the colder north. Interesting video.

[@utej.k.bemsel4777]

I think the very first clothing derived from bags to carry things around made from whole deer/antelope hides. Our ancestors then discovered that the hides protected them also from the weather and thorns. So they begun to wear them as capes. And the first shoes come from a kind of bandage worn to cover a wound.

[@qarljohnson4971]

There was a few decades ago a Czech archeological finding of a piece of clay that was sat upon, leaving a fabric bum print, which was then partially "fired" by the campfire.

[@deborahrochefort9794]

Ah, clarity (at least for me) on the bast vs bark ancient fibers: a 2020 report on ancient cordage found on the banks of the Rhone river in France determined that this fiber most likely was made from the inner bark of a conifer (as opposed to the inner 'bark' of flax, hemp, or nettle) and that it was also likely Neanderthal-made, around 11,000 years ago. Which is certainly intriguing, and lots of evidence at this time Homo Sapiens is processing flax. Thanks to Dr. Hatcher's article in 'Spin-Off' which elucidated this for me.

[@Hailstormand]

I'm into knitting at the moment and the manoeuvres one makes to create patterns, even simple ones, made me think a lot about the first person who thought about making clothing from these newfangled tiny teeny knots

[@drewwolcott8268]

Omg what perfect video. You guys ever day explain my mind and answer my questions lol thank you for your work everyone

[@jonistan9268]

Now it would be interesting to know which cultures had more or less issues with naked people and in what context and what time period etc. It wasn't always how it is today in western society, and even some aspects of that are a recent development.

[@danielzhang1916]

people who lived in tropical jungles would have no problem with nudity, but those in colder climates would have to wear some sort of robe, just like the tribes found in the Amazon much later on

[@rinho1790]

When talking about excavation sites, it's better to mention which people or civilization have been living in that area along with mentioning the current country. For example Göbeklitepe is in nowadays Turkey but this region has for sure not been inhabited by Turkish tribes during the mentioned period (5000 BC).

[@matthewcowan9131]

When they talked about scraping tools towards the end, they used an image they've used in a previous episode where they were talking about how the wear patterns on teeth suggested that that's how they more than likely held a piece they were working on. Can't remember the episode to look it up, but how far back do we see the teeth wear marks? Was surprised that wasn't brought up at all in this one.

[@lardgedarkrooster6371]

Was it the one about why the majority of people are righthanded?

[@suchnothing]

I bet it was brought up in the rough cut, and ended up being scrapped to make the episode fit into a desired time limit. The image survived the cut, but the explanation didn't.

[@punditgi]

My favorite presenter is back with a fun topic. She rocks! ❤🎉😊

[@hi5dude2]

While the best PBS presenter in my humble opinion is the current Spacetime one, this presenter is definitely my favorite of all the Eons presenters!

[@GregorBarclay]

@@hi5dude2the spacetime guy is awesome, the eons team also delightful. Great programming, always really interesting stuff.

[@farvatron]

rocks the buffet by the looks! 🤣

[@GregorBarclay]

how does this gross comment have likes?@@farvatron

[@nMsFreeStyleZ]

The body lice thing is so simple yet so creative. Ofcourse this would contain some clues. The beginning of clothing is more or less the creation of an all new ecosystem, ripe for taking. When someone explaines it you feel stupid for not thinking of it, and still someome had to.

[@CurtisDouglasCity]

Why is the speaker worried about what I'm wearing while I watch this video? 😂😂😂

[@SmashhoofTheOriginal]

Some tribes in the Amazon are naked today. Presumably their ancestors wore clothes as they came from Siberia.

[@rml2765]

I’m curious if they’ll be recording and releasing more episodes of the PBS Eond podcast cause I loved it so much!

[@psefti]

When it got cold…lol. At visit to a museum in the Egypt display an ancient specimen of a linen shirt, looked better than my kids last year’s T-shirts.

[@willwilliamson9580]

'looks down at self' ....did we?

[@Bitterswoon]

I never stopped being naked. I'm naked right now.

[@alexp-de]

try to run naked. That'll make you change your mind.

[@RealMTBAddict]

Stop lying

[@maxdanielj]

TMI 😂

[@DeathValleyDazed]

@@alexp-deLoin cloth = jock strap🥴

[@Rokker61]

@@alexp-de what's wrong with running naked? I do my morning run naked every day. Your body regulates it's heat better without clothing.

[@dinoelsaurio]

Love this channel, keep it up!❤

[@josephbenson6301]

The trivia question gave me a thought... Megalosaurus might have been the first named under the modern understanding of 'dinosaur' and (presumably) with the Linnaean system, but... What was the first dinosaur ever found named? Cyclops? Griffin? Ladon? So... How about an episode on how ancient peoples viewed the fossils they found?

[@DoctorTurdmidget]

For me, it was February 12, 1938. I showed up to my first job at the munitions factory, stark raving naked, and they made me go home and put clothes on. Since then, I've worn clothes at least once a week.

[@Essman614]

I'm not nude I'm observing the customs of our ancestors some 150,000 years ago!

[@Leftatalbuquerque]

We require proof.

[@ExileOfSand]

The invention or I should say the idea to start wearing "clothing" is such a huge change for humans. Outside of just allowing to keep us warm, it also is like an armor to protect our skin.

[@cindyclay1750]

Temperature varied all over the world, but we all walked... I bet shoes, which were made tougher, would be interesting. 🤔 Here in Oregon, USA they found some sandles, made out of fibers, well preserved in a cave that turned out to be 13,000 years old. ☺

[@kambojarian]

Thanks!

[@ttrestle]

There’s a channel on KZbin that reads diaries from ancient people/times. One of my favorite stories is writing about Europeans first interacting with Native Americans. They called them extremely hardy and barely had any clothes on, yet the Europeans thought the air was chilly.

[@makayliawynne7655]

What channel? Sounds very interesting

[@MihcaelTube]

​@@makayliawynne7655I think the name is: voices of the past

[@davidb2206]

NOBODY is "native" on the American continent. The Indians were not first, and came LATER, across the Bering Land Bridge from Siberia.

[@noirekuroraigami2270]

@@davidb2206lol bruh with that logic nobody is native to anywhere

[@davidb2206]

@@noirekuroraigami2270 No. Wrong. Anthropology 101. Get the EVIDENCE. In Europe, the sapiens developed. Not here, in the Americas.

[@Andrea.S.Alvey12]

Jean Auel included a lot of research, from archeologists, about the development of clothing in Neanderthals and homo-sapians (spelling?) for her Children of the Earth series, Clan of the Cave Bear was book one. Well worth the read. Credit given to all who helped with her research.

[@peterblake4837]

I've read Auel's books from the day of publication several times. Maybe some of the scenarios are a bit fanciful, constructed for the story line, but still very interesting.

[@lynnettecherry5754]

I've read her books too. They were very entertaining. I enjoyed them all.

[@jimpomac]

I'm going out on a limb here, and guessing, as soon as it got cold !

[@ikebeckman1074]

Is your podcast coming back? Michelle and Kallie have very soothing voices

[@BierBart12]

It's crazy to think that someone possibly met a woolly mammoth or rhino while wearing a pink shirt, 30000 years ago Many thousands of years before they even became endangered

[@SirAntoniousBlock]

Imagine UGGGGHHH walking into the hunters cave in his new pink loincloth.

[@DeathValleyDazed]

@@SirAntoniousBlockFlamboyance was alive way back then. Pink Lives Matter🥴

[@SirAntoniousBlock]

@@DeathValleyDazed But not mammoth's....

[@wolflahti412]

"When did we stop being naked?" I don't know about anyone else, but for me it was around 08:00 this morning.

[@Moses_VII]

Until recently, I used to think everyone slept in pajamas like my family and I do. Sleeping nude sounds like a stupid idea if you ask me; imagine if you have an emergency and you need to leave your room quickly, it's better to already be dressed in pajamas than to appear naked in front of others.

[@Rokker61]

@@Moses_VII Why?

[@phablodias3298]

when I watch Eons videos makes me want to have a time machine to observe all the evidences it gives me, I'm a very curious one and I think that it is what make us all humans, thus curiosity is our driving force that will so dont let it die inside your even when we are in strugle to survive

[@deborahjeffress3292]

I was watching a video called First Encounters. The people in the Amazon who had never had contact with the outside world had no clothes.

[@jannetteberends8730]

5:17 I was waiting for this one. In Dutch they are called kleerluis. Clothes louse. So that was the first thing that came to my mind.

[@firstlast723]

I've actually been to the Petrie Museum before. I'm pretty sure entrance is free so if you're ever in the area (near Euston Square station) you should check it out. Some of the stuff there seems pretty weird (to me anyway) but there are others that make me go 'these are basically just my sandals and my grandma's necklace'.

[@_JimmyBeGood]

As soon as humans left the tropics and experienced colder weather is when they started wearing clothes.

[@Bay510Area]

Makes sense.

[@nakedenby]

Fascinating. It's interesting how the original purpose of clothing eventually became corrupted to include 'social' reasons. I'm guessing it's complex and evolved over long periods. The need for protection probably was subsumed by practicality (limited and valuable wardrobe), perhaps modesty (entirely a construct) and maybe projection of status/early 'fashion' (social conformity). With most clothing worn habitually in developed societies now, social reasons appear to dominate over functional purpose and people really believe modesty is the primary reason to wear coverings. Some tribes in warmer climates still wear little or no clothing because that same pathway never emerged.