Ice Age Fashion: The Obscure Origins of Neanderthal Clothing

The Neanderthals had a good run. They existed from at least 200,000 years ago to around 42,000 years ago, just a few millennia after they began interbreeding with modern humans. After this window, all their physical traces disappeared

However, throughout this period Neanderthals would certainly have experienced such cold weather that it is unlikely they would have walked around completely naked. In fact, some research has shown that the temperatures were probably too cold in some parts of Europe at certain times, people survived without wearing clothes or using shelter, such as sleeping under fur blankets.

The problem is that clothes are not made from materials that typically last very long, even tens of thousands of years before the rise of fast fashion. And evidence such as needles has yet to be found in association with Neanderthals.

The archaeological record is very poor in this case, says Abel Mocln, an archaeologist at the Regional Archaeological Museum in Madrid.

This record is so poor that some research suggests Neanderthals wore no clothing at all. Scientists study the DNA of body lice, which live in clothes but feed on humans, found that insects appeared only about 72,000 to 42,000 years ago, when modern humans migrated out of Africa. This may suggest that the clothing was not previously available.

Yet despite the lack of direct evidence for Neanderthal clothing, researchers have found indirect signs that reveal what our near-hominid cousins ​​might have worn to keep warm or show off their own unique style.

Neanderthals hunted carnivores for their fur

A major source of evidence concerns the remains of carnivores, which are rarely associated with Neanderthal sites compared to the remains of herbivorous animals. Notably, hominids did not appear to consume much carnivore meat during Neanderthal times.

For a recent study published in Scientific reviews of the QuaternaryMocln and colleagues examined 13,000 animal fossils associated with Neanderthal sites. They found only one case of a carnivore with clear markings on the bones, in a layer of sediment dating to around 71,000 to 77,000 years ago. These cut marks were made on the phalanx, the last toe bone before the claw of a hyena found at the Navalmallo rock shelter, north of Madrid.

Carnivores generally don't have a lot of meat on their claws, so it's unlikely that these butcher marks were made for the purpose of extracting meat. Additionally, Mocln says the marks suggest the people who cut them were trying to extract the hyena's skin.

This can only be linked to the extraction of the skin, as there is no meat here or marrow, he says, adding that the marks themselves compare well to other examples of skin extraction in the fossil record. This is clearly the type of movement you will need to make to extract the bones from the skin.

This indirect evidence suggests that Neanderthals used the skin either for clothing or ritual reasons, or both. The symbolic world begins with the Neanderthals, says Mocln.

This discovery is not the only case of animal remains associated with Neanderthals. Researchers have discovered cut marks that could be linked to skin extraction on everything from lynx to lions to bears. But the majority of mammal remains linked to hide extraction come from herbivores more commonly used for food, such as red deer, horses and aurochs, the extinct ancestors of modern domestic cows.

Although in most cases these cut marks are associated with the extraction of meat from herbivores, some cuts also indicate that the skin has been removed.

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Learn more: Neanderthals also had superior tool-making abilities, not just humans

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Neanderthals may have worn eagle claws as jewelry

Mammals are not the only animal remains from this era showing cut marks. A number of birds dating from the Neanderthal period also show signs that feathers or other inedible parts were also removed, suggesting they were used for jewelry or other accessories.

A fantastic set of eight eagle claws, for example, could have been strung together to form necklaces in Croatia. This set was discovered at the Kaprina Neanderthal site more than a century ago and dates back to around 130,000 years ago. They were then forgotten until researchers re-examined them at the Croatian Museum of Natural History.

The research team discovered cut marks on these greenhouses consistent with targeted removal, publish the results in PLOS One in 2015. In fact, the specimens were probably strung together like some kind of necklace, the authors believe.

These remains clearly show that Krapina Neanderthals were making jewelry long before modern humans appeared in Europe, extending ornament production and symbolic activity into the early European Mousterian period, the authors write in the study. European Mousterian is a tool-making tradition associated primarily in Europe with Neanderthals.

Another study of remains at a Neanderthal site in Spain found 80,000-year-old eagle claw bones that may have been used symbolically, based on cut marks. It is still unclear whether these were bones linked to clothing, jewelry or other accessories.

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Learn more: The fascinating world of Neanderthal diet, language and other behaviors

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New Neanderthal sons

Overall, it is possible that some Neanderthals used animal skins for warmth, at least some of the time. Some of these garments or accessories may also have been symbolic.

But no matter what they wore before, some evidence suggests a big change in style may have occurred when A wise man introduced new fashions to Europe around 42,000 years ago.

Around this time, researchers began to find more accessories in association with Neanderthals. In Bulgaria, researchers have discovered what appears to be cave bear tooth pendants dating from around the time humans arrived. These pendants also resemble others found in France and Spain, linked to Neanderthals dating from 40,000 to 44,000 years ago. The implication is that humans and Neanderthals may have shared certain accessories.

It's hard to say whether Neanderthals actually used these items as clothing. Neanderthals may have collected pendants or other accessories from humans but never wore them, for example. Their appearance on Neanderthal sites could also be a simple coincidence.

But during this period, humans and Neanderthals also interbred to some extent. So whether or not our evolutionary relatives wore clothes before this happened, people with Neanderthal genes certainly started doing so. In fact, since modern humans probably have about 1 to 2 percent of Neanderthal genes in their DNAmodels of Neanderthal ancestry today walk the catwalks and attend fashion shows.

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Learn more: What exactly happened to Neanderthals and why did they disappear?

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Article sources

Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review them for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. See the sources used below for this article:

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Joshua Rapp Learn is an award-winning science writer based in Washington. An Alberta expatriate, he contributes to a number of scientific publications such as National Geographic, The New York Times, The Guardian, New Scientist, Hakai and others.