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    Clothes make the prehistoric man

    Synopsis

    The site uncovered pelt-making tools from sand fox, golden jackal and wildcat bones. And, rather surprising, a whale tooth - suggesting whales in the north African vicinity during that time.

    Jest
    So, it's official - kind of. For all the exotic trend for fabric-free-style naturism, humans have liked wearing clothes for a really long time. Fully clothed researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History have found evidence of humans using clothing in a Morocco cave. No, they didn't quite find a pair of mammoth fur boots. Instead, they discovered bone tools and bones from skinned animals some 120,000 years old. That's like stumbling on to grandma's pedal-powered Usha sewing machine.

    The site uncovered pelt-making tools from sand fox, golden jackal and wildcat bones. And, rather surprising, a whale tooth - suggesting whales in the north African vicinity during that time. What these clothes from the Pleistocene Summer Collection looked like remains a mystery. But considering all apparel were handmade, one can safely presume that any cave-wardrobe would be bespoke, not pret-a-porter. These ancient Moroccan tell-tailors must have made functional clothes that appealed to the eye and fit, considering the material was leather, which the remnant tools suggest was used for purposes beyond waterproofing, shelter and containers. Of course, the evolutionary history of wearing no clothes is older than that of wearing clothes. One can only imagine what a breakthrough it must have been at the point of couture inflection.

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    Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the ET ePaper online.

    ...more
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