According to Dr. Ian Gilligan, Honorary Associate in the control of antiquities at the University of Sydney, “Eyed knife tools are an important advancement in antiquity because they file a change in the function of clothing from utilitarian to social purposes.”
Why did we start dressing to express ourselves and please another, starting with the creation of animal hides for humans and the development of bone trends and eyed needles to produce fitted and adorned clothing?
In their new Science Improvements, “Paleolithic eyed pins and the creation of dress,” Dr. Gilligan and his co-authors redefine the evidence of recent discoveries in the development of clothes.
“Why do we use clothes? We assume it’s a part of being human, but when you look at, you realize that without clothing, persons existed and functioned perfectly well in culture. The transition from being a natural necessity in some settings to a cultural necessity in all others enthrals me.”
Around 40 000 years before, in Siberia, the first eyed pins were discovered. Spotted needles, one of the most recognizable Neolithic artifacts of the Stone Age, were more difficult to make than bone awls, which were sufficient for fitting clothing. The equipment that are used to sharpen the place are known as “bone awls.” The insulated hole (eye ) on modified bone trends makes it easier to sew yarn or thread.
The development of eyed needles may reveal the production of more complex, layered clothes as well as the adornment of outfits by attaching stones and other small decorative objects to garments, as evidence suggests tooth awls were already being used to make tailored clothing.
Up until the most recent glacial cycle, clothing was only worn on an ad hoc basis, according to experts. We find the classic tools, such as hide scrapers and stone scrapers, appearing and disappearing throughout the various epochs of the last ice ages, according to Dr. Gilligan.
In the latter part of the last ice age in colder regions of Eurasia, people were forced to wear clothing all the time to survive, according to Dr. Gilligan and his co-authors, making the use of body painting with ocher or deliberate scarification a trend that was not possible.
“That’s why the appearance of eyed needles is particularly important because it signals the use of clothing as decoration”, Dr. Gilligan says. Eyes would have been very useful for the intricate sewing that was necessary to decorate clothing.
Therefore, clothing evolved to fulfill both a social, aesthetic, and aesthetic function for an individual and a cultural identity as well as a practical need for protection and comfort against external elements.
As people could relocate to colder climates while also cooperating with their tribe or community based on shared clothing styles and symbols, larger and more complex societies started to form as a result of the regular wearing of clothing. The knowledge gained from the production of clothing made for a more sustainable lifestyle and improved the long-term survival and prosperity of human communities.
Regardless of the weather, covering the human body is a social practice that has endured. Beyond the appearance of dress, Dr. Gilligan’s future work explores the psychological effects and functions of wearing clothes.
If we don’t dress in public, we assume that we’re both comfortable and uncomfortable. But how does dressing affect how we perceive ourselves, how we perceive ourselves as people, and perhaps how we perceive the world around us?