Science confirms – 3. Collection of scientific articles. Andrey Tikhomirov
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ce confirms – 3
Collection of scientific articles
Editor Andrey Tikhomirov
ISBN 978-5-0059-5296-7 (т. 3)
ISBN 978-5-0059-4957-8
Created with Ridero smart publishing system
Scientists have found out when a person started using clothes
In a cave on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, archaeologists have discovered more than 60 bone tools that ancient people used to produce clothing made of leather and fur. The age of the finds is 90—120 thousand years. This is the oldest evidence to date of the manufacture of clothing by representatives of Homo sapiens. The results of the study are published in the journal iScience.
The beginning of the use of clothing is an important milestone in the history of mankind. Its appearance not only marks the rise of man to the next step in cultural and cognitive evolution, this innovation has given people the opportunity to settle outside Africa, in colder and more unfavorable regions from the point of view of climate.
Archaeologists and anthropologists agree that Homo sapiens began using clothing in the late Pliocene, but they could not say more precisely until now: leather, furs and other organic materials used for manufacturing are poorly preserved in the archaeological record. Therefore, scientists are constantly trying to find indirect evidence of the appearance of clothing production technologies among ancient people – specialized tools for making skins.
Researchers studying the site of an ancient man in the Contrebandier cave in Morocco have found here about 12 thousand fragments of animal bones, at least 60 of which have been identified by scientists as tools for skinning and skinning. The found bone tools have a certain correct shape, they are polished and smoothed, which indicates long-term use.
Next to the bone tools, the bones of small fur – bearing animals – sand foxes, golden jackals and wild cats – were found with traces indicating that the animals were butchered to skin them. The bones of other animal species found in the cave, belonging to cattle, have marks of a different type, indicating that they were processed for meat.
«The combination of predator bones with traces of skinning and bone tools, which were probably also used for fur processing, provides very convincing indirect evidence of the production of the earliest clothing in the archaeological record,» the words of the first author of the article Emily Hallett from the German Max Planck Institute for the History of Mankind are quoted in the press release of the publishing house. «But given the level of specialization, these tools are probably part of an earlier tradition, examples of which have not yet been found.»
Experts compared the tools from the Contrebandier cave with descriptions of skin treatment tools from other studies and found that they have the same shape and the same markings. The age of the oldest of the finds is 120 thousand years. This is the earliest evidence to date of the emergence of a culture of clothing production and specialized tools for its manufacture.
In general, according to the researchers, the findings from the Contrabandier cave emphasize the emergence of a complex culture in the late Pleistocene in Africa, including the use of a wide variety of materials for the manufacture of specialized tools.
«Bone tools from the Contrebandier cave demonstrate that approximately 120 thousand years ago Homo sapiens began to actively use bones to make specialized tools for solving specific tasks, including processing leather and fur. This feature, apparently, is the basic one for our species, and did not appear after the expansion into Eurasia,» Hallett summarizes.
Learn more: https://ria.ru/20210916/odezhda-1750382673.html
Scientific comments are given in parentheses.
The Bible (Genesis): mention of clothing
Chapter 2:25 And both Adam and his wife were naked, and they were not ashamed. (Shame in the development of human self-identification appears later. Loincloths – from the point of view of religious figures, the loss of innocence led to a sense of shame, and people began to cover the genitals with loincloths (girdles), Christians covered the genitals in sculptures and paintings with fig leaves (hence to show figs – to ridicule Christian mock modesty). Man is the only animal that deliberately covers his body with foreign materials for reasons that we call «modesty», using the «belt of modesty». Other animals can cover themselves with dirt in order to cool the body, or they can use an unoccupied shell as a shelter, but, as far as we can judge, only people have modesty. A. Asimov believed that at first some kind of coverings were needed in order to protect the most sensitive places – for example, the genitals – from contact with the external environment. (When a person stood on his hind legs, the genitals were more open than before.). As people migrated to cooler areas, clothes became heavier and tighter around the body: a person needed artificial heat. The motive of modesty (or, in some cases, shamelessness: after all, sometimes garments were used to emphasize erotic places) appeared, apparently, as a side effect of this utilitarian need for clothing. On the other hand, there are still primitive cultures for which nudity is not considered shameful; there are also developed peoples with similar views – for example, the Japanese; finally, one can recall nudist (from the Latin nudo – to expose, to do naked, to discover, to be discovered) colonies and beaches. The loincloth was used by people to prevent feces from falling or urine from spilling during hunting and in general, since an enemy or a predatory animal could track down the traces of human excrement. By blood (using spears with notches that cause an abundance of blood), traces, droppings, ancient people and current hunters, as well as animals by smell, track down prey. Loincloths were also used to support the genitals, as corsets and bras were later used to support women’s breasts.)
Chapter 3:21 And the Lord God made leather garments for Adam and his wife and clothed them. (Once again proves that the Lord God is a man, or rather tailors who skin animals and use animal skins for clothing. that is, cattle breeding is developing.)
Chapter 9:20 Noah began to cultivate the land and planted a vineyard; (Noah’s occupation with agriculture and, in particular, viticulture).
21 And he drank the wine, and became drunk, and lay naked in his tent. (Description of Noah’s drunkenness, clothes by that time were not only the subject of hiding from the cold, but also became the subject of modesty).
22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness, and went out and told his two brothers. (Here it is proved that by that time clothes had become a subject of modesty, it became necessary to hide their nakedness with the help of clothes).
23 Now Shem and Japheth took a garment and put it on their shoulders, went backwards and covered their father’s nakedness; their faces were turned back, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. (Once again it is proved that it was impossible for children to see their parents’ nakedness).
24 Noah overslept from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him (Noah’s actions towards his youngest son, but in ancient times the rule of the minor was applied to younger sons, that is, all property was given to him).
25 And he said, Cursed is Canaan; he will be a servant of servants to his brothers. (However, it is not Ham who is cursed, but his son, that is, Noah’s grandson Canaan! Canaan is the ancestor of the Canaanites and the writers of the Bible, who covered these events in later times, had to justify the enslavement of Canaan by the Israelites).
26 Then he said: Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; Canaan will be his servant; (Shem had his own God, most likely the god of the tribe of Shem, then there was polytheism, Canaan was proclaimed a slave to Shem. Here again the Israelites’ conquest of Canaan is justified).
Chapter 20:16 And Sarah said, Behold, I have given your brother a thousand pieces of silver; behold, this is a veil for your eyes before all who are with you, and before all you are justified. (A veil to hide the eyes. Headscarves for women – all peoples at different times have a closure of the face, body. For example, the burqa is from the Arab. farajiya – upper loose clothing, veil – from Sanskrit. pata is a fabric, a light female head covering, now a wedding headdress.