THE HISTORY OF CLOTHING

The study of the history of clothing and textiles traces the development, use, and
availability of clothing and textiles over human history. Clothing and textiles reflect the
materials and technologies available in different civilizations at different times. The
variety and distribution of clothing and textiles within a society reveal social customs
and culture.

The wearing of clothing is exclusively a human characteristic and is a feature of most

human societies. Men and women began wearing clothes after the last Ice Age.
Anthropologists believe that animal skins and vegetation were adapted into coverings as
protection from cold, heat and rain, especially as humans migrated to new climates.

Textiles can be felt or spun fibers made into yarn and subsequently netted,
looped, knit or woven to make fabrics, which appeared in the Middle East during the
late Stone Age.[1] From the ancient times to the present day, methods of textile
production have continually evolved, and the choices of textiles available have
influenced how people carried their possessions, clothed themselves, and decorated their
surroundings.[2]

Sources available for the study of clothing and textiles include material remains
discovered via archaeology; representation of textiles and their manufacture in art; and
documents concerning the manufacture, acquisition, use, and trade of fabrics, tools, and
finished garments. Scholarship of textile history, especially its earlier stages, is part
of material culture studies.

The development of textile and clothing manufacture in prehistory has been the subject
of a number of scholarly studies since the late 20th century.[3][4] These sources have
helped to provide a coherent history of these prehistoric developments. Evidence
suggests that humans may have begun wearing clothing as far back as 100,000 to
500,000 years ago.[5]

Early adoption of apparel[edit]

Genetic analysis suggests that the human body louse, which lives in clothing, may only
have diverged from the head louse some 170,000 years ago, which supports evidence
that humans began wearing clothing at around this time. These estimates predate the first
known human exodus from Africa, although other hominid species who may have worn
clothes – and shared these louse infestations – appear to have migrated earlier.

Sewing needles have been dated to at least 50,000 years ago (Denisova Cave, Siberia) –
and uniquely associated with a human species other than modern humans, i.e. H.
Denisova/H. Altai. The oldest possible example is 60,000 years ago, a needlepoint
(missing stem and eye) found in Sibudu Cave, South Africa. Other early examples of
needles dating from 41,000 to 15,000 years ago are found in multiple locations, e.g.
Slovenia, Russia, China, Spain, and France.

The earliest dyed flax fibres have been found in a prehistoric cave in Georgia and date
back to 36,000.[6]

The 25,000-year-old Venus Figurine "Venus of Lespugue", found in southern France in

the Pyrenees, depicts a cloth or twisted fiber skirt. Other figurines from western Europe
were adorned with basket hats or caps, belts were worn at the waist, and a strap of cloth
that wrapped around the body right above the breast. Eastern European figurines wore
belts, hung low on the hips and sometimes string skirts.

Archaeologists have discovered artifacts from the same period that appear to have been
used in the textile arts: (5000 BC) net gauges, spindle needles, and weaving sticks.

Ancient textiles and clothing[edit]

Knowledge of ancient textiles and clothing has expanded in the recent past due to
modern technological developments.[7] The first actual textile, as opposed to skins sewn
together, was probably felt. The first known textile of South America was discovered
in Guitarrero Cave in Peru. It was woven out of vegetable fibers and dates back to 8,000
B.C.E.[8] Surviving examples of Nålebinding, another early textile method, have been
found in Israel, and date from 6500 BC.[9]

Looms[edit]

From pre-history through the early Middle Ages, for most of Europe, the Near East and
North Africa, two main types of loom dominate textile production. These are the warp-
weighted loom and the two-beam loom. The length of the cloth beam determined the
width of the cloth woven upon it, and could be as wide as 2–3 meters. The second loom
type is the two-beam loom.[10] Early woven clothing was often made of
full loom widths draped, tied, or pinned in place.

Preservation[edit]

Our knowledge of cultures varies greatly with the climatic conditions to which
archeological deposits are exposed; the Middle East and the arid fringes of China have
provided many very early samples in good condition, but the early development of
textiles in the Indian subcontinent, sub-Saharan Africa and other moist parts of the world
remains unclear. In northern Eurasia, peat bogs can also preserve textiles very well.

The textile trade in the ancient world[edit]

Main article: Silk Road

Throughout the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, the fertile grounds of the Eurasian
Steppe provided a venue for a network of nomadic communities to develop and interact.
The Steppe Route has always connected regions of the Asian continent with trade and
transmission of culture, including clothing.

Around 114 BC, the Han Dynasty,[11] initiated the Silk Road Trade Route.
Geographically, the Silk Road or Silk Route is an interconnected series of ancient trade
routes between Chang'an (today's Xi'an) in China, with Asia Minor and the
Mediterranean extending over 8,000 km (5,000 mi) on land and sea. Trade on the Silk
Road was a significant factor in the development of the great civilizations of China,
Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, the Indian subcontinent, and Rome, and helped to lay the
foundations for the modern world. The exchange of luxury textiles was predominant on
the Silk Road, which linked traders, merchants, pilgrims, monks, soldiers, nomads and
urban dwellers from China to the Mediterranean Sea during various periods of time.

