Human beings have been wearing some kind of covering for hundreds of thousands of years. In fact, it was this usage of basic covering that set us apart from most of the animal kingdom, among the other tools that we used.
Over the millennia, clothing has changed countless times, going from a simple covering to more robust and refined, and eventually used as a means of personal expression as well as fashion.
Over the years, that have been some truly ancient pieces of clothing that have survived the passage of time. Let’s take a look at some of the more famous of these pieces and their interesting histories.
World’s Oldest Socks
These Romano-Egyptian socks were originally meant to be worn with a pair of sandals. They were created at some point between 300 and 500 AD and were discovered in a burial ground during the 1800s as part of a Greek colony that once existed in the area.
A 4500 Year Old Purse
While it might appear crude compared to the purses that we have today, this proves that humans were already practising different kinds of fashion thousands of years ago.
This purse was found in Germany, and was decorated with a number of dog teeth, although today we tend to carry our money for groceries or betting sites in Australia in very different purses. Dog teeth seems to be quite popular at the time, as they were added to other types of jewellery, such as necklaces and hair ornaments.
A Truly Ancient Dress
A dress was discovered in 1913 and was found in the First Dynasty tomb within the ancient Egyptian cemetery of Tarkhan. It was dubbed the Tarkhan Dress, and it would eventually be dated back 5000 years ago. The cemetery itself can be found 50 kilometres just south of the Egyptian capital city of Cairo.
Extremely Old Sunglasses
Sunglasses are among the most popular accessories of the modern age, and it appears that they were fairly popular among the ancients, too. These sunglasses are around 2000 years old and were created by a people known as the Old Bearing Sea, who were the ancestors of today’s Inuit.
The Oldest Jewellery
While all the other pieces of clothing found on this list are generally only a few thousand years old, the most ancient jewellery every found is hundreds of thousands of years old. Believed to be from around 130,000 years ago, this set of eagle talons – eight of them in total – were found in a site in Croatia that was once believed to be inhabited by Neanderthals.
The talons are from three different birds, and each one has been properly cut and notched in order for them to be stringed together, a sign of advanced tool use. The talons were also polished, and historians believed that they had been a part of a bracelet or a necklace.
This discovery has led to the belief that the Neanderthals were far more intelligent than originally thought and were about as capable as human beings when it came to tool usage.
