In the dawn of humanity, when our ancestors first walked upright, the “Cradle of Humankind” in Africa boasted a perfect climate. This meant our early ancestors didn’t need clothes to keep warm, nor did they require a thick coat of fur like many other animals. However, to conquer new lands, from Europe to Asia, there came a time when our ancestors had to drape themselves in the skins of the prey they hunted to stay warm.

According to archaeologists, the earliest evidence of human ancestors not being “naked” comes from archaeological sites like Gran Dolina in the Atapuerca mountains of Spain, linked to Homo antecessor, dating back approximately 780,000 years ago. Other evidence has been found in Schöningen, Germany, related to Homo heidelbergensis. In Germany, archaeological findings suggest that at least 400,000 years ago, Homo erectus knew how to process animal hides to turn them into clothing.

By the Neanderthal era, dating from about 400,000 to 40,000 years ago, archaeologists discovered muscle structure in Neanderthal forearms and biceps indicating they frequently performed actions like draping hides over their bodies. Despite having bodies better adapted to the cold than modern humans (Homo sapiens), a 2012 study proved that Neanderthals had to cover up to 80 percent of their body surface to survive harsh winters.

Today, in winter, we have to cover 90 percent of our body, even wearing multiple layers of clothing to stay warm. The very act of humans using clothing is also inferred from a 2011 study that showed clothing lice mutated from head lice, which live on human hair, approximately 170,000 years ago. This figure, if extrapolated, also indicates the first time humans wore clothes made from various materials, not just animal hides for warmth.

More specifically, according to Wikipedia, Ralf Kittler, Manfred Kayser, and Mark Stoneking, anthropologists at the Max Planck Insтιтute for Evolutionary Anthropology, conducted genetic analysis of human body lice that suggested clothing originated around 170,000 years ago. Body lice are an indicator of clothing wear, as most humans have sparse body hair, and therefore lice require human clothing to survive. Their research indicates that the invention of clothing may coincide with the northward migration of modern Homo sapiens from the warm climates of Africa, believed to have begun between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago. However, a second research group using similar genetic methods estimated that clothing originated approximately 540,000 years ago.

According to archaeologists and anthropologists, the earliest garments likely included furs, skins, leaves, or grᴀsses draped, wrapped, or tied around the body. Knowledge of such clothing remains inferential, as clothing materials degrade quickly compared to artifacts made of stone, bone, shell, and metal. Archaeologists have identified very early bone and ivory sewing needles dating back to about 30,000 BCE, found near Kostenki, Russia in 1988. Dyed flax fibers that may have been used in clothing were found in a prehistoric cave in the Republic of Georgia, dating from 34,000 BCE.

Other archaeological evidence suggests that from around 40,000 years ago, humans knew how to use bone and stone sewing needles to sтιтch pieces of hide together to fit their bodies, making warmth more effective