Ancient Near East[edit]

The earliest known woven textiles of the Near East may be flax fabrics used to wrap the
dead, excavated at a Neolithic site at Çatalhöyük in Anatolia, carbonized, and "protected
by several layers of clay/plaster, in an anaerobic milieu.... They were 'baked', or 'steam
cooked'"[12] in a fire and radiocarbon dated to c. 6000 BC.[13] Evidence exists
of flax cultivation from c. 8000 BC in the Near East, but the breeding of sheep with a
wooly fleece rather than hair occurs much later, c. 3000 BC.[13]

In Mesopotamia, the clothing of a regular Sumerian was very simple, especially in

summer, in the winter wearing clothes made of sheep fur. Even wealthy men were
depicted with naked torsos, wearing just some kind of short skirt, known as kaunakes,
while women wore long dress to their ankles. The king wore a tunic, a coat that reached
to his knees, with a belt in the middle. Over time, the development of the craft of wool
weaving has led to a great variety in clothing. Thus, towards the end of the 3rd
millennium BC and later the men wore a tunic with short sleeves and even over the
knees, with a belt (over which the rich wore a wool cloak). Women's dresses featured
more varied designs: with or without sleeves, narrow or wide, usually long and without
highlighting the body[14]

Excavations of Indus Valley Civilisation sites to date have yielded a few twisted cotton
threads, in the context of a connecting cord, for a bead necklace.[16] However, a
Terracotta figurines uncovered at Mehrgarh show a male figure wearing what is
commonly interpreted to be a turban. A figurines, labelled the "Priest King", from the
site of Mohenjo-daro, depicts the wearing of a shawl with floral patterns. So far, this is
the only sculpture from the Indus Valley to show clothing in such explicit detail. Other
sculptures of Dancing Girls, excavated from Mohenjo-daro, only show the wearing of
bangles and other jewellery.[17] However, it does not provide any concrete proof to
legitimize the history of clothing in the Harappan times. Harappans may even have used
natural colours to dye their fabric. Research shows that the cultivation of indigo plants
(genus: Indigofera) was prevalent.

Herodotus, an ancient Greek historian, mentions Indian cotton in the 5th century BCE as
"a wool exceeding in beauty and goodness that of sheep." When Alexander the
Great invaded India, in 327 BCE, his troops started wearing cotton clothes that were
more comfortable than their previous woolen ones.[18] Strabo, another Greek historian,
mentioned the vividness of Indian fabrics, and Arrian told of Indian–Arab trade of cotton
fabrics in 130 CE.[19]

Evidence exists for production of linen cloth in Ancient Egypt in the Neolithic period, c.
5500 BC. Cultivation of domesticated wild flax, probably an import from the Levant, is
documented as early as c. 6000 BC. Other bast fibers including rush, reed, palm,
and papyrus were used alone or with linen to make rope and other textiles. Evidence
for wool production in Egypt is scanty at this period.[20]

Spinning techniques included the drop spindle, hand-to-hand spinning, and rolling on the
thigh; yarn was also spliced.[20] A horizontal ground loom was used prior to the New
Kingdom, when a vertical two-beam loom was introduced, probably from Asia.

Linen bandages were used in the burial custom of mummification, and art depicts
Egyptian men wearing linen kilts and women in narrow dresses with various forms of
shirts and jackets, often of sheer pleated fabric.[20]

The earliest evidence of silk production in China was found at the sites of Yangshao
culture in Xia, Shanxi, where a cocoon of bombyx mori, the domesticated silkworm, cut
in half by a sharp knife is dated to between 5000 and 3000 BC. Fragments of primitive
looms are also seen from the sites of Hemudu culture in Yuyao, Zhejiang, dated to about
4000 BC. Scraps of silk were found in a Liangzhu culture site at Qianshanyang
in Huzhou, Zhejiang, dating back to 2700 BC.[21][22] Other fragments have been
recovered from royal tombs in the [Shang Dynasty] (c. 1600 – c. 1046 BC).[23]

Under the Shang Dynasty, Han Chinese clothing or Hanfu consisted of a yi, a narrow-
cuffed, knee-length tunic tied with a sash, and a narrow, ankle-length skirt, called shang,
worn with a bixi, a length of fabric that reached the knees. Clothing of the elite was made
of silk in vivid primary colours.

The earliest evidence of weaving in Japan is associated with the Jōmon period. This
culture is defined by pottery decorated with cord patterns. In a shell mound in the Miyagi
Prefecture, dating back about 5,500, some cloth fragments were discovered made from
bark fibers.[25] Hemp fibers were also discovered in the Torihama shell mound, Fukui
Prefecture, dating back to the Jōmon period, suggesting that these plants could also have
been used for clothing. Some pottery pattern imprints depict also fine mat designs,
proving their weaving techniques. The patterns on the Jōmon pottery show people
wearing short upper garments, close-fitting trousers, funnel-sleeves, and rope-like belts.
The depictions also show clothing with patterns that are embroidered or painted arched
designs, though it is not apparent whether this indicates what the clothes look like or
whether that simply happens to be the style of representation used. The pottery also
shows no distinction between male and female garments. This may have been true
because during that time period clothing was more for decoration than social distinction,
but it might also just be because of the representation on the pottery rather than how
people actually dressed at the time. Since bone needles were also found, it is assumed
that they wore dresses that were sewn together.[26]

Next was the Yayoi period, during which rice cultivation was developed. This led to a
shift from hunter-gatherer communities to agrarian societies which had a large impact on
clothing. According to Chinese literature from that time period, clothing more
appropriate to agriculture began to be worn. For example, an unsewn length of fabric
wrapped around the body, or a poncho-type garment with a head-hole cut into it. This
same literature also indicates that pink or scarlet makeup was worn but also that
mannerisms between people of all ages and genders were not very different. However,
this is debatable as there were probably cultural prejudices in the Chinese document.
There is a common Japanese belief that the Yayoi time period was quite utopian before
Chinese influence began to promote the use of clothing to indicate age and gender.