Archaeologists and other scientists are beginning to unravel the story of our most intimate technology: clothing. They’re learning when and why our ancestors first started to wear clothes, and how their adoption was crucial to the evolutionary success of our ancestors when they faced climate change on a massive scale during the Pleistocene ice ages.
These investigations have revealed a new twist to the story, assigning a much more prominent role to clothing than previously imagined. After the last ice age, global warming prompted people in many areas to change their clothes, from animal hides to textiles.
This change in clothing material, I suspect, could be what triggered one of the greatest changes in the life of humanity. Not food but clothing lead to the agricultural revolution.
Read more courtesy of Ian Gillian and Aeon.co
Image courtesy of artist Gretchen Röehrs